british gas increased direct debits

tiddlypeeps

hi, i switched to british gas about a year or so ago. i set up a direct debit monthly payment of £19. this continued until two months ago when i sent them a meter reading.[stupidly on my part all of my readings prior to that had been estimated]
following my accurate reading i received a letter saying they were increasing my d/debit from 19 to £109 to cover my usage.
i protested as we are a low income family with two children and it was going to be impossible to meet this. they got back to me and said that as i had an outstanding balance of 750 the absolute minimum they would reduce to is 93.
this is still beyond my reach but i felt i was left with no where to go so agreed and made the first payment in october and now we are really struggling as a family.
however i have today received another letter saying i now have to increase from 93 to 279 a month which is more than they said originally.
i am now in a state of panic as i dont know how we will cope.
if anyone can help please let me know.

KimYeovil

If you are a "low" income family then the first responsible thing to do is to keep an eye on your outgoings. Most parents value keeping a roof over and feeding and educating their children. Why did you not adjust your useage to your income? It is very irresponsible to behave in such a manner when you are in the guardianship of children who are dependent on you.

As a grown adult you knew £19 was not enough to cover your useage. You should contact them and offer to pay it back over a year - say £150 or £160 per month for both arrears and future use.

Premier_2

tiddlypeeps wrote: »

...they got back to me and said that as i had an outstanding balance of 750 the absolute minimum they would reduce to is 93.

...however i have today received another letter saying i now have to increase from 93 to 279 a month ...

You need to understand how the original monthly payment of £93pm was reached. i.e. how much of that was ongoing consumption and how much was to repay the £750 debt.

You then need to understand why they have increased your monthly payment. Is it because of increased usage, price increases, etc.
A good starting point would be to know the debt today.

They agreed a repayment plan for the £750 debt. They can't change it ... so long as you keep paying it.

e.g. lets say this was 12 months ago.
in 12 months you paid 12x£19 plus accrued a debt of £750 - so you used £978 in total, equivalent to £81.50 per month.
Surprising therefore that they allowed a repayment of just £91pm, meaning you were paying only £9.50pm off the debt. Normally they would want repayment over the period it accrued.
i.e. £62.50 per month to repay the debt plus £81.50pm ongoing usage.
They really should have asked for £144 pm.
Why didn't they. Get them to explain and make sure they abide by any agreements they made.
Even if they come up with a valid excuse, you can see, assuming my assumptions are true and nothing has changed, you should be able to agree a repayment of £144pm quite easily.

Premier_2

tiddlypeeps wrote: »

...i protested as we are a low income family ...

Amazing how all these posters who complain of having little money can still often manage to get enough pennies together to afford a nice break in the sun, eh?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=13080049&postcount=456

Fire_Fox

Rough calculations suggest you have been using an average of £82 worth of gas per month for the last year: bear in mind it's now winter, you will be using more than £80 for the next few months. You can't therefore seriously expect to pay less than £93, that is unlikely to even cover your ongoing use!

You have three choices, firstly to find a way to increase your household's income (second job, lodger), secondly to post your budget on the Debt-free Wannabe board and cut it back to the bare minimum, thirdly cut back hard on your use of heating and hot water.