BG increase in DD - anyone had similar problems??

Mrs_JM

I have today received a new bill from BG for gas only. Due to the cold weather before and over xmas, having been in credit for quite a while, I have now obviously gone into debit. I pay by DD and have been paying £29.00 a month for at least the last 6 months. Before that it was £57.00. My latest bill has increased these to £85.00 which by my calculation is an increase of £56.00 per month!!! I rang BG this morning to tell them that there was no way I could afford that but they only reduced it down to £76.00 which I still can't afford. The girl that I spoke to said that no one else was able to decrease it by anymore so I told her I would ring the complaints department which I'm going to do tomorrow. Just wondered if anyone else had had a similar problem and whether they managed to get their DD reduced any more and/or if anyone had any tips to try and get it reduced.

Thanks

Cardew

This comes up a lot.

BG aim to have your account in balance by Spring.

If you are in debit now, you still have some cold months to go and together with what you need to pay to cover consumption(at new prices?) in these cold months, £76 will not pay back much of your debt.

If you can convince BG with a logical argument that their increase is unjustified, they will reduce your DD; but 'I can't afford it' will not cut much ice.

Poppycat

The only way you can reduce you payments is cut down consumption. I dont wish to be rude but if you are in debt and as said above your consumption is high as it is in Winter you will only get into bigger debt unless you cut down. BG aren't a charity therefore in order to reduce payment you need to cut down if you cant afford to pay. Have you considered a social tariff where you may get billed monthly

Joyful

BG want you to break even at the end of your 12 month payment plan ( whenever that is). Check what you expect to use between now and then and add the outstanding balance to it. Then divide it till the date your plan ends. See if this figure then stacks up to BG's.

macman

And take regular meter readings (at least once a quarter) and supply them so that your DD tracks your actual usage more closely.

PollyFlinders_3

I cant remember if it was BG or E.On that told me it was their policy to increase DDs to ensure any arrears were paid off within 3 months. This might explain why the increase was so steep this time.

As previous posters have suggested, you have used the energy so you do have to pay for it. Is there any way you could offer them either some or all of the arrears in a lump sum payment, which would enable them to reduce your future monthly payments? Or ask them for longer to pay back? In the meantime, go on a real economy drive round the house, and only have on the appliances/heating you absolutely need, to ensure future bills are lower (and you are therefore paying back more of the arrears each month). Good luck

deshepherd

Joyful wrote: »

BG want you to break even at the end of your 12 month payment plan ( whenever that is). Check what you expect to use between now and then and add the outstanding balance to it. Then divide it till the date your plan ends. See if this figure then stacks up to BG's.

One problem however is that despite the companies seemingly being able to estimate how much gas you are going to use over a period of time it seems they don't adjust DDs to the "correct" value until your are already in debt .... from the amounts quoted here I suspect that it should have been obvious last spring that £29/month was not going to cover a years usage and that an increase of £14/month to £43/month would have covered the bill to the end of the year. However, it seems a little devious to me that the companies wait until the last moment to increase the DD so its done at a time when you owe more than £100 so that they can block a transfer.

penrhyn

Similar experience here, have been on Websaver 8 since last August, latest bill shows a debit of around £25, but they wanted to increase the dd by 20%, had a chat and reduced it to a 10% increase.
This is broadly in line with my own estimate for the next 12 months so I'm fairly happy.
Apparently they do 6 monthly reviews atm.

I make a point of submitting readings once a month, whether BG want them or not.

Mrs_JM

Thanks for your replies. Have spoken to a very nice man in the complaints department this evening and have agreed to pay £50 per month and have it assessed in a few months time so am quite happy now!

spiro

Mrs_JM wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. Have spoken to a very nice man in the complaints department this evening and have agreed to pay £50 per month and have it assessed in a few months time so am quite happy now!

You didn't say how much you latest statement showed you where in debt or how much the bill was as this will always allow people to confirm/deny if the DD increase seems right. The problem with them only upping it to £50 is that unless your consumption goes down you may find they have to put it up higher in a couple of months.

The problem is suppliers to a degree and between a rock and a hard place, they want to keep DDs low to keep customers happy/loyal so they lower them when they can but it appears to often that they lower it too much so then people are caught out by a large jump in DDs. Personally if they were could to cut mine by £28 (50%) I would have only cut it by £14 (25%) and claimed any credit back later. That way I would avoid the nasty jump later on.

MermaidSlur

I've had the same. My Websaver 6 account began when I moved into my flat last year. (Moved in beginning of March - my account was active from mid April) Have been paying £38 per month since then and have been in credit each quarter (after submitting my meter readings when required)

I fully expected to owe some money having used more energy over the winter months. However the debits have gone up to £70 per month! It says on my bill that my tariff ends in May so I can see why it's increased to that amount to pay off what I (supposedly) owe to them which according to it is almost £300!

The thing I'm having trouble with is that I live on my own in a small one bed flat, limit my gas usage to between 4 and 6 hours a day no matter what the temperature is, my temperature settings on the boiler are nowhere close to being up full and I also spend at least 3 nights a week at my partners (often more) when all my timers etc get switched off completely.

I have no idea how it's come to £316's worth of gas in 3 months considering all this when others I've spoken to have had their central heating on all day long at some points during the winter to heat a whole 3 bedroomed house with a small family occupying it.

I am going to enquire about getting someone to come and check that my meter is working properly and to see if it's even the right one for my flat and that I'm not paying for my whole building's usage too! (3 flats) My paper bill also states that my last bill was estimated when in fact it was read by both me and the meter reader. (I was e mailed to remind me so I submitted it then the next day the meter reader came to read it himself)