Can you switch suppliers when you have a debit balance?

mum26

Does anyone have any info on this please? We are getting run into the ground by british gas, we have gas central heating and water heating, but our electricity bills are humungous and thats to british gas ballsing up our bills, they now want £118 a month (before the new price hikes), this is impossible for us, we have six children under eleven!. I have A rated appliances, only use a dryer when I am really stuck and am always switching off lights etc yet the bills keep getting bigger and bigger!

Even the phoneline people think they are humungous and have said how reasonable our gas bills are (approx £30 a month which is not bad for a three story house!) for a family of our size in comparison.

I wll never be able to clear the balance before moving supplier, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger!

nenya

You can be able to change supplier with a debit balance but you will have to pay BGas off. Try internet deals etc etc

lizzie12_2

Hi
We had the same problem with B g and they were a nightmare!!!!

It took us a while to get our bill down, and if I remember correct they wouldnt allow us to change as we had had an outstanding bill for three months!! We eventually changed over to powergen after I became quite angry on the phone.

I did keep a record of time,date of ALL calls and the name and contact number of who I spoke to and a breif outline of call,came in handy when you quote name date and time but did get very fustrated with them.
We just concentrated on that bill to clear asap. Keep getting begging letters now, wanting us back....now way!!

Good Luck but dont give up.

[Deleted User]

when I worked for scottish power I wrote a report (in SQL) that ran every day to identify their customers who were attempting to leave, but had a debit balance. If it was above a certain amount (cant remember how much) SP were allowed to stop them leaving, as long as they stopped them withing 10 days.

mum26

thankyou for your help!

We think the only thing we can do then is try as hard as we can to a)keep our electricity usage as low as possible for the next few months and b) pay off as much as possible of the bill, not easy with our sort of family as this is prime birthday and school uniform season, lol!

I've never been convinced that the meter / their records are right as they kept sending us letters and bills for totally the wrong people to this address (which is a brand new build so no previous occupier!) but I just don;t have the time or energy (boom boom) to try and put it straight!