After an annual settlement, you might find an overpayment of several thousand crowns for electricity or gas. It’s up to you as the customer to decide what to do with it. Large suppliers have confirmed that people can choose whether they want the money returned to their account or applied to future payments, thus reducing them. Even if you choose the latter option, you can still negotiate with the suppliers in case of an urgent need for money.
Overpayments are returned to customers in the form they choose, either by bank transfer to an account or by money order. Small overpayments up to two hundred crowns are primarily transferred to the next billing period. However, if the customer requests the return of this overpayment, it is sent to them, says Innogy spokesman Martin Chalupský.
At ČEZ, the customer already chooses when signing the contract whether they want to spread any overpayments into the prepayments for the next period or whether they want to pay them out by transfer to the account. “If they change their mind, we, of course, allow this setting to be changed,” says spokeswoman Alice Horáková. The client can do this themselves within the MY ČEZ application or at customer centers and call centers.
If the supplier holds the overpayment, it can be counted toward the installments. “The consumer should always send a written request to the supplier to pay the overpayment. If it remains without a reaction, the debt can gradually be erased from the installments based on the act of crediting, or the debt can be claimed through litigation,” says Markéta Zemanová, a member of the Energy Regulatory Office Council.
If the supplier does not respond, Petr Šmelhaus from the consumer organization dTest recommends finding another one and terminating the contract. “Upon termination of the contract, every supplier must return the overpayment,” he said.