British gas up monthly payment

hwalkerh

Just had my latest gas bill and they have increased my monthly payment from £27 to £38.

I have worked out that my monthly average over 12 months is £31 a month so i thought that this seemed a bit steep especially as that includes the really cold spell we have had and it based on actual meter readings.

Just emailed them and put my case forward and asked that they reduce it to a more sensible £33 a month and pointed out that in summer i only use about £15 a month which is the whole point of why they are meant to average it and not put it up every winter!

Fingers crossed a put a good case forward, lets wait and see what happens!

suisidevw

Scottish Power tried that with me in our last flat and I phoned them up and demaded it be reduced and they duley obliged. You'll be fine.

ohyeahitssorcy

I had this but with a bit more scary amounts the person on the other end of the phone said it was because they like to get the accounts in credit as it were before the new financial year think they upped mine in winter (dual fuel) to about £115 a month :eek: told em no way i could only afford £75 which they duly accepted

keystone

12 months @ 31 = 372. 12 months @ 27 = 324 so it looks like you owe them 48 if your account was at zero at the beginning of the year. 12 months @ 38 = 456 less 48 = 408 or about 40 over what you think it should be. They will have estimated the second winter quarter and yes they will have taken lower usage in the summer into account. It maybe that you owed them from the previous year in which case that will be factored in as well. Actually it doesn't look that unreasonable to me TBH. Wish my gas bill was this low!!

If you want an experts opinion repost your thread over at the Utilities Board on this forum.

Clicky to take you there.

Cheers

keystone

suisidevw wrote: »

Scottish Power tried that with me in our last flat and I phoned them up and demaded it be reduced and they duley obliged. You'll be fine.

ohyeahitssorcy wrote: »

told em no way i could only afford £75 which they duly accepted

bet they said OK then but that might leave you owing us at the end of the year and asked you to confirm that you were. Had the same experience just recently with similar conversation.

Cheers

hwalkerh

Everything is based on actual meter readings and they messed up my payments earlier in the year when they moved the reading on one unit in 3 months and put my payments down to £5, then after a couple of months up to £58 so i settled up and started a fresh.

keystone

Even so it still looks pretty much reasonable. They don't like you being in debit, they like you being in credit!

Piggybanker

I have the opposite problem. I have a debit of £122 which is growing every month and still they want to reduce my monthly DD to £5! Last month I used £57! (Actual reading). I keep having to refuse when they write to say 'great news, we've reduced your DD, because I won't be able to repay a big debit in one go later. Same applies to my leccy, also with British Gas.

I hope you get your issue sorted
Piggy

hwalkerh

One thing i did find when i had trouble with British gas before is that if you ring the complaint line you get someone helpful, who understands you and who can actually help!