Charges on Accruing Arrears with British Gas

mwalther

Hi,

My question is relating to British Gas charges. I pay by quarterly bill. I normally pay for 2 or 3 bills at the same time.

British Gas have started applying a £14 Late Payment charge on each bill plus on my Electric bill have just made a £50 visit charge.

Because I have duel fuel they have applied the £14 charges on both accounts.

I have settled my Gas Arrears and the charges were removed because I argued that they are not allowed to apply more than one charge because it is an accruing debt and they would actually be charging several times on the same debt if they applied more than one charge.

Because I have to argue my case again on my Electric account I just wanted to ask if my argument is legally correct or was it a goodwill gesture to remove the charges on my Gas arrears ?

Many Thanks

Michael

Joyful

This was a goodwill gesture. In the terms and conditions plus all the letters you receive they advise of the ongoing charges which start at £14 and continue up to Warrant charges.

As you are given 3 months of interest free gas and electric you either need to pay EACH bill when it arrives or set up a continuous payment plan.

I am surprised if you have 6 or 9 months of bills that it has not reached warrant stage by that point.

PS you are not legally correct.

spiro

Based on credit cards you get one default charge per statement but this has been investigated and regulated whereas I dont think utility accounts have been subject to the same level of scrutiny.

Look at their T&Cs http://www.britishgas.co.uk/terms-and-conditions-additional-dual.html this allows them to charge interest and also move money between fuels.

KimYeovil

Excellent news. Well done, British Gas. :T Please make sure you do not forget to blight this customer's credit record as well. :beer:

(NB: I am not being sarcastic.)

davidgmmafan

"If you do not pay your bill for gas or electricity (or both) when we remind you, we can start charging you interest at 3% a year above HSBC Bank's current base rate. We can do this from 28 days after we sent the original bill to you."

I did no know they could do this, I suppose the charges are another way of doing a similar thing. If you put the money aside to clear the balance very couple of bills why not get a payment card which will allow you to do the same thing?

Using the credit card example isn't a great help because A) Its a different animal A credit card bill is monthly, so three months none payment equals (usually) £36 of charges + interest. By comparison if BG is charging £14 per quarterly bill that's quite a bargain.