New IVA and British Gas

MrD-1965_2

Hi All,
Firstly to say a big thanks to this forum, I never posted but it was such a great source of information and others experiences helped us through.

So, we are in to month 1 of our IVA and feeling strong and positive, then a few letters from British Gas drop through the letterbox referring to a closed account and a re-opened account.

Thinking someone was using our details for ID fraud I called British Gas to eventually find out that they have 'information' relating to our IVA and as a 'responsible provider' they wanted to set a new account up for us to make sure everything was ok.

Now, in principle, I am fine with this however going through an IVA IS traumatic and I think that it would have been better if British Gas had called us to explain what they were doing and why they were doing it.

Just wondering if there are any other surprises coming our way from utility companies, I think their behavior was unacceptable.

adfax

Hi

Whilst I am not sure why British Gas might have done this, I don't think this is the norm and there is no reason to think that you will have loads of these through the door.

I have monthly payments set up for my gas and electricity, council tax, telephone, broadband, Sky, insurance etc etc and had no problems (I have been in my IVA since January).

Having said that, I did hit a slight snag when trying to move my car insruance to a new insurer (see my other thread), but that was resolved satisfactorily.

Good luck ... and only 59 months to go!

Charco_2

Did you have a debt on your British Gas account? Were you behind with payments?

Cant claim to know how the utilities companies work BUT if there was a debt owed to them that they have been included in the IVA for then it would be normal practice to draw a line under that debt (since they'll be reclaiming a dividend for it over the next few years) and start afresh with your new account... obviously a phonecall to explain this wouldn't have gone amiss though!

MrD-1965_2

Hi, thanks for responding.

We were never behind on any payements and only in debit as part of the rolling year fluctuations [winter more, summer less] so that may account for their actions. The new account is exactly the same monthly payment.

My only point was customer contact, the customer service representative that I spoke to was embarrassed because she had to tell me its because of Insolvency after she spoke to her debt team.

Charco_2

Curiouser and curiouser!

You're right though, you should've been contacted. It often annoys me that big companies feel they can just do what they like without conferring with you!

Ladyjayne81

They did the same to me!!! They ended my account on an estimated reading so when I gave the a current reading mine where much lower than theirs!! It's taken a long time, many calls and several letters from them to get my new accounts upto date!!! I just wish I would have been contact by them.....It's been very stressful so I understand how you feel.

devonshire

They closed our account too and set up a new one, and after a lot of angry phone calls, they told me they had closed our old account due to bankruptcy, which is not true, as i am in an iva, then to top it off, set up the direct debit on our old unused bank account! then when i gave them a reading mine was much lower and they wouldn't believe me! after so many screw ups, i left them and went to edf, who so far have been fine, fingers crossed.