British Gas DD increase without permission

paulonline123

quidsin wrote: »

This happened to us twice when we were with BG, DW pays the gas/elec 2-3 days after the DD was taken we had a letter informing us of the monthly DD increase, both time we phoned our bank and had the DD returned - breach of the DD guarantee. We phoned BG who had put the DD up by £30- even though we had a fixed price, we told them we weren't happy and the should put the DD to what it was, BG refused and said they could only reduce it by some 10%
2nd time it happened I hit the roof- i found out that BG was doing this to all its customers, so how much extra revenue were they getting from this?

Were moved suppliers shortly after.

a lot of people dont see their dd increase because its buried in their latest bill. You have to be informed of it, its part f the DD mandate all companies need to follow. To be fair they dont do it for giggles tho so if you missed it think hard before requesting it back and make sure that your covering your bills.

quidsin

paulonline123 wrote: »

a lot of people dont see their dd increase because its buried in their latest bill.

I find that there is too much information on a lot of utility bills so it could be easy to not read any information about DD increases. But as our prices were fixed there shouldn't of been any need to change the DD. We've changed suppliers since and now pay quarterly when we get the bill.

terryya

quidsin wrote: »

I find that there is too much information on a lot of utility bills so it could be easy to not read any information about DD increases. But as our prices were fixed there shouldn't of been any need to change the DD. We've changed suppliers since and now pay quarterly when we get the bill.

Having a fixed price doesn't automatically mean that your DD doesn't need to increase. It could just be that the initial DD was set too low and wasn't covering the actual amount of energy you were using. After all new suppliers love to set your DD low so it "looks" like you're saving loads.

JimmyTheWig

Your course of action needs to depend on whether this is a theoretical moan (e.g. how dare they take my money without asking) or a practical moan (e.g. they took more than I was expecting and so have gone overdrawn / have no money for food, etc).

If it is a practical issue then phone your bank and tell them you want your money back under the direct debit guarantee. Unfortunately, though, from now on you are going to have to budget for this increase.
But if it is the principle of it then phone them up and have a go and ask for a goodwill gesture. I'm not talking about hundreds of pounds a la compensation culture. I'm just saying that they broke their rules and should give you, say, £10 off your bill. There is little point, in this case, in getting the direct debit returned as you'll only have to pay it again once they've given you notice.

ManAtHome

My BG statements have been pretty clear and always show the running balance. From memory, my latest change wasn't hidden away and was in advance of the DD (they do annual reviews on mine).

gabyjane

Hi just scanning through and found this:

How will I know if my direct debit payment has changed?

Once we've reassessed your payments we'll let you know of any changes to the amount they need to pay, in writing and usually on your bill, at least 14 days in advance. You'll get plenty of advance warning of their new payments

Phebes

Hi there Everyone,

It can always help to see different people in the same or similar situations.

I can understand the anger some of you voiced on DD and not to have it, in this money crunching world not everyone can sleep at night knowing that they are choosing to leave a payment, hence the reason i use this method.

As i said in my original message i am happy to pay what is needed for the product I am using, however as somebody else pointed out the money has to be arranged to be there but notification should have been given.

I have tried to call and left waiting but going to try every day if needs be as yes i get paper less bills but when you log onto the site it does not let me access these bills and says the site might not show this for rest of year as they are upgrading it .... yeh rite..... i think thats dodgy straight away, anyways, it still lets you submit your meter reading ( very clever of them to make sure that part works).

Chances are it does show on my statement some where but cant access it due to the own site issues ( not my pc)

I think there should be a law of sorts to say that notification should be given but a reply is needed as conformation that the client/customer has full awareness and gave permission.

Premier_2

Phebes wrote:

...I think there should be a law of sorts to say that notification should be given but a reply is needed as conformation that the client/customer has full awareness and gave permission.

No extra laws are needed.

You are covered by the DD guarantee. If you do not receive the correct advance notice, your bank must immediately refund you the money if asked. You can also make a claim for consequential loss, again through your bank, if appropriate (e.g. bank fees if the withdrawal of the money made you incur these)

JimmyTheWig

Phebes wrote: »

i get paper less bills but when you log onto the site it does not let me access these bills and says the site might not show this for rest of year as they are upgrading it .... yeh rite..... i think thats dodgy straight away

I switched back to paper bills with BG after a row with them a few years back about how their system worked.
I checked my bills online from time to time and they looked fine. Didn't keep a copy of them, but didn't notice anything untoward.
When we came to move house they said we owed them a load of money. I tried to check online and it wouldn't let me see my bills!
I phoned them up and they said that yes I did owe them this money. They were surprised that they had let the account get into arrears like this (i.e. their systems should have increased my DD).
What bothered me was that (1) I hadn't noticed owing them money, (2) they hadn't noticed me owing them money and (3) at the very time I needed to see my statements to confirm if this was true I wasn't able to.
Had to pay in the end, but wasn't happy about it. Went to paper bills from then.