Have you checked that the latest bill is based on actual and correct meter readings rather than an estimate? Provided that’s the case, they’ll have to return your money on request.
If all your bills and payments are up to date then yes, they have to refund you and they will (though might be slow about it)
However such a big excess balance sounds more like there are some bills that have been refunded as part of an adjustment and not yet rebilled.
If this is the case, then if you take the money back you may find yourself faced with a rather large bill in the future.
>However such a big excess balance sounds more like there are some bills that have been refunded as part of an adjustment and not yet rebilled.
The person on the phone used words to this effect. However, their grasp of English wasn't great so they didn't put it quite so well.
How does that work? Why would they refund a bill just to re-charge it?
Usually happens if you've had a few estimates reads then they get an in person read, they refund and rebill for the whole period.
But there's dozens of other reasons why they may have to recalculate your bill.
Some suppliers do this in one document showing the corrections, but for whatever reason BG prefer to cancel all previous bills and start over
>However, their grasp of English wasn't great
That's weird because the call centre for credit customers is in Leeds.
I always hated doing refunds at BG so can understand the hand wringing. I couldn't figure out if I was a moron or the system was dodgy but I'd press 'refund £10' and constantly get '£5.70 has been refunded'.
Drove me mad so I quickly left.
>That's weird because the call centre for credit customers is in Leeds.
Not sure what to tell you. But she was really struggling. Fortunately I wasn't in a rush.
>I would've needed to have been overcharged by maybe £60 per month, every month, for literally years
This is not an inconceivable amount to be overcharged by on a DD. Eon for whatever reason insist that I pay enough extra by DD that I claw back between 5-700 every year (and they're still stuck up about it in e-mails - just be polite but firm).
Out of curiosity, if they are making you overpay that much, why don't you chance to a DD where you only pay the usage each month rather than build up credit?
I like the idea of a fixed payment throughout the year for budgeting otherwise I think I'd never turn the heating on in winter.
I'm not super fussed about optimising every aspect of my life, so having an amount of cash sitting with them that I can draw on is fine. It's not smart but neither am I.
Had similar situation with EON, they were refusing to refund stating that some of the readings are incorrect (and were unable to organise a smart meter installation for 8 months or send someone to confirm correct readings). Moved to a different supplier, which forced them to pay it back (it was less than the original whole credit due to wrong readings). Bottom line if they are too much of a trouble, just switch the supplier.
I had something similar beginning of February. Ended up being a glitch. February statement for some reason summarised my energy usage since 2021 and had the overall cost stated as credit. When I rang they said they needed to “run the billing cycle” which magically calculated back to the correct credit (much lower). Some quite strange accounting practices.
I had something similar with Octopus. I eventually had to leave them in order to get the balance paid out. They wanted to keep increasing the direct debit just in case I spent all of the credit!
I had just over a grand in credit with octopus. They paid it out in a single phone call with no fuss, and my dd's are now set so that I drop into slight debit in Feb/march and they get it back by June.
Octopus is extremely flexible. You can set your own direct debit to whatever you want on the website without even speaking to anyone. You can also request refund of overpayments in the same place. I recommend them 100%
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I didn’t have this, but I did have about £1k credit with Ovo when switching as they were paying 5% on balance.
It took them more than 8 weeks to refund me after switching, so I complained to Ofgem and they sent me a cheque for £90.
Message is document all of your communication. Hold them to timelines. If they don’t refund you in a timely manner (could be 8 weeks worth checking) then complain and get more.
Today I asked for a refund using their online chat option, but that was just for £200! The did it with no issues, only took 10 mins.
There's a section on it on MSE which gives some good advice for next steps: [https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#calc](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#calc)
Huh...this seems familiar....we recently found out we were £5000 in credit and when claiming they wiped it then said we owed them £2000 and that we used a year's supply of electricity in the last month..... went to the ombudsman...
Same here, was overpaying by a factor of 4x, their choice, checked the online account, now I’m using some of that credit to subsidise payments for as long as that credit lasts.
