British Gas Payments

McFilly

After finding that we were £190 in credit with British Gas for our electricity bill I phoned them to ask to have a refund. I think we have been paying way over the odds for our electricity for a long time (£57 a month). It was quite a battle to get them to agree to refund it, they tried telling me that we would use more electricity over the winter, despite the fact that I told them that we have gas central heating and cooking. In fact they then told me that electricity was needed to power the gas central heating.LOL Yes, I know the electricity switches it on, but please, it would not make that much difference. OK, I know I will use the tumble drier more in the winter but I still think we don't use £57 a month!

They tried to get me to leave the money in their account until our annual review in two months but I said no, I wanted them to transfer £140 of the credit back to our bank, leaving £50 in there as a backstop. They eventually agreed and now say we need to pay £51 a month, which I still think is too high.

I am considering going back to paying quarterly, and saving the money myself in a building society account and paying by cheque. I have heard that it can be more expensive to pay this way. Does anyone know if this is correct?

SwanJon

If you change from monthly DD to quarterly you will lose the DD discount.
With interest rates so low at the moment, I don't think you can earn enough interest to counteract the loss of the discount (but I've not done the maths).

If you think the DD is too high, remember it is based on readings they have, so give them some more. It wouldn't hurt to logon/call up and leave a reading every couple of weeks, then when they do recalculate it it will at least be based on better data.

You will use more electricity in the winter - darker nights mean lights on a lot longer, colder nights mean more nights in etc, so if you do go to quarterly, be prepared for that too.

I work for British Gas, but my thoughts are my own.

anniewoo

I have never had any problems getting refunds from BG,I have done this twice in the last few years.The most recent occasion was one month ago.I just sent an email to them requesting a refund and the money was in my bank account a few days later.