energy supplier switch timescale (via MSE)

patta · 17 February 2019 at 11:44AM

Hi. I switched to British Gas from E.on via MSE's energy club. Initiated the switch on 15 January, switch date was 1 Feb, submitted opening readings to BG on 1 Feb.

I expect a refund from E.on and haven't cancelled the direct debit with them. E.on took a payment on 1 Feb and they said that - if they don't receive the opening reading from BG on time, they might take another one on 1 Mar. I would've expected by now E.on closed my account and refunded the credit.

BG has not taken a payment yet in Feb, but they requested the funds from my bank so I expect that to be paid soon. I don't want to pay both E.on and BG in March. How long do these switches normally take and is there any way to speed things up? Thanks.

grumpycrab · 17 February 2019 at 12:51PM

BG drive the process; have they confirmed the start dates (may be different for Gas/Electric) and readings with you? Check your BG online account. Only when these are confirmed would I consider stopping E.on direct debit (and even then I would only stop the direct debit if I was 99% sure that my final account with them was in credit.)

Thomas_Edison · 17 February 2019 at 1:16PM

Unfortunately this is the norm. The readings you've given to BG have to go through independent validation and this can take up to 4 weeks.

Gas & Elec are done separately so one can get there before the other.

Tbh E.on will know if the switch has gone ahead or not and it's awful service that they continue to take payments even when people have left but this is how their system is set up.

Cancelling your dd could also delay any refund.

[Deleted User] · 17 February 2019 at 4:53PM

@patta

This blog by Octopus outlines what happens when you send the opening reading to your new energy provider. https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

As others have said, both fuels are switched individually so things can occur on different days.

Also E.ON have to make reasonable efforts to provide a closing bill within 6 weeks on the energy being switched to the new provider. And then they will aim to repay any credit within 14 days or receive the cash if the account closes in debit.

So a switch on the 1st February should mean a closing bill or bills by the 14th March with a refund by 28th March.

Note this timescale is not the maximum allowed in law as the losing supplier only has to make reasonable efforts within the 42 days to produce a closing bill.

patta · 17 February 2019 at 8:18PM

Thanks everyone! BG has confirmed that the date of the switch was 1 February for both electricity and gas.

After I posted this message I checked my online E.on account again and they produced a final bill dated today, which is based on an actual reading for electricity and an estimated one for gas, final date 31 Jan for both. The estimated gas reading is higher than the actual reading that I sent to BG... so I guess I now have to contact E.on to adjust the final bill?

grumpycrab · 17 February 2019 at 10:27PM

Gas readings always take longer to be validated by 3rd party (cannot remember why); You should only accept E.on's final gas bill provided BG have accepted the SAME reading as start reading. Have they?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 19 February 2019 at 3:21PM

patta wrote: »

Hi. I switched to British Gas from E.on via MSE's energy club. Initiated the switch on 15 January, switch date was 1 Feb, submitted opening readings to BG on 1 Feb.

I expect a refund from E.on and haven't cancelled the direct debit with them. E.on took a payment on 1 Feb and they said that - if they don't receive the opening reading from BG on time, they might take another one on 1 Mar. I would've expected by now E.on closed my account and refunded the credit.

BG has not taken a payment yet in Feb, but they requested the funds from my bank so I expect that to be paid soon. I don't want to pay both E.on and BG in March. How long do these switches normally take and is there any way to speed things up? Thanks.

patta wrote: »

Thanks everyone! BG has confirmed that the date of the switch was 1 February for both electricity and gas.

After I posted this message I checked my online E.on account again and they produced a final bill dated today, which is based on an actual reading for electricity and an estimated one for gas, final date 31 Jan for both. The estimated gas reading is higher than the actual reading that I sent to BG... so I guess I now have to contact E.on to adjust the final bill?

Hello patta and welcome to the Forums.

As others have said, it's the gaining supplier that drives the switch. They send us their opening readings and we use these to close our account and issue a final bill. This makes sure the same energy is only charged once. These readings go through an industry third party who checks they're in line with past readings held for the property. Sometimes a change is made and both suppliers need to use the same amended readings to open/close their respective accounts.

We'll refund credit balances within 5 working days of the final bill provided there's a live Direct Debit. If not, we'll send a cheque within 10 working days of the final bill.

Once the account closes, no further payments will be taken unless the final bill shows a debit balance. If it does, we'll take this about two weeks after the final bill. The actual date will be shown on the bill. If the Direct Debit is closed, the balance becomes due straightaway.

You can challenge the readings used through an industry wide procedure known as an Agreed Reads Dispute (ARD). Here, the two suppliers re-agree the opening/closing readings and re-submit them. The difference needs to be above set thresholds before an ARD can be used. These are 250 units for electricity and 45/125 units for a 4 dial imperial/5 dial metric gas meter. Either supplier can raise an ARD.

Should the difference be below these thresholds, it'll mean paying one supplier for more kWh than expected. This will be balanced out by paying the other for less.

Sorry to lose you patta and hope this is useful.

Malc

patta · 1 March 2019 at 11:02AM

Thank you. I now got my credit back from e.on and the opening readings do match on both e.on and BG, they both used the same estimate for gas (and an actual reading for electricity), so I didn't have to ask for an adjustment.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 1 March 2019 at 5:35PM

patta wrote: »

Thank you. I now got my credit back from e.on and the opening readings do match on both e.on and BG, they both used the same estimate for gas (and an actual reading for electricity), so I didn't have to ask for an adjustment.

Thanks for the update patta. Glad the switch went through okay and sorry again to lose you.

Malc

energy supplier switch timescale (via MSE)

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