confused over tarriff charges....

magoogy

i have a prepayment meter and wanted it taking out and me to pay direct debit but, for some reason or other they wouldnt let me without a charge......i explained how its sometimes hard to get out to top up so they sent me a meter to top up both my gas and electricity online....(britishgas)......

only thing is - i was putting in £10 - £15 a week before but noticed this week when i used the new pay thingy it took £20 within 3 days....

ive just come off the phone with them and she had be looking at my meter and said mine was on 4. tarriff and was set too low and should be on 6. summat tarriff (essentials tarriff)........she is sending out a new card with the proper settings on.....apparently the new card sent out with the payment thingy was set too low so only be wrong for about a week...

i asked if this meant higher bills then but she said they would be back to how they were before i changed to the payment thingy.....

i dont understand - if the tarriff is being set higher surely my bills will be higher?????????

can anyone understand this please??? am i being blonde?????

thanks

Bark01

The Essentails tariff is BG social tariff and is closed to new applicants so if you were put on it, it was a mistake. Having said that it shoul dbe the cheapest tariff they offer, so keep on it!.

If they are charging you to swith off prepay and onto DD then you might have a debt on your prepay meter (The debt may have been left by a previous tennant). I'm not sure if BG charge for installing a credit meter, but there are plenty of suppliers who do not. You will need to weigh up the savings you can make with BG against the cost of paying for a credit meter. BG may not even be the cheapest supplier in your situation so it may be better to go with someone else.

Its worth checkin gagain with BG that a debt wasn't added to your account which resulted in a a higher than usual charge.

magoogy

thanks for your reply......i thought id covered all aspects in my op but, here goes;

ive been on the essentials tarriff since it first started

there is no debt on the meter whatsoever - im always in credit and have been in this house over 10 years so noone elses debt is on it

im only wanting someone to expalin how british gas's tarriffs work as i was confused when she said my tariff was too low and thats why i was being charged too much....???????

Joyful

If you are on the Essentials you should see a tariff of 4.7 on screen 9. If it showing 6.? you are on the standard tariff. As it sounds like you are confused about what you were told please call again once you have checked screen 9 and confirm whether the tariff does need to be changed.

The reason that you would not be allowed a credit meter would either be if you were paying back a debt or if you failed a credit vet. Otherwise it would be changed for free.