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I owe them 8 days consumption. They debit what I've consumed at the end of the month based on the smart meter readings, how hard is that?
Blimey the firms will be earning some nice interest off us all at the moment!
We were with that company that paid interest on your credit balance (that then went bust) at that point we tried to use it as a savings account and they limited how much we could put in 😂
We are £450 in credit with Bulb. This month they tried to reduce are DD to £30! We are using roughly £130pm
We were ~£1000 in credit back in aug/sept I think, just had a letter through and at the end of November we were £1200 in credit. But the heating is on fully now in a house full of (WFH) women that refuse to comprehend how a thermostat works...
We'll have burned through that by the end of Feb I reckon...
Around £400 which we will no doubt eat through during the winter although with the DD being higher than they recommend and the monthly rebate might be OK. I appreciate they have our money, in my case I'll probably owe them at some point. I don't get the I'm happy to pay more to pay on actual usage, especially as that means bigger bills across the winter.
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.
Still a thing. Shame they can't set up a time of use tarrif so I'll be leaving in the spring.
Mentioned this thread to the wife, she checked and we were over £900 rather the £600 I thought. Octupus 'allowed' us to withdraw £360...
Quite like the idea of OVO paying us interest though.
Mentioned this thread to the wife, she checked and we were over £900 rather the £600 I thought. Octupus ‘allowed’ us to withdraw £360…
Pretty sure they have to let you withdraw the entire balance, but they may make you jump through hoops to do so and apparently there is no max time window for them to complete the process in....
Scottish Power hide the link to withddraw your cash - best found by googling it, then you can find the page. they do pay you back within a few days.
Unfortunately their energy consumption calculations don't reflect everyone cutting use, so they will only allow you to adjust your DD very slightly.
Quite like the idea of OVO paying us interest though.
I think they've realised the 'generous' nature of this as Interest Reward was stopped on all tariffs from September 2022.
Had an email from Bulbtopus the other day to say that going off our recent usage we can drop our monthly payments down to £73. I dropped it from £190 to £145 a couple of months ago anyway, I'll keep paying £145 & make sure we're warm thanks.
Loving the justifications of people who can afford to throw their money at energy companies... Bizarre!
Loving the justifications of people who can afford to throw their money at energy companies… Bizarre!
Does it make any actual difference is you have a temporary credit which then gets run down over winter vs paying the exact amount used every quarter? At the end of the day you should end up paying the same amount to them. My current account pays about 0.1% interest, so I think I might be down about a penny over the year.....
Personally I prefer having the DD the same every month......
Yeah it's a choice. Thank you.
Yeah it’s a choice.
Well that's an improvement on it being bizarre I suppose...
No it's bizarre that some people are nearly two grand in credit but then being it credit gets justified as evening the payments out over the year to help the little people make them more affordable. I'd argue if you can afford to be £2k in credit with an energy company you could probably afford to pay just for what you owe.
£480, but I fully expect that to be wiped out over the next few months as I finally gave in and turned the heating on a few weeks back.
Loving the justifications of people who can afford to throw their money at energy companies… Bizarre!
I'm not throwing money at them, I have a credit now which will almost certainly be run down over the winter. So at the end of each year I have paid them for what I have used. This approach means I have a set monthly direct debit which helps with budgeting. What's the big deal with that?
Just not a big fan of the whole idea. What do they get out of it?
I'll see how it goes anyway, if it goes that badly I might reconsider my stance lol.
Loving the justifications of people who can afford to throw their money at energy companies… Bizarre!
Well it's pretty much the same philosophy as taking out a fixed rate mortgage rather than a tracker isn't it? It allows people to know their monthly outgoings and forecast/budget on that basis for reasonable period, you do ultimately end up hurling more money at the bank (while rates are lower) and are maybe insulated for a bit if rates go up, a tracker is a bit more of a financial rollercoaster and may save you on interest in the long run, but comes with potential stress and a greater risk of some unaffordable bills...
I suppose if you can afford to stomach a winter of sharply ramped up energy bills that's fine, you'll still be hurling money at the energy company just without the buffer of built-up credit against your account. Not everyone enjoys huge seasonal leaps in their bills...
No it’s bizarre that some people are nearly two grand in credit but then being it credit gets justified as evening the payments out over the year to help the little people make them more affordable. I’d argue if you can afford to be £2k in credit with an energy company you could probably afford to pay just for what you owe.
It's not really "Bizzare" at all, as you pointed out, it's a choice probably based on liquidity and a degree of uncertainty about fuel prices and future consumption.
The energy Companies will get their money one way or another, a DD set a bit higher than forecast demand at least smoothes out the financial shocks and helps those who don't want to dip into their savings (if they have them) to cover sudden big bills hopefully not have to do so.
It's just the fact that this is what it's come to that pisses me off. I don't want to give them my money to hold while they're raking in profits, like Shell who hit record profit Q1 2022, and Q2 2022 profit double that Q1 2021 (quick google search).
I pay by DD and rack up some credit because I know if I paid quarterly then the day before the payment is due my car would lose a wheel and a piston would pop out of the bonnet, incur a massive repair bill and empty the bank account. That's the way our luck rolls!
