Overview

• Lewis advises keeping energy account credit to around one and a half months of payments, roughly £300, with November typically the peak point for balances.
• Ofgem’s next cap runs from 1 October to 31 December at £1,755 for a typical Direct Debit household, a 2% increase on the current level.
• Customers holding more than the suggested buffer should request a refund or lower their Direct Debit, with suppliers reconciling on a final meter reading or via smart meters and paying out within about a month, and refusals can be escalated to the Energy Ombudsman.
• Estimates indicate suppliers are holding about £3 billion of customer credit, averaging roughly £178 per household.
• Lewis recommends moving off the default price-capped tariff to a fixed-rate deal, which he says can be about 13% cheaper than the cap.