British Gas direct debit - up 60%!!

mikeriley_2

Hi

Ive just had my quartlery statement from british gas for my gas bill (we get electricity from them also - both on direct debit). Previously my direct debit was £55/month - this has now gone up to £90/month! - At end of July i was £20 in credit, as of yesterday i am £80 in credit yet they have still increased my direct debits by 60%!!!
Does this sound right? I know they put gas prices up a few moths ago and will probably be factoring-in winter usage , but by this margin!?
Any thoughts?
cheers
Mike

brysiewysie

There's several similar posts and I guess many others to come?

Don't confuse DD increases with usage. Your DD should be set to cover your usage and takes into account seasonal variations, if your account is as much in credit as it should be by now etc. You should check you've been billed on real readings not estimates and see if your consumption has increased.

Magentasue

You need to work out your annual usage (and yes, check if it has increased) and cost it using current prices. If you divide by 12, is it nearer £55 or £90?

You could deduct the £80 credit when you work out the total, if you're certain it's real credit (look at DD date and readings) and you're confident prices won't rise by more that £1.50 a week.

KimYeovil

Think of it like this:

The direct debit is to be balanced over a whole year ie 12 months.

When you were paying £55 you were £80 in credit ie 1.5 previous summer's instalments
Now there was a 35% increase in the price of gas. 35% is approx one third so over one year that is equivalent to 4 previous summer's instalments
Over cold winter months you can easily use four or five times as much heating as over summer. Call it four times. So over three winter months you use 12 summer instalments.

That means 9 (summer) + 12 (winter) + 4 (price increase) - 1.5 (your credit) => 25 - 1.5 => 22.5

So over the next year you should pay (22.5 x previous summer's instalment) / 12 => (22.5 / 12) x previous summer's instalment

And since 22.5 / 12 is 1.875 your £55 could be increased 88%, not just 60% !

tambus

I was paying £52/month just for Gas and when my bill came in it said my DD was increasing to £78!! I phoned up costumer services today and explained that I have 2 young children in the house andthey have cut it down to £62!!

Magentasue

Of course, we're all interested in what we pay but ultimately it's what we use that matters. It's no good reducing your payments if you end up owing a large sum at the end of the year. Nor is there any point in paying a lot more than you need to and building up a large credit balance.

The maths isn't that difficult - you just need kwh costs and your predicted annual usage. So long as you check that your usage is in line, your bills should be more or less covered without paying much more than you need to.