Thousands of Shell Energy customers to get refund after being overcharged – are you due cash back?

SHELL energy is to pay prepayment meter customers £106,000 after the firm overcharged thousands of customers.

The energy supplier is to pay 11,275 prepayment customer accounts it has overcharged on its default tariffs.

Refunds will be issued automatically to affected customers. 

Those on prepayment meters will see the cash added as a credit on their meter.

The average amount being refunded to affected customers is £9.40. 

In addition, the supplier will pay £400,000 to Ofgem’s voluntary consumer redress fund and £30,970 in goodwill payments to affected customers, equating to a total payment of £536,970.  

The redress fund isn't a compensation fund but one which provides money to charities, trusts, organisations and consumers.

In March 2022, Shell Energy discovered that the implementation of its default tariffs meant it had overcharged 11,275 prepayment customers for periods of time between January 2019 and September 2022.

When the price cap changes energy suppliers need to send updates to customer prepayment meters.

In this case, not all Shell supplied meters were updated to the revised rates - meaning thousands were overpaying on their gas and electricity.

The energy price cap currently sits at £1,977, but it is predicted to rise to £3,553 in October.

Those on prepayment meters already pay more, as the price cap for smart and traditional meters is set at £2,017.

A Shell Energy spokesperson said: "We’re sincerely sorry that errors updating our prepayment meter rates resulted in some customers being overcharged for a period of time.

"As soon as we identified the issue we began taking steps to put it right, and self-reported it to Ofgem.