Quantam/british gas meter

ultramol

First, forgive me if this has been answered before but I am on a vodaphone dongle that is running at 300 BITS per second and to go through the previous posts would take about a month!. I have a quantam gas meter and noticed a sharp increase in what I put in each week. So, I started to monitor it as I used the gas and found the results bizzare. First thing in the morning a sink of water, half a sink actually, would knock up to 50p off the credit. Later in the day a full sink would knock 5p off the credit. If I run the heating in the morning it would take more money than a one armed bandit, again later it would slow down a bit. What it boils down to is this, nothing I do the same costs the same. After watching the meter take debt everytime I put credit in , ranging from 2p to 13p, (I do not owe them anything) I phoned them up. After a total of about 1 and a half hours on the phone by the meter going through a series of steps I was told everything was o.k. but I remain baffled. They could not answer any of my direct questions but told me, in a rather religious manner, to have faith and that everything was fine.As of the debt being taken out they said its what the meter had given with one hand has taken back with the other, because I have not used enough gas I presume, and, this is my question (eventually). Am I on a punative system were if I save on gas they charge more for it. They said no but does anyone out there think they can explain this to me in a way I can understand. Thanks in advance..
P.S. To be fair to BG they are sending me, free of charge, a thing to tell me how much electric I am using and a socket to turn off standbye's.

kippen_noedel

BG prices for PAYG gas are NOT the cheapest, their electricity is competitive but not their gas.

Look into moving the gas, don't worry about the dual fuel discount it's probably worth less than £15pa.

markharding557

ebico is usually cheapest for gas on pp.
one reason you are putting more in is because it is cold.
in the morning when you see 50p knocked off is your heating on?

Joyful

This is what I posted for someone else.

Some companies have a standing charge on their meters and a flat rate. BG and some others have 2 rates.. This means that if you use enough gas you will pay the lower charge throughout the day and the top up in the early hours. If you do not use enough gas ie none it cannot allow you to get all your units at the lower rate when you do start to use as this is all worked out daily. This means it stores up the higher amount as debt. There is nothing wrong with this. It is just making sure you are charged at the same rates as everybody else.

This confuses so many people.

ultramol

Thanks for the info, very helpful indeed. BG should divert all their queries here, you all make more sense. Thanks again.