An agreement has been reached with the government: your energy supplier will be obliged to adapt your deposit as closely as possible to your actual consumption. Objective: to prevent consumers from paying too much, without having any unpleasant surprises.
In August last year, at the time of the meter readings, the energy department of the commune of Chaudfontaine received hundreds of distraught people with their new installment bill for gas and electricity. “OI found that all the suppliers overstated the deposits, they offered exaggerated deposits compared to the actual consumption of the people“, explains Pierre Schwartz, energy tutor at the Chaudfontaine CPAS.
In the future, in principle, this kind of situation should no longer occur. Alexia Bertrand, Secretary of State for Consumer Protection at the microphone of Bel RTL: “When prices drop, it must be reflected in the deposit invoices and in the coming weeks, the suppliers will contact the consumers for whom the drop in the deposit is justified..”
The first targets are those who changed contracts between August and November 2022, when prices were very high.
In practice: “We will see if their deposit invoices deviate too much from their forecast of their final settlement invoice. If this is the case, these people will be informed by email or by post.“, explains Stéphane Bocqué, spokesperson for the Belgian Federation of Electrical Companies.
Customers will then be able to accept or refuse the new down payment proposal, which may be lower or higher. In a second step, all customers with a variable contract will be entitled to the same service every four months. The federal government promises to check whether this approach is properly applied for everyone and by all energy suppliers.