A topical questions I guess.
I logged on today to find I was £1500 in credit. This is for combined gas and electricity in a small, modern-ish, 3 bed semi.
This strikes me as being a lot, even though we're at the start of the winter.
Wondered what others credit was (if any) and how much (if any) of that credit I should be claiming back?
We usually end up about £200-£300 in credit after summer. Just moved so it will take a few months to settle.
About £1,000, we got rid of storage heaters and replaced with a thermal store for the heating just over a year ago but I got an electric car at the same time so we charge that now.
We are rural so electric only and on 16p per unit until the end of July so letting it build up to buffer the impact of the new prices after that.
About £600
I am £350 in credit. My energy supplier wanted to increase my DD to £350 (from £150) but I pointed out my reduced consumption and suggested £275 which they have agreed to.
I suspect it's relative though - I would probably aim for 1 month's winter bill as a suitable buffer to absorb any overly cold weeks/months so unless you spend £1500 a month I reckon that's too much and you should ask for some of it back...
£42 after the last 6 month bill, which was about £650, plus £400odd from when my last supplier went bump. EDF then put my DD up to £248 per month!
Nothing, because I stopped paying by DD about 20 years ago, for this very reason.
About £550 at the main place and £220 at the other place (but the monthly bill for that is normally only £25) - elecric only.
500L of oil in the tank, so about £400.
Zero
About £250, which feels about right ahead of winter.
As part of your bill it should give you a prediction of what your balance will be in 12 months.
I just keep chipping away at my DD to get me as close as zero as possible.
Probs about £200 to £300 but I see Octopus allow you to pay monthly on actual usage which I'm tempted to swap to as no council tax bill in Feb/March would iron out some of the winter gas bill hump.
Absolutely no idea, Mrs 678 deals with all that. I imagine not much now we've put the christmas lights up....
Isn't this a reason why Smart Meters are a way to go? Actually pay what you use ? I get that its an attempt to budget consistently across a year but the stories of trying to get the credit back if you change suppliers are interesting.
£1,139.23. Should probably get it back off them.
About £700
Zero. Got sick of always having to ask for £600 back annually whilst they increased the DD.
Now the DD is set to just pay the monthly balance.
I always try to owe them money, I think we were £300 in debt after last winter, which cleared during the summer.
i guess the energy companies have to take a pretty risk averse approach in these calculations*, but some of the numbers above are incredible
as said, surely your maximum credit should only be enough to cover the next DD payment?
its not a bank account and to blindly assume they will give it back when they go under is nuts, do you think their shareholders allow them to hold their dividends indefinately?
*anecdotally, they are quite happy to admit they got it wrong and the customer is accidentally, hugely, in debt
600 quid in mine, which based on future usage calcs I’ve done seems a bit high. Looking back at the previous two years bills with Octopus, I’ve never dropped below 350 credit with them.
So I’ve zeroed January’s direct debit (£270) to effectively get some of it back. It’s easier than trying to get a refund.
£900, but I expect that to reduce to zero by april next year, then build up again over the summer.
I'm not. I send a reading every 3 months, they send me a bill and then I pay it. I find the amount people are in credit with utilities companies scary. I don't have that much money!
Around £400. Currently paying £0 a month as the £66 government subsidy is just about covering my bill.
Nearly £700 after getting £400 back in July. Won't let me reduce the DD. November's gas and elec hit £290, DD was £310. Likely I'll still be over £500 in March so I'll withdraw it then.
I always try to owe them money, I think we were £300 in debt after last winter, which cleared during the summer.
Same. If you're going to switch then do it in autumn if you can, you'll be in debt all the way through to the following autumn where you reach zero again. This has caused the odd comical phone call with a couple of suppliers though 😀
6 monthly billing is a PITA and took a bit of digging to get a monthly breakdown but the November usage was £205 which is about 50% higher than in the summer. I dropped my DD to £198 which was as low as they'd let me go so I'll probably end the next billing period slightly in debt.
£880 in Credit
November usage was £300, DD £233 + Gov £66. so November balance stayed flat, but November was very mild
Gas usage is now running at £10/day so expected Dec bill will be more like £450+
I still expect to come out of winter with a little credit
Also spend £25-50/month on solid fuel
£424.97
More than I expected but TBF I see they've slashed my DD so cant complain too much.
So energy suppliers are sitting on GBP 10,856 from this thread alone up to this point from overpaid or overly high DD's.
So thats probably a sh*t ton across the utility paying public before the profit on the actual electricity used...
Its imho, the same cash in the bank scam hotels load on credit cards when you arrive and refund at some point after you leave...
Ofgem say you'll get your credit balance back if your energy provider goes bust. I imagine the funds are held in a "client" style account (that's probably oversimplified a bit) and presumably protected by the FSCS.
