Martin Lewis has urged energy bills payers who pay by direct debit to carry out an important check or risk being out of pocket.
He told listeners to his BBC podcast now is the “perfect” time in the year to check if they are needlessly in credit on their bills.
He explained: “If you’re in credit, get your money back right now. This is the perfect point in the direct debit cycle for doing that.”
The expert said that given we are at the bottom of the direct debit cycle, the best case scenario is you shouldn’t have any debt but in most cases you will not need to be in credit.
Mr Lewis said: “If you’re in credit and you tend not to build it up, at this point in the year, this is the time to get in touch [with your supplier] and say: ‘This is the bottom of the direct debit cycle, there’s no way I should be in credit right now, I’d like you to give that credit back please.’
“You might want to leave a little bit with them, half a month’s worth of direct debits, but if you’re two to five months worth of direct debits in credit right now, that’s too much, get that money in your pocket.
“Stop them earning the interest, they have billions of pounds of our cash they earn interest on, when that is our money.”
Bill payers have also been urged to check their council tax bills are correct after an authority mistakenly charged residents twice.
Yiannis Zourmpanos, senior contributor at Bountii, told Express.co.uk: “While responsibility lies with the council to correctly levy and collect council tax, residents should also regularly check their statements and payments to ensure no errors have occurred.
“Spotting an incorrect charge early can make it much easier to get the problem resolved. The onus is on both councils and taxpayers to prevent and catch mistakes.”
He warned Britons that these type of administrative errors happen “reasonably often”. He said: “The specifics of each case vary.
“Factors like staff training, oversight protocols, and the limitations of payment processing software can contribute to periodic mistakes being made when applying payments or account changes.
“So while not ubiquitous, it’s an issue most councils have to grapple with from time to time.”
Many household bills increased from April, including council tax, water bills, mobile and broadband.
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