Money expert Martin Lewis is urging energy customers to call up their supplier and get their money back this month.
The financial guru took his loyal viewers through a concept he’s dubbed ‘the direct debit cycle’.
This is how your energy bills build up and reduce credit over the course of a year thanks to your direct debits.
Households use more energy in winter – such as for heating and lights – and less in summer when the weather is warmer.
But your direct debit, whether it’s British Gas, E.On, EDF, OVO, Octopus or another supplier, always stays the same all year round, and this is because all energy companies will ‘average out’ your usage so that you don’t get bills shooting up and down and instead have a regular payment you can account for financially.
This means that in summer you should be building up credit and in winter you should be using it up again.
Martin told his ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show viewers that November is the month where you should have the most credit, before you start to use it up again in winter.
But if you have built up too much credit, you’re actually letting your energy company keep your money and earn interest on it when it rightfully should be in your bank account instead.
Martin said: “This is the time of the year where you should be most in credit, which means it’s quite a good time to look at how much credit you are in.
“I would say two months, if you have no more than two months’ worth of credit right now, that’s probably about right, you want to be in credit right now, don’t speak to them.
“But if you’ve got three, four, five, six months’ worth of credit with your energy provider, get up on the phone and say ‘I think I’ve got too much credit and I would like the money in my bank account and not yours, please.
“Be very polite, but over two months’ worth of credit right now, I’d be getting in touch with them and see if you can do it online and get your credit back.
“I’ve got loads of successes of people getting hundreds of pounds back on this.”
