British Gas DD Increase...

ironman1

Just wondering if anyone could help here.

This month we almost went overdrawn in our joint account as British Gas increased our Gas DD payment from £10pm to £25pm without letting us know online or in the post.

We did get a message on the BG site saying our Electric would increase from £8pm to £18pm but definitely nothing about Gas.

Are they allowed to do this without warning?

Before anyone mentions it, I realise our DD's are/were very low. Why this is I don't know, I have even asked them about it but they said it was right. We give meter readings etc.

We were £1.90 in debit this month on Gas (usually a few quid in credit) would this be the reason for a big, unexpected increase?

Thanks

Cardew

No they are certainly not allowed to increase your DD without notice. Under the terms of your DD agreement your bank will refund any extra paid(without reference to BG - solely on your word) and if the increase had caused overdraft charges, BG would pay.

That said the notification of an increase can be at the bottom of your bill, and not in a message, and is easily missed.

silverjay

Written notice should be given in some form. However, with British Gas it can take at least 3 weeks for something to be delivered to you by post from the date of issue. BG Customer Services advised me to allow at least 10 days for letters to be delivered.

ironman1

To be honest it didn't take us overdrawn but where money is tight as I haven't been paid since starting my new job and a baby on the way it is another increase we don't need. I have re-read the message regarding our electric DD going up but there is no mention of gas.

Cardew

ironman1 wrote: »

To be honest it didn't take us overdrawn but where money is tight as I haven't been paid since starting my new job and a baby on the way it is another increase we don't need. I have re-read the message regarding our electric DD going up but there is no mention of gas.

Have you looked carefully at your last gas bill?

ironman1

My mistake-

"We regularly check you are paying the correct amount to cover the energy you are using.

We've found that your payments will need to change from £10.00 to £25.00 from 01 February 2011 ."

That was on my last online bill. The reason I never noticed it was because with the Electric DD increase they actually sent an email and message about it. But they have let me know so I can't complain.

Bit of a pricey increase though. Wonder if switching would be an idea, mainly for cashback.

macman

It's not just a price increase-your usage has presumably shot up in the last qtr, so you're now in debt and they need to raise your DD to recover that debt and allow for future consumption.
Switching is always a good idea, checking on a comp site takes only a few minutes.
You didn't say what tariff you are on currently.

ironman1

I am on Websaver 5 tariff. Who would you recommend switching to?

macman

Whoever is cheapest? Use a comp site. There's no overall 'cheapest'-if there was we would all use them.

TwittersPVFC

macman wrote: »

Whoever is cheapest? Use a comp site. There's no overall 'cheapest'-if there was we would all use them.

I'd disagree with that. Cheapest isn't always best. The cheapest tend to be NPower or First:Utility but I'd never touch those with a bargepole because of their shoddy customer service.

macman

Agree with your comment on FU, my point was that it's not possible to give 'overall' recommendations, because prices vary from are to area and depend on consumption etc. The OP needs to see what the best tariffs are and then make an informed choice based on that.