General Chat

Why do energy companies, and Councils think an overpayment is theirs?

About a month ago, I found a random £110 in my rent account. I asked the council about this.
Apparently, in 2019, I made a rent payment, which didn't go through. They'd only just found it, and decided to use it to 'offset' my rent!
As I pointed out - if that £110 didn't go into my rent account, they'd have been demanding another payment, and no doubt with threats.
This wasn't 'spare' rent money, it was MY money, and they had no right deciding how it should be used.

Likewise with energy companies. Mine closed, and I was put with British Gas. I was £213 in credit, and BG have decided it should go to 'offset' my bills!
I'm not sure when I gave power of attorney to the Council or BG, but I'm considering changing everything from a direct debit to a standing order, so the bar stewards can't do this.

I have something in the back of my mind that says you are entitled to get the money

back if it is over a certain amount.

A few years ago we did get money refunded on an energy account.

On the other hand maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part. Of course you do have to know that you have overpaid. :-|

I was thinking the same thing as Von, except that I thought you could also just ask for it back. I wonder if the rules were adjusted for the companies that were taking over the defunct ones.

Yes, usually you can, but they said Ofgem insisted the money was given to the new provider - and I said - then they should hand it over to me!
Unfortunately, the 'talk bot' then got disconnected - as did the first one I 'spoke' to
when I mentioned it..
I prefer to phone, but as I haven't been able to access my account since BG took it over, (a 'technical problem' I was told) I have no idea of my customer number, or the tariff I'm paying, and can't give meter readings :-| :-| :-| :-|

Apparently, I'll be able to access my account in 7 days.


......look at those flying pigs....... :-D

No, Von, it's not wishful thinking, because a few years ago an amount was credited to our bank by our energy company as we had overpaid when they totted up our monthly debits. It was a nice surprise as I don't think all energy companies are that quick off the mark when it comes to giving money back.

We hadn't changed our supplier either.

If you pay your energy bill by direct debit, you might end up being ‘in credit’ with your supplier - this means that they owe you money.

The amount you pay each month is an estimate based on how much energy your supplier thinks you’ll use over the whole year. You’ll sometimes be owed money because you’ve used less energy than you’ve paid for.

Your supplier might:

refund any money owed to you at the end of the year
pay the amount back by reducing your direct debit payments
If they don’t, you might want to claim back the credit.

When to claim
You can claim credit at any time. But you should probably leave money on your account during summer and autumn to cover higher energy costs in winter.

Before claiming back any money, think about:

whether you’re likely to have higher energy bills in the months ahead
if it will be difficult to pay your bills without keeping the credit on your account
If the amount you’re owed is more than the amount you pay as a monthly direct debit, you might want to claim back the difference.

Kay, this isn't credit accrued using BG - it was my previous supplier.
I wonder how much interest these companies are making out of keeping our money?

ask the name and postal address of their Ombudsman ,its a word they dont like as it costs them money....but costs you nothing.
:-)

It was always said that credits would be transferred to the new provider.

We are part of the planned transfer from SSE to Ovo and we still can’t send in meter readings.

Maggie will be on the standard tariff which has the price cap. Martin Lewis is still saying this is the best option at the moment.

Along similar lines found out today our tax dept owes us a fair sum of money which they've agreed to refund to us....but it will take 12 weeks to refund us.....why 12 weeks when everything is done on the computer!! Granted if it was a cheque mailed to us the mailman would take that long to deliver it but that's a whole different story.

Good luck with your venture Maggie I'm sure you can think of plenty of things to spend the money on yourself.

Names - you say I'll be on the standard tariff - but I don't trust BG.

I was with them by default when I first moved here.
The smart meter they'd put in for the previous tenant didn't work, and they ignored any readings I sent, preferring to constantly over estimate.

My final bills were a gas bill, and an electricity bill, that included the amount of the gas bill!!! :-| :-| :-|
I was refunded the amount of both those bills, as they'd overcharged me by so much.

I'm not saying I was a pain in the backside, but the last call I made to them, before leaving last time, didn't go through a call handler, but went straight to credit control - and he knew my name.

Maybe that's why I can't access my account now, as without a reference number, I can't phone.

About 8pm, I had a text from BG, - apparently, because I had an account with them before, using the same email address, I can't have another one!!!
Well, weirdly, THEY set up the online account, I didn't, but it appears it's my fault

So, my asking them to contact me via email was a waste of time, too.

10 minutes later, he sent another text asking me to confirm I had received the first one, and asking to close the complaint..
I shall reply tomorrow. 8pm is 'out of office' hours for me.

I have not had anything to do with British Gas since daughter, her OH and her four-month-old baby were left without heat for three or four weeks over Christmas and New Year several years ago - all for the want of a part that daughter discovered was available at a depot about an hour's drive away, and even after she offered to drive and pick it up for them to fix things before the Christmas period. The company came up with every excuse in the book when daughter threatened to book into a hotel and bill British Gas, even promising to fix things on Xmas Eve.

This, after BG's promise never to leave the elderly, sick and anyone with a baby without heat for a period much less than that which it left daughter and family over the coldest time of the year!

Daughter and her OH borrowed electric heaters and made do for baby's first Christmas but we'll never forget how bad British Gas customer service was and how disgraceful was its treatment of vulnerable persons (a very young baby).

The company offered a pittance in compensation.

We would never use British Gas, with its hollow promises, again.

I have just had my quarterly bill from Utilita. I pay monthly by direct debit. I'm quite good at working out roughly how many units I use a day/week so set it at £70. So far this has proved fairly accurate except when I moved in last May as we didn't put the heating on until beg of October. By then I had built a bit of credit up but this I left on account as now I'm using the surplus to cover the days when I have the heating on more.

By the spring when I shall not need the heating on as much, it will build up some credit for the next winter. Unless I was over say £100 in credit, i would not want it back as it would get used anyway.

I have always been electric and never used a gas company partly because there is no mains gas out of the town here. You would have to buy a gas bottle for your cooker and an oil tank for your heating.

I am cheaper now being all electric but still we shall see in April how much it goes up.

Florence in the herbides

JoyLouise, transferring to BG wasn't out of choice :-( It was Ofgem.
I've been waiting for BG to pay back what I'm owed, so I can change to another provider. Quite frankly, I don't care if they're more expensive, the earlier I can get away from BG the better - but they're NOT keeping my money!

Seems Maggie is not alone:
https://conversation.which.co.uk/home-energy/energy-company-ceased-trading-refund/#cpage-1

Interesting, Names.

Mr and I received a bill for a rental property we knew nothing about in 2018 from E.on. It was for the people who had sold us the flat a year earlier. A message online to the company telling them the distress the bailiffs at the door for unpaid council tax and electricity bills had caused us particularly as we were not who they were looking for (it was the previous owners) quickly got the property removed from wanted lists.

As far as our own gas and electricity are concerned we pay around £90 a month and this works it’s self out over the year so we never claim the excess.