A couple who were inspired by Martin Lewis to check if they were due a refund from their energy supplier have revealed how they got £4,000 back after overpaying for three years.
The MoneySavingExpert.com founder used his final Martin Lewis Money Show Live episode of the series to discuss energy bills, ahead of the Ofgem price cap being announced for July next week.
Martin explained how now is the ideal time to check if you have built up too much energy credit. This is because you normally build up cash in summer to help you pay in winter, when you use more energy.
He said ideally, you would want no more than a month and a half worth of direct debits in credit in your account in May. If you have more than this, Martin said you should consider asking for some of this credit back. You can do this by contacting your supplier.
He said: "The basic pattern is, over those winter months, you use your credit or you build up debt, depending where you are. That bottoms out just around May… and then you start to build up credit until it peaks in November. If you’ve got a lot of credit right now, this is the point where you shouldn’t have a lot of credit - which is why this is the perfect time to be checking. My rough rule of thumb… if you have more than a month and a half worth of direct debits in credit right now, I would want it back. So if you pay £200 a month, you got £300 in credit, that’s fine - but £500, I’d want £200 back."
Couple Jill and Brian decided to investigate if they have too much credit in their energy account after they watched an episode of the Martin Lewis Money Show in November 2025. The pair were stunned when it turned out they had been paying too much for three years - and had £4,500 in their energy account.
Jill said: "We were paying around £260 a month, which to me seemed extraordinary." Bill added: "When I phoned the energy provider, they actually went back and checked and we’d been overpaying for three years. There was £4,500 in credit. I left £500 in the account so we ended up with a £4,000 refund."
It comes as energy bills are forecast to rise by more than £200 a year for the typical household from July with an update from Ofgem due next week. Cornwall Insight expects the Ofgem energy price cap will rise to £1,850 this summer, an increase of 13% on the current £1,641 annual bill. Ofgem will announce its July price cap, which will remain in place until October, on May 27.
