British Gas Credit and wanting to move...

pjjafc

Hi,

I currently have my gas and electric through British Gas. I have built up some credit over the summer (£150) and am looking to move to another provided as recommended. Now can I take that credit with me??? Or do I lose it??

davidgmmafan

Erm need more info to answer properly. If the account has been billed up to date to reading then the balance would be refunded once a final bil is issued. However if the account is billed you probably will have a lesser credit or no credit at all.

If there is a refund it will be an idea not to spend it as you may need this to cover the Winter usage with your new supplier.

penrhyn

You will be refunded by BG when you change over supplier.

macman

If I understand correctly, the OP is asking if any credit on the account can be transfer directly to the new supplier? If so, the answer is no.

Terrylw1

You won't lose it but if you are not billed up to date, then there is more consumption you haven't paid for since it sounds like you are overpaying on DD.

When you change Supplier, you will get a final bill and any remaining cedit will be refunded to you. It won't be transferred to another Supplier, not that anyone would want the hassle of them losing your money!

Since a lot of final bills are based on poor industry estimates, if you ensure they use a reading from you for the change date, your credit will be accurate.

JimmyTheWig

Is this on a meter or regular billing?
If it's regular billing then, as has been stated, you get the money back from BG. You can then use this to pay new supplier. (Can't see transferring it _directly_ to the new account would be of much benefit.)

If it's a meter I have no idea.

pjjafc

British Gas rang me about April time and said I owed them around £140 due to the harsh winter and I had not built up enough from 2009. So they said I should pay around £45 on Electric and £67 on Gas so that would more than cover my usage throughout the Summer and pay them the £140 that I owed. Now paid that off and am now in credit so as far as I am concerned its mine???

You will have to excuse me as I know nothing about this sort of thing as only moved into my first house last year!

O and is it still a good time to change??

ED: I submit a meter reading every month to make sure I always getting billed correctly!

DVardysShadow

pjjafc wrote: »

British Gas rang me about April time and said I owed them around £140 due to the harsh winter and I had not built up enough from 2009. So they said I should pay around £45 on Electric and £67 on Gas so that would more than cover my usage throughout the Summer and pay them the £140 that I owed. Now paid that off and am now in credit so as far as I am concerned its mine???

You will have to excuse me as I know nothing about this sort of thing as only moved into my first house last year!

Of course it is yours!!!! You only pay for what you use and if you are charged for more you create a stink. At least that is the way things used to be. Don't let the utility companies push you around.

davidgmmafan

But as I said earlier if you take the money now and use a lot in Winter there could be a debit on the account, indeed I'd expect one. General advice when switching is to look at online tariffs as they are usually £2-£300 cheaper over the year, assuming ur comfortable with this and DD.

JimmyTheWig

Ok, so it's regular billing rather than a meter.

Quick answer: When you leave them, they'll pay you your credit balance.

Long answer: The normal situation is as follows...
You use more gas and electricity in the winter months than you do in the summer months.
It is hard to budget like this and so you pay a fixed amount every month through the year. In summer you'll be paying more than you use and so your balance will build up a credit. In winter you'll be using more than you are paying and so your credit balance will reduce and possibly become a debit.
If the monthly amount is set right then over the year you will be paying for what you use.

Now, what happened with you last winter was that your balance ended up £140 in debit. And so you had to pay it back.
If at the end of the summer you withdraw your credit balance then you are likely to be in a similar situation next April.
If you decide to switch then I suggest you put the money that British Gas give you into a savings account and don't touch it until you get a bill from your new energy company in the Spring.