Paying by DD means I can mentally park that issue.
End of November I was around £1100 in credit with Bulb. Website says that you can have a refund if you have more than one months usage in credit. When I clicked to apply, I was refused.
Cancelled my DD and within a few hours I got an email offering a £500 refund if I set up a new DD.
~1.5 months of winter use credit... Depending on how long this cold snap lasts and we need max storage heater input!
Given the monthly bill jumped by about £100 in November (extra gas), we've got another 3-4 months where it's going to be high. Gas is 3x more expensive than last year, so this time of year is when the credit is going to be used up. I guess I'll eat into the credit quite a lot in the next 3 months.
I don’t want to give them my money to hold while they’re raking in profits, like Shell who hit record profit Q1 2022, and Q2 2022 profit double that Q1 2021 (quick google search).
You are confusing two different entities.
The energy generation companies are raking in profits.
The domestic suppliers (Bulb, Octopus, etc) are probably all loosing money at the moment....
It gets a bit more complicated when a generator also supplies (or share a brand name) but there will be two different entities in there, in the same boat (one profitable, the other not).
I dont think octopus will refund you the £66 x 3 free fuel payments. That might be the issue.
Just drop the back, you can do it online but it takes a few day's to be activated so if your dd is due imminently then it will be the previous amount
I suppose this thread might be worth unearthing in say march/April-ish to see what those of us currently in credit have as a balance by then.
Was it worth "banking" with OVO should we have sought our money back?
I have £125+ in credit with Bulb at the moment (now part of Octopus). Although I set my direct debit higher they have lowered that a bit for me. I suspect my December combined bill will be higher but so far my bill has almost double even by not taking into account the £66.
now part of Octopus
Not yet, it’s going through court after being challenged by other suppliers.
Not yet, it’s going through court after being challenged by other suppliers.
Their attempt to stop it was rejected in the high court, so looks like it will happen.
Their own emails contradicted their argument - they were also offered a subsidy...
about £250 in credit, as of this morning. I suspect that will get eaten up fairly quickly over the next 3 months.
Just had a statement from Eon.Next based on my meter readings on the 1st of the month, I'm £265 in credit, up from £250 last time.
That's not an issue really, I expect a lot of it will be wiped out over the winter months to hopefully even out by summer.
They do keep on at me to fit a smart meter but that's not going to happen.
With bulb about £450 in credit
Only 2 of us so not huge energy users with the government money.
Currently being advised to reduce my direct debit to £1 😕
Putting what we should be paying in a savings account
My Octopus statement came through this morning, £666 in credit. At least it's warm in hell.
Those of you on OVO, have you spoken to them?
I'm around £1500 in "credit" with them but its because their system has shit itself and I'm not being charged for the electric.
The meter readings are going in fine, they know the usage but the 2 parts of the system aren't talking to each other.
I've been chasing them to sort it for over 6 months but they don't seem to be doing anything.
If I remember tomorrow I'll call them and ask for the credit to be refunded, I bet they sort it double quick then!
We are about £500 in credit but we have decided we are fine with it, as our DD is currently £120. Plus government scheme; the credit is paying the balance. For November we had the CH on and bill was £240. Some of the comments here is just highlighting how inefficient a 3 bed Victorian house is, even though it’s mid terrace! And yes we do have insulation in the roof where we can, and also insulated an external wall this year.
When I did my own payments I asked for any surplus back every month
Now my mrs is in charge its £270 and we are sat working from at home in various outdoor weather gear
Hiya,
Very old stone two bedroom cottage overlooking the Seven. We are £852 in credit now. The house has been re-insulated and I did extra loft insulation this year. Wood burner on full song in the evenings we really only heat for short periods during the day and house keeping to 18oC. Ovo predicting we will be £821 in credit, so probably going to keep the balance, just in case, then cash it in come holidays 😉
JeZ
Hmm. I pay monthly for what I use by DD based on my meter readings. I haven't paid a bill since September because my usage is very low and covered by the monthly rebate (thanks, Rishi!). The energy company Eon, however, have just taken the £46 DD payment for November's gas/elec, even though the rebate had already covered it (and left me £20 in credit). I've asked for it back, I don't see why I should provide interest free loans to giant energy companies.
Just checked my energy because of this thread, I'm over £750 in credit with them!! (have been out of the house about 3 months though) - will definitely be getting on to them to reduce/repay some of that money. It seems madness that most folk are in credit by a lot of money when the energy companies are raking it in. Imagine all the interest they are gaining from everybody's money just sitting in their account!!
I'll have a decent record of my energy use in february for the year, as I've just whacked it all on a spreadsheet every couple of weeks (no smart meter), but we really tackled energy usage from this point in, we were using loads more. Given my gas has jumped by £100 in November (bear in mind this would have been about £35 jump last year) I can see folk eating through that credit quite quickly. I think my DD, on average, should be about £250 per month, but I'm stuck overpaying at the moment. Come April, I'll withdraw the excess and re-align my DD, depending upon the unit rates, which will build up a buffer again by winter.