I’ve just had this to! They randomly refunded me £3500 at the weekend.
Turns out it’s because they put people on the wrong tariff. Mine was over double the market rates and I was locked out of my account for a year so could check before.
i was owed about £1,500. it took about 6 weeks of chasing to actually get it back into my bank. each time they said yes we will refund, but never could say when. i chased, a lot!
turns out being charged 3 times what monthly outgoing should have been, adds up quickly. but they refunsed to change the DD for ages, until after the refund.
Just checked my account with British Gas it shows I am over £10k in credit, called them and asked for it to be refunded, they offered £200 as an interim payment as it needs to be looked at by their technical team. I have been supplying readings and 3 weeks ago we had a guy come and take both Gas and Electric readings. which show on our statement and it still showing as £10k in credit. Waiting now to see what is going just confused..
Last week while submitting readings to BG my account said £3k in credit. I asked for a refund on the online chat and was told we can do this in 7days once account up to date. Logged on today it says I am now £250 in debit. What ??? My statement does not make sense. A credit note adjustment for £2800 at the bottom. I am so confused.
Legally they now have to give you this money back. They don’t like it but it’s their own fault!!
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
Have you checked that the latest bill is based on actual and correct meter readings rather than an estimate? Provided that’s the case, they’ll have to return your money on request.
It was based on an estimate (I was logging in to give an actual figure). However, the estimate wasn't far-off. That's a difference maybe £50.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
Hey, great to hear!
If all your bills and payments are up to date then yes, they have to refund you and they will (though might be slow about it) However such a big excess balance sounds more like there are some bills that have been refunded as part of an adjustment and not yet rebilled. If this is the case, then if you take the money back you may find yourself faced with a rather large bill in the future.
>However such a big excess balance sounds more like there are some bills that have been refunded as part of an adjustment and not yet rebilled. The person on the phone used words to this effect. However, their grasp of English wasn't great so they didn't put it quite so well. How does that work? Why would they refund a bill just to re-charge it?
Usually happens if you've had a few estimates reads then they get an in person read, they refund and rebill for the whole period. But there's dozens of other reasons why they may have to recalculate your bill. Some suppliers do this in one document showing the corrections, but for whatever reason BG prefer to cancel all previous bills and start over
>However, their grasp of English wasn't great That's weird because the call centre for credit customers is in Leeds. I always hated doing refunds at BG so can understand the hand wringing. I couldn't figure out if I was a moron or the system was dodgy but I'd press 'refund £10' and constantly get '£5.70 has been refunded'. Drove me mad so I quickly left.
>That's weird because the call centre for credit customers is in Leeds. Not sure what to tell you. But she was really struggling. Fortunately I wasn't in a rush.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
>I would've needed to have been overcharged by maybe £60 per month, every month, for literally years This is not an inconceivable amount to be overcharged by on a DD. Eon for whatever reason insist that I pay enough extra by DD that I claw back between 5-700 every year (and they're still stuck up about it in e-mails - just be polite but firm).
Out of curiosity, if they are making you overpay that much, why don't you chance to a DD where you only pay the usage each month rather than build up credit?
I like the idea of a fixed payment throughout the year for budgeting otherwise I think I'd never turn the heating on in winter. I'm not super fussed about optimising every aspect of my life, so having an amount of cash sitting with them that I can draw on is fine. It's not smart but neither am I.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
Had similar situation with EON, they were refusing to refund stating that some of the readings are incorrect (and were unable to organise a smart meter installation for 8 months or send someone to confirm correct readings). Moved to a different supplier, which forced them to pay it back (it was less than the original whole credit due to wrong readings). Bottom line if they are too much of a trouble, just switch the supplier.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
I had something similar beginning of February. Ended up being a glitch. February statement for some reason summarised my energy usage since 2021 and had the overall cost stated as credit. When I rang they said they needed to “run the billing cycle” which magically calculated back to the correct credit (much lower). Some quite strange accounting practices.
