Problem with British Gas pre-pay

CACHAF

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help at all?

We have a prepayment Britih Gas meter which has a debt on it (From when my husband was made redundant last year) which is taken at £7 a week.

Earlier this year my husband was made redundant again and has been out of work for 6 months now. At the same time he was made redundant my gran became very seriously ill and I had to go live with her to care for her. I couldn't claim carers allowance as she was newly ill and couldnt yet claim attendance allowance but I was also unable to sign on as I was at her home 24/7 so my husband was awarded just single person rate job seekers of £65 a week. As a result of having so little money we stopped putting money on the gas and just survived with no heating or hotwater. Sadly we forgot that we should have been putting the £7 a week for debt on anyway (but we would not have been able to afford to even if we had remembered)

We have just realised our error and phoned British gas and they say there is nothig they can do and that the meter will just take 90% of each top up until we have paid the 6 months of charges back. I know it is our fault but is there anything we can do at all? It is going to be very cold over winter with no gas and I am just worried sick what to do. We don't have the kind of money the meter is going to need so what do we do?

Thank you

SwanJon

Hi, I work for BG so hopefully can offer some advice.

Firstly to clear up what you were told - they weren't quite right.
The meter will take up to 90% of each top up until it gets its £7 each week - so if you top up £10 it will take £7 and give you £3. This is this week's £7.
The meter will also try to catch up on the missed weeks by taking (in your case) £2 from the credit on your meter early each morning. Once it catches up all the missed weeks it will stop. E.g. if you missed 10 weeks it will do this for 5 weeks.
Obviously BG would rather you topped up - they get the old bill paid that way.
Did you mention your financial circumstances when you called? You should be able to knock down the weekly amount (at least for future weeks). If you changed from £7 to £4, the meter would look for £18 each week until caught up (£7+£7+£4), plus what you'll use. If you didn't do this - call back (0800 048 0303 / 0330 100 0303).
I'd start topping up now, even if it is only a little bit. You'll get some gas at least until the morning and it stops the situation getting worse.
If I think of any other options I'll come back.

CACHAF

Thank you so much for your reply - I appreciated it so much.

I have just phoned BG and spoken to someone so helpful who is going to phone me back tomorrow morning when I am by the meter so they can help me further (I am at my grans at the moment and cant leave yet)

I will update in the morning when I have spoken to her, but thank you again.

Joyful

Also google the British Gas Energy Trust. You can download an application form from the web or call them to send one out. They may be able to help with your debts.

CACHAF

Thank you for the British Gas energy trust information - I am going to go look them up now.

I still havent had a call back from BG so will try phoning them again too.

Managed to borrow a gas heater with a seperate bottle for last night but can't do this forever - just too cold.

Thank you

gazza667

Hi. I think you may have answered my question in this thread too.

Ive had a BG pre pay meter since 2009 & have been paying back a debt at £3.50 per week. Ive been signed off work long term sick & am living on Income Support. I live in a 1 bedroom 1st floor flat. Only last week i topped up £10 but 5 days later i had used the credit as well as the emergency £5. What concerns me is i only have 1 3 bar gas fire & 1 gas cooker. The fire has not been used in the summer months & im astounded at the amount it has used in the last week. I topped up again with £10 on wednesday & it went off again around an hour ago. It is now saturday morning. So ive used another £5 since tuesday night. I have emailed BG to request they look at my account & check my meter because i find it hard to believe ive used almost £20 in just under 7 days. BG have not got back to me despite my request for them to call seeing as i only have a mobile that will not give free calls to 0800 numbers.
After reading your above replies im wondering if because ive not needed to top up the gas in the summer - they are making up for missed debt payments. Although i must add the meter said i was £1.50 in arrears when i topped up wednesday. Could anyone confirm if pre pay meters incur a standing charge please?
My electric prepay meter is fine. If im late topping the debt up it seems to take a small amount off my credit per day. Not 1 big lump like the gas one does. Im dreading the winter now because my income support will not stretch to cover £30 - £40 per week gas plus electric.
Sorry to ramble on. Thanks for reading.
Gazza

SwanJon

gazza667 wrote: »

Only last week i topped up £10 but 5 days later i had used the credit as well as the emergency £5. I topped up again with £10 on wednesday & it went off again around an hour ago. It is now saturday morning. So ive used another £5 since tuesday night. i find it hard to believe ive used almost £20 in just under 7 days.

Remember that the meter starts it's week on a Wednesday, so it would have looked to recover 2x£3.50 = £7 from those two top ups (you don't say when last week you topped up).
If you've missed a few weeks it will also be looking to recover those weeks at (in your case) £1 a night (2x£3.50 a week).
This leaves £6 for gas use from the two top ups - less than £1/day during a coldish week.

British gas doesn't have standing charges on it's PP meters - you need to use a certain amount at a higher price per quarter to get to the cheaper stuff. If you've not been using gas, you're probably catching up on this too.

I'm afraid it looks like your meter is set correctly.