BG Meter please help

GemJar_2

We have just had a British gas meter fitted due to us getting into debt with them and it is taking ridiculous amounts for the debt off when we try top up the card, on Thursday we topped up £10 and it took £9 straight away, on Fri we put on another £10 and it took another £9 so I phoned up british gas and found out that they are taking £26 a week off us for the debt when we were previously told that it was £6 a week plus its taking from the last 3 weeks as it took that long for the card to come through, the lady on the phone kindly agreed to change the rate to £6 a week effective from this Wed, but anything else I topped up from now on would not just go straight to the debt.

Topped up £5 today and it took £4.50 of it. Now the phone lines are closed and not open tomorrow (not sure about monday) and we have £1.35 to live off. I simply can't afford to top up again for it to take all the money.

We have a gas boiler and gas cooker and 3 people live in the house. Plus the house is freezing and I'm terrified of turning the heating on. Does anybody have any advice? Also it's telling us we have used the emergency credit when we haven't?

Basically for the £25 we have topped up in the last 3 days we have been given £2.50 of it for ourselves.

Gerrard_8_lfc

What size of debt is it ?

You can negociate the % they take from you to a certain extent.

give 0800 048 0202 and see if they are taking calls.

spiro

For the meter to be changed to take less money you will need to top up once or twice Weds/Thurs.

Unless you live in the highlands of Scotland, which you don't, the weather is not that cold so I dont see how you can say the house is freezing. I turned my heating off a few weeks ago and it has not been back on since. As others will suggest put a jumper on if you are one of the people who like to walk round the house just in a lightweight t-shirt.

jamesb1239

i'm sure the meter can only take 70% towards debt, but when the meter was fitted thew will have left you with £10/20 to tide you over until the card came, this will also be taking a seperate % to pay back and until that balance is paid you will have no emergency credit.
Even when you get dropped down to the £6 p/w the meter will still have to make up the emergency credit before it lets you use the emergency credit.

I think you need to prepare yourself for the true costs of running one of these meters for example;
In the warmer months (to me early feb - november) I will probably use £15 of gas, yes to cover the whole 9 months as all it is used for is a gas hob, I choose to heat the water by electricity over this period as it works out better for me. And I dont have the boiler lit for that whole time (before anyone says you cant do that with kids, I have two 1 newborn and 1 toddler).

On the other hand from nov until feb I use around £40 per week and that's only with the boiler running for a few hours in the morning and a few on the evening.

So my advice to you would be through the summer (or warmer) months put extra in the meter so that you have some left over to help cover the colder months.

I agree with other posters, it isnt that cold, were all sat here in t-shirts as its too warm for sweaters.

GemJar_2

jamesb1239 wrote: »

i'm sure the meter can only take 70% towards debt, but when the meter was fitted thew will have left you with £10/20 to tide you over until the card came, this will also be taking a seperate % to pay back and until that balance is paid you will have no emergency credit.
Even when you get dropped down to the £6 p/w the meter will still have to make up the emergency credit before it lets you use the emergency credit.

I think you need to prepare yourself for the true costs of running one of these meters for example;
In the warmer months (to me early feb - november) I will probably use £15 of gas, yes to cover the whole 9 months as all it is used for is a gas hob, I choose to heat the water by electricity over this period as it works out better for me. And I dont have the boiler lit for that whole time (before anyone says you cant do that with kids, I have two 1 newborn and 1 toddler).

On the other hand from nov until feb I use around £40 per week and that's only with the boiler running for a few hours in the morning and a few on the evening.

So my advice to you would be through the summer (or warmer) months put extra in the meter so that you have some left over to help cover the colder months.

I agree with other posters, it isnt that cold, were all sat here in t-shirts as its too warm for sweaters.

I have poor circulation and for some reason my house is pretty much always cold (i have been wearing extra jumpers though ) and we gave the man £10 when he came round and he phoned BG to tell them to put credit on the meter. I was at work when this happened so I'm not too sure how it worked. 82p left on the meter. Heating hasn't been on at all since mid March. Think I'm just gonna have to get used to having one!

SwanJon

GemJar wrote: »

I have poor circulation and for some reason my house is pretty much always cold (i have been wearing extra jumpers though ) and we gave the man £10 when he came round and he phoned BG to tell them to put credit on the meter. I was at work when this happened so I'm not too sure how it worked. 82p left on the meter. Heating hasn't been on at all since mid March. Think I'm just gonna have to get used to having one!

Hi,

I work for BG so may be able to offer some help.
Firstly, although this may not be any help this time, but it might help others. The Pay As You go department is open 24 hrs/365 on 0800 048 0303 or 0330 100 0303 (? the second number).
Secondly, the engineer shouldn't have taken your money - he has no way of crediting it to your meter. They should be able to trace the engineer if you pass on the details. Feel free to use this:
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/pay-as-you-go-complaints.html
However, I'm sure under the circumstances they'll be able to find a solution.
Thirdly, the meters are now programmed to take up to 90% of a top up, but only up to an agreed amount each week. The meter starts a week on a Wednesday morning (go figure).
Fourth - you can check the details on the meter as follows.

• The first screen you see will have your current credit on it
• Pressing the red button once will change to an 'owed' screen - this is not your bill, only any emergency you've borrowed.
• Pressing the red button again will show you the meter reading (meter index)

from the first screen if you press and hold the red button the screen will change to 'GD remaining' screen (no 27). Once you are on this screen, each time you press the red button you change screen, but not in numerical order.
The screens you are looking for are
27 - what's left of the bill to pay
26 - The weekly payment amount (check this changes to £6)
31 - any extra charges added to the bill (e.g. court charges)
00 - how much you last topped up
01 - how much of your last top up went towards the bill
02 - how much of your last top up went towards paying back emergency
03 - how much of your last top up went for gas
09 - Tier 1 price
10 - Tier 2 price
Fifth - If you don't pay towards the bill one week the meter remembers, and will try to catch up. If you miss a few weeks that can mean that you need to pay 3x the agreed amount to satisfy the meter.
Six - this partially follows on from 5, and from what JamesB said. Keep topping up over the summer. The last thing you want is to have to catch up when the weather gets colder and you start to use more gas. Along the same vein have a think about when the bill will be clear - if you can clear it before the cold weather it's one less thing to worry about in the winter.