british gas and new dd amount

polska1979

We moved into our house in august of last year, BG set our gas dd at £25 for the month.
We have just today received a letter from them advising that our new dd is going up to £52 a month, I have just rang and they have advised that we have been using £32 worth of gas a month. Obviously this is over winter so the amount of gas we use is going to be higher.

I was under the impression that you fall into arrears in winter and then pay that back over the summer months when you dont use as much gas.???

British gas have said that if we want our direct debit to be set at £32 then we must pay our £140 arrears first.

Is this right? has anyone else had this problem?

We are moving house in the next couple of months so we would have had to settle the bill sooner or later..........i'd just rather it had been later!

smartie1976

it's usually the other way around - over pay in summer to compensate for the winter (no company wants £thousands owing - it's a nightmare for debt recovery)

If price rise = 25%, then DD goes up by 25%

If your DD is £25 then x1.25 = £31.25
BUT it should have been £32 x1.25 = £40

Aug to Mar is 7 months x £7 (the shortfall from £32 to £25) = £49

arearrs of £140 mean an additional payment of £11.60 per month.
(this obviously INCLUDES the £49 owed from the DD shortfall)

To account for this you would also add the debt to the new value

£40 correct DD under new tarrif
PLUS
£11.60 to cover arraers

= £40 + £11.60 = £52 per month.


To me it makes sense to pay the £52.