I've heard people have struggled to get refunds in the past but I managed to get a £450 refund from Shell approved in less than 2 mins via their website recently. Funds turned up a couple of days later. I've never had a problem with other providers in the past either.
I worked out my DD based on my last 12 months usage which was to within £10 of forecasted annual estimate from Shell themselves. I just divided the annual cost by 12 and set my monthly DD to that. I just treat my balance with Shell as I would do my own bank account balance.
I don't understand people who don't pay by DD as they only want to pay for what they use. Everyone pays for what they use and any residual amount is just left in your energy account that you have access too. By cancelling your DD you'll probably be missing out on the usual discount that you'd get for paying by DD.
What I get even less is these "Don't pay UK" people. I wonder how they're getting on!
£406 - yes I have often thought this verged on a scam - customers giving the energy companies interest free loans. I will ask for some back if it gets much higher. I have a wood-burner and don't really use the gas powered water filled radiators they are too much.
About £725. It was £775 before November so I'm considering turning the heating up to use a bit more, why suffer and end up with £500 of credit in April when its not needed!
Yes prices will go up in April but consumption will drop.
Currently sat at -£270.17.
It was sitting at -£440 a few months ago but the £67 government energy discount scheme is paying it off, I use approx 2.2 kWh electricity a day so about a £1, I pay £35 month electricity.
Switched my air source pump for heating/hot water and the Tesla power wall battery off last January as it was costing £120+ month trying to heat a 1 bedroom poorly constructed/insulated bungalow, I hate to think what it would cost now with costs tripled. I have a log burner/multi fuel stove for heat and it’s kept alight 24hrs day.
The £66/month is more than paying my bill (electric only, heating is with wood)
I suspect I'm in a small minority who are actually better off just now than before all this started
When I was with Ovo a few years ago they paid interest on credit balances which went up the longer you stayed with them. No idea if they still do.
Thought mine was a lot at £520. Projected use calculator shows that it probably about right and I’ll be at zero come the spring.
I’m not comfortable enough to pay what I use I’d Thayer smooth it out over the year. If I had spare cash then I’d risk being able to save more (see also me having a new car because I can’t afford the risk of something without a warranty which automatically makes me poorer)
The perils of being working class, and doing ‘ok’
Thanks to an dodgy borehole pump in April/May/June, we're very much not in credit 🙁
I'm not on DD, I pay what's due when I submit meter readings. Like I did today, only to discover afterwards that I was already in credit to the tune of £200 (Energy Bills Support Scheme payments over the past 3 months). So now I'm £400 in credit. I shall make a point of checking my balance BEFORE paying next time.
I was a jammy bugger and managed to get a 2 year fix with E.On last Oct, just days before everything went mental and prices shot up. So, along with the government scheme reducing my DD, I'm currently paying less for gas and electricity than I have done in years.
Sitting with about £900 credit. I didn't plan to but I think of it as a little savings account to either cover the cost of bills when they (inevitably) increase or for other utility expense like getting an EV charger when I get a new car. If I withdraw it and put it in the current account it will soon disappear on standard life stuff.
In a few days time it’ll be £1000, however we’ve cracked a bit in the last couple of weeks and have definitely used much more heating than we did in the previously mild winter, so I guess that will be dropping over the next 4 months. Last bill (g+e) was 134, but we were nearly ch free in that period.
I think we’ve been hampered by having lots of work done on the house, last winters bills were huge as for about 5 weeks we had the front door open quite a lot (so heating on a lot) and 2 blokes using power tools, then in May we had 7 weeks of power tools again, so I can see our estimates being a bit high.
Got £740 here, with a monthly direct debit of £190. We moved here in February so started at zero at that point and are really only now getting to the point where we're spending a bit more than £190 a month (mainly on heating, got a 3 month old so you can only go so low).
Just looked and we're £833 up. Probably due some meter readings though so that will take a chuck out of that and I imagine it'll be much less come spring.
Which energy companies set the DD amount themselves and don't let you change it? That sounds like an enormous scam in itself, given how rubbish they all seem to be at doing it properly.
I don't think we've been with a company that didn't let you change it yourself in years, Octopus recommend a value but let you change it yourself whenever you want to.
We're about £350 in credit which I think should be okay to smooth out the winter.
£53, most of that is from the gov. They are not a savings bank
My DD is set at £40, I'll adjust it when bills come in, I did ask to go onto variable DD but they are still dragging to get that implemented
£442 here.
£1260.26 as of today.
We whacked our direct debit up way back in March when the writing was on the wall. The mild autumn has meant thart usage hasn't been high, but heating has been on most of today to keep it at 17°.
Eldest will be back from uni at the weekend and mooching round the house all day after that, so costs will go up for the next month or so, but hopefully we'll still be in credit before the next price cap increase.
I know we are fortunate to have been able to fo this.
