All UK electricity companies I've ever used are dodgy with their billing. They have _always_ over-estimated my usage which they always use as an excuse to over-charge me in advance. They constantly put up my direct debits to get increasing interest-free loans from me. They almost always use the excuse that energy use can vary across a year (obvs) so they need to build up a large stockpile of credit. That excuse sounds most plausible at this time of the year but I've had it in spring too.
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My current supplier has a "My energy insights" page on their online account. But that is empty because, as it tells me, "there aren't any readings after the 26th Oct 2026". Which is today's date. So it would need readings from the future to be able to provide insights.
If you are in the UK, and feel comfortable sharing, how much "credit" (interest-free loans) have your energy supplier built up from you?
@slowe you can switch to variable Direct Debit if you have a smart meter. That's what I do on Octopus. That way I don't have a built up credit with them.
Doesn't work if you're on a fixed budget and/or want the certainty of knowing what your monthly bill will be.
@slowe
Up to £500, then I get a refund and bring it down to a £200ish and make an extra manual payment over winter if it gets too low they start suggesting a DD increase.
We're one person less in the house this winter so I suspect I won't need the top up this year
@slowe too much. But then again they did want to put it down but those calculations clearly hadn’t taken into account the dual fuel to electricity-only change on getting heat pump, and were miles off, so I’m seeing where we go with heating now this year on first. I think it hasn’t taken into account the VAT change either.
@slowe wow, I don't it think's ever occurred to me for the power company to expect prepayment from me for an unknown bill, rather than them floating me for the month of payments. Awful.
@bipolaron My current provider (they all do the same) says "...check you've reserved enough energy credit to help you through the coldest months... your Direct Debit works like a winter piggy bank. We build up a cushion during the summer months so you don't get hit with a massive payment leaving your bank account when the temperatures fall. Right now, our forecast shows your current cushion isn't enough to get you through to Spring without dipping into debt."
@bipolaron Ultimately, the system is set up so that they can arbitrarily adjust your payments in advance to cover whatever _they_ predict you'll use (even when I know from my own regular readings/records it isn't realistic). They _do_ let you readjust your Direct Debits down if you protest enough but most people won't and they basically get big interest-free loans from all their customers. Set at whatever they feel they can get away with.
@slowe oh, I see. hard for me to imagine someone wanting that unless prepaying at least got you a discounted rate.
by their own description it is to help stabilize bills for people with tight budgets, obviously those are people who would be a good bet for some government assistance too...? or maybe gosh the power company could just give them a discount straight up for the loan...
but yeah seems kinda stupid if it neither gets you a discount nor a stable bill.
Add in that they bill for randomly changing periods of time which (deliberately) makes it very hard to compare any period to another period (especially across years). Their own systems are never fully consistent with what exactly my current level of "credit" is (I've had an email today telling my balance is one thing which differs from what their website claims by £70). The whole thing is designed for confusion.