British Gas-aarrgghh!!!!!

Bets

I have just recently moved house-the previous tennants had the 'pay as you go' meters installed, I prefer to pay by monthly direct debit,so rang British Gas and explained this to them- they then ( to my amazement) said they had to carry out a credit check-which I failed as am going through a debt management programme at the moment and told me if i want 'normal' meters then I have to come up with a £500 deposit- how is this fair? do all electricity and gas suppliers carry out credit checks? if not does anyone know which companies dont? Thanks in advance x

Cardew

Yes all companies credit check.

You are asking them to(potentially) lend you(grant credit) hundreds of pounds.

It is sound business practice not to grant such credit to people that are a credit risk unless they pay a deposit.

It also cost money to exchange the meters from pre-pay to credit meters.

The major reason why people are made to have pre-pay meters is because the cannot cope with debt.

Joyful

If you have 2 PP meters with BG you can reduce your prices by going on the PAYG Click Tariff.

KimYeovil

You understand what a credit check is, don't you? You failed the credit check. Therefore you should not be given credit. How is that not fair???

If you can not afford to pay your supplier £500 then what guarantee is there that you will be able to pay your quarterly bills? How would it be fair to other customers to let you mount up hundreds of pounds of debt if you are not likely to be able to readily pay it off? How would not being asked to pay a £500 deposit fair???

GEEGEE8

Don't beat around the bush do you Kim..

A new poster, try to be a bit nicer.

Bets

kim yeovil,
Thankyou for not beating around the bush.
yes I know what a credit check is. I wouldnt mount up £100's of pounds- I did state in my original post that i prefer to pay by direct debit- I can afford to pay by monthly installments-I just dont want the hassle of the pre payment meters.
If I had moved into a property without pre payment meters would they still do a credit check? and £500 in one lump is a bit different to £80 a month.

savemoney

They are asking you for that due to your bad credit and the fact you will ended up in debt which could end up £300+ in winter months along maybe more

You best bet is paying large DD if they allow it to build up a credit whilst consuming little, say maybe £120-£150 per month

Bets

Thankyou savemoney,
your advice has been duly noted.

savemoney

Sorry bets didnt mean to sound like having a go at your difficulty, but I can see why they need to know let people get into debt. Hope you get sorted

DVardysShadow

KimYeovil wrote: »

You understand what a credit check is, don't you? You failed the credit check. Therefore you should not be given credit. How is that not fair???

If you can not afford to pay your supplier £500 then what guarantee is there that you will be able to pay your quarterly bills? How would it be fair to other customers to let you mount up hundreds of pounds of debt if you are not likely to be able to readily pay it off? How would not being asked to pay a £500 deposit fair???

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How is it not fair? If you moved into a house with credit meters, on to a deemed contract, they would not do a credit check, they would take you on with a deemed contract.

kjsmith7

Hi Bets - to soften the burden a little for you, you might want to consider viewing the bills online to get a bit of a discount on it. It's called Prepayment Click and the web site is:
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/energy/our-products/pay-as-you-go.html

If you have a debit card, you can top at home now too:
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/topup

Hope that helps