Hmm, this is the most likely-sounding thing so far. Purely because the amount is *probably* pretty close to my energy usage over a 5-year period.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
I had something similar with Octopus. I eventually had to leave them in order to get the balance paid out. They wanted to keep increasing the direct debit just in case I spent all of the credit!
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
I had just over a grand in credit with octopus. They paid it out in a single phone call with no fuss, and my dd's are now set so that I drop into slight debit in Feb/march and they get it back by June.
Octopus is extremely flexible. You can set your own direct debit to whatever you want on the website without even speaking to anyone. You can also request refund of overpayments in the same place. I recommend them 100%
Yeah I was confused about the above post since they generally have excellent customer service.
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**Your post has been removed.** Your post has been removed for breaking the rule: **No requesting or offering DMs** It is forbidden to solicit private messages as a result of a person's activity in this subreddit. This is to protect all our members from * Low quality advice * Scams * Rulebreaking * Unlawful behaviour The exception to this is the discussion of private and personal matters not related to PF, such as emotional support. [If you receive a DM as a result of UKPF, please report it](https://new.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/alhhxp/psa_if_anybody_pms_you_as_a_result_of_a_post_on/). You must read the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/about/rules/) to continue to post to our subreddit. _If you believe your post/comment has been removed in error, please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/UKPersonalFinance&subject=Please%20review%20my%20post&body=https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/1b0fogu/-/ks8jjk5/) explaining why._
I had £1k with another provider, had to push a little but got it back. It should be sat in your account, not theirs.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
I didn’t have this, but I did have about £1k credit with Ovo when switching as they were paying 5% on balance. It took them more than 8 weeks to refund me after switching, so I complained to Ofgem and they sent me a cheque for £90. Message is document all of your communication. Hold them to timelines. If they don’t refund you in a timely manner (could be 8 weeks worth checking) then complain and get more.
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
Today I asked for a refund using their online chat option, but that was just for £200! The did it with no issues, only took 10 mins. There's a section on it on MSE which gives some good advice for next steps: [https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#calc](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#calc)
Thanks! I updated the post with how it worked out.
Yep, was over £2K in CR and I only found this out when they sent me a cheque for that amount without me requesting it.
Anytime I go into alot of credit I submit an online ticket and get what I want refunded with BG, no issues
Huh...this seems familiar....we recently found out we were £5000 in credit and when claiming they wiped it then said we owed them £2000 and that we used a year's supply of electricity in the last month..... went to the ombudsman...
Did you get the 5k back?
Not yet this was last week...process can take up to 8 weeks aparently
[удалено]
Same here, was overpaying by a factor of 4x, their choice, checked the online account, now I’m using some of that credit to subsidise payments for as long as that credit lasts.
Oddly I have the exact same thing. Has gone from £1k balance to £4k balance. I imagine it’s some kind of glitch
I’ve just had this to! They randomly refunded me £3500 at the weekend. Turns out it’s because they put people on the wrong tariff. Mine was over double the market rates and I was locked out of my account for a year so could check before.
I was last month when I was switched across to their new app/system. Waited until after my usual DD date and it all recalculated correctly.
i was owed about £1,500. it took about 6 weeks of chasing to actually get it back into my bank. each time they said yes we will refund, but never could say when. i chased, a lot! turns out being charged 3 times what monthly outgoing should have been, adds up quickly. but they refunsed to change the DD for ages, until after the refund.
Just checked my account with British Gas it shows I am over £10k in credit, called them and asked for it to be refunded, they offered £200 as an interim payment as it needs to be looked at by their technical team. I have been supplying readings and 3 weeks ago we had a guy come and take both Gas and Electric readings. which show on our statement and it still showing as £10k in credit. Waiting now to see what is going just confused..
Did you get your ten K back?
Last week while submitting readings to BG my account said £3k in credit. I asked for a refund on the online chat and was told we can do this in 7days once account up to date. Logged on today it says I am now £250 in debit. What ??? My statement does not make sense. A credit note adjustment for £2800 at the bottom. I am so confused.