BG increasing my Electricity Payments !

lgb2100

Just received my latest Electricity bill from British Gas.....

Great new, I am in credit by just over £22 :j
But it states that my payments will be increasing to £32 a month (from £25) as of 28th November - a whopping 28% :mad:

Just going through my past four bills, I have only used £328.10 worth of electricity (Websaver 6), and that's before discounts, and VAT.

With the discounts/VAT taken into consideration, this equates to less than £25 a month ! so my current monthly amount covers this .

I know there's an increase in prices due soon, but this can't be as high as 28% :eek:

Any ideas how BG works out their payments ?

A few years ago, they decreased my payment to £5 based on my usage ! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2094161

This, I got increased to £25, otherwise, I wouldnot have been in credit with British Gas !

SwanJon

lgb2100 wrote: »

I know there's an increase in prices due soon, but this can't be as high as 28% :eek:

Do you? How? They need to announce increases to the stock exchange first, even before staff, so you should probably keep quiet.

lgb2100 wrote: »

Any ideas how BG works out their payments ?

Estimate usage to next annual reassessment= £x
Take current credit (debt) = £y
(£x-£y)/number of payments to next annual reassessment.

Is this an anniversary assessment or an interim one? If an interim one and your annual assessment is due in 6 months it can make the swing a bit more extreme to get you back to zero for the anniversary. (Higher consumption in darker winter months, even more so if you have electric heating.)
Have you been providing regular readings to make sure their estimate is accurate?

lapat

i noticed that the same on my bill that i was in credit but my payments went up. is this possiblly a tactic to pay for the extra we use over the winter months instead of being in arears later in the cyclic year..?????????????

Yellowcard

Have you had a refund of credit atall since your last reassesment?
Have you had any payment reductions in the past 12 months ?

Any increase is nothing to do with any possibble price increases, increases to electric arent even credibly rumoured...

grahamc2003

lgb2100 wrote: »

Just received my latest Electricity bill from British Gas.....

Great new, I am in credit by just over £22 :j
But it states that my payments will be increasing to £32 a month (from £25) as of 28th November - a whopping 28% :mad:

Just going through my past four bills, I have only used £328.10 worth of electricity (Websaver 6), and that's before discounts, and VAT.

With the discounts/VAT taken into consideration, this equates to less than £25 a month ! so my current monthly amount covers this .

I know there's an increase in prices due soon, but this can't be as high as 28% :eek:

Any ideas how BG works out their payments ?

A few years ago, they decreased my payment to £5 based on my usage ! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2094161

This, I got increased to £25, otherwise, I wouldnot have been in credit with British Gas !

They probably work out the monthly payments so you pay about 1/12 of your estimate bill each month, with the proviso that you never get into a negative balance at any time. So with only £22 at the moment, if they don't increase your payments, then you'll go into debt on your next bill.

It's not what I call fair at all - I think you should go into debt in the winter by about the same amount you are in surplus in the summer - but of coiurse, the suppliers like to get their hands on as much of your cash as they can, so they prefer zero winter debt, and a large summer surplus.

I negotiated a lower than 1/12th monthly payment, with the agreement that in the 2 winter bills, I'd make one-off extra payments to ensure I don't go into a negative balance (which would of course trigger a (much) higher monthly payment if I did). So for the 2 winter bills, I read my own meter, calculate the bill, transfer cash into my account to keep the amount positive, then submit the readings. It worked fine last year, an this year I've just had a quaterly bill with a small positive balance (a similar situation to you), but I haven't had an increase in monthly payment notified.

lgb2100

Now managed to work out my usage in kWH

This over the past year has been 3123 kwH

under Websave 6 - dual fuel this equates to.

£334.15 in actual usage cost
£37.48 Discount
£14.09 Dual Fuel Discount

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£282.58

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Even without the £22 credit taken of this, my annual payments should ideally be £282.58/12 = £23.55


Rather than relying on my calulations, I also inputed my usage into http://www.energyhelpline.com, and it equates to the same amount.

I have e-mailed BG, asking for their calulations.

lgb2100

SwanJon wrote: »

Have you been providing regular readings to make sure their estimate is accurate?

Readings are submitted at the end of each month, sometimes during the month......

(I assume there is to be an increase in Electricity prices, by the ammount that they're planning to increase my payments)

SwanJon

grahamc2003 wrote: »

They probably work out the monthly payments so you pay about 1/12 of your estimate bill each month, with the proviso that you never get into a negative balance at any time.

As far as I am aware, this isn't the case for British Gas. Some suppliers have changed everyone's annual reassessment to the spring, which is close to the same thing, but I've not heard of British Gas doing the same (e.g. mine is November)

lgb2100 wrote: »

I assume there is to be an increase in Electricity prices, by the amount that they're planning to increase my payments

You see the bit earlier when I said the need to announce price increases to the stock exchange first - that includes programming the billing system with a price rise as all staff would then be able to see it. The increase is nothing to do with any unannounced future price rises.
Websaver 6's guarantee ends 1 May 2011, but you'll know that and have taken it into account.

You haven't answered if this is an annual review or an interim one. If it is an interim one the annual calculations are irrelevant.
If interim you need to do the same calculations but for 6 (winter) months. Is £172 enough for 2 winter bills? is £214 more realistic?

savemoney

Both my gas (£42) and electric (£48) have gone up a few quid each too. I expected it to be honest given the usage will increase. My electric doesn't alter much in Winter only difference is more lighting. My gas however does. Both accounts are in credit at present but gas wont for much longer given the impending Winter

lgb2100

received response from British Gas......

Your account has just gone through its mid year review and your new payments are needed cover your usage between now and May 2011. I've provided a full explanation below:

Each payment plan runs over approximately 12 months. At the end of the plan we expect your account balance to be as close to zero as possible, no debit or credit. Your current plan ends in May 2011 so you have 6 payments left to bring your account to a zero a balance.

Based on what you used between 31 October 2009 and 31 May 2010 of 2,062 kilowatt hour your expected bill (for this period) will be approximately £238.00.

If we deduct your current credit of £22.34 then divide the remaining amount (£215.66) by 6, a monthly direct debit of £36.00 is needed to cover your consumption However your payments have been set at the slightly lower amount of £32.00 instead.

My account should have gone through it's yearly review... (I moved to BG in Nov 2007) , and I had a mid-year review in May, in which BG wanted to reduce my payments to £21, which I got them to keep it at £25.

It's true I used 2062 kWH of electricity betwen 31 Oct 2009 and 31 May 2010, ( a seven month period), but unsure how they calculated the cost to be approximately £238.00 under Websaver 6 (Dual Fuel).



like savemoney, my electricty difference during the winter is a few more hours of lighting a week !

(My Gas is also in credit by a similar amount, but BG has retained my £25/month payment !)

lgb2100

Received a better response from BG......

I am sorry that you are unhappy with the increase in your electricity monthly payments.

Following your concerns I have reviewed your payment scheme again. The breakdown below shows how I have calculated your monthly payments.

Credit balance included: £22.34
Predicted annual usage: £281.32 (Inc VAT)
Instalments made on current payment scheme: £0.00

Remaining balance: £281.32
Remaining instalments: 12
New instalment amount: £23.00 approximately

Again, more accurate (I calculated £282.58 for my past years usage - see post #6), but unsure how they work out the monthly payment.

I would have thought it would be nearer £21.50 i.e. (Estimated usage-credit)/12

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However, I have instructed British Gas to keep my payments at £25 month, meaning I should hopefully be in credit by approx £40 this time next year, unless there's price increases.