British Gas - Huge DD jump ??

chriswuk_2

Hi guys,

I currently have duel fuel from BG (Gas & electric).

I got a letter last night saying that our direct debits were going up from £25 to £75 per month for electric only !!!!!!

I did give them a ring & they said it's due to our electricity use, but surely you cant use 3x as much electricity as previously used ????

We owe them £150, so I guess we were using more than £25 per months worth, but I cant see this being 3 times as much !

Is it best to switch suppliers or see how things go ?

Thanks

chriswuk_2

ps - were in credit for about £35 on the gas, which is also £25 per month

Cardew

Chris,
There have been dozens of threads like this if you do a search.

The DD has increased for two reasons.

Firstly because £25 does not cover your usage with the higher prices. That is assuming your last bill was not calculated on an over-estimated reading.

Secondly an element of the £75 will be going toward paying off the £150 you owe them.

When that debt is paid off your DD will reduce to reflect your consumption at the new prices.

If you are on Standard Dual fuel you are on one of the most expensive tariffs available. There are far cheaper tariffs available - even with BG. So I would certainly look to change tariff or utility company - but you might have a problem changing company unless you pay off you £150 first.

chriswuk_2

Just reading through those now........

Is it worth giving BG monthly readings ?

Cheers

culpepper

Ours went from about 55 pounds to 110 overnight and I switched immediately to another company. BG rang and asked why and when I told them I didnt like the 100% increase she said it was probably a mistake!!
Well the new company kept it to £55 right up until the increases about 3 months ago and then increased it to £71 so we are still better off than before the increases of this year if we had stuck with BG.

tripled

Prices have gone up considerably over the last year, so bear in mind your prices won't just go up to cover your usage at last years prices, it'll have to go up further to pay for the same amount of usage at the new higher prices and you debt gets loaded on top. Having said that, £75 seems a bit ott, I worked it out at around £60-65 you should be paying, and once your balance has been paid off it should drop a bit. Give bg a call and they should be able to adjust a bit for you.

Cardew

tripled wrote:

I worked it out at around £60-65 you should be paying, .

Could you tell us how you worked that out please?

tripled

The way I worked that out is as follows: If you were using £32 per month of elec in October 2005, taking into account BG price increases by October 06 you would be using £42.70 per month ele and would have used a total of £451. Add £12.50 p/m (to repay debt) to £42.70 and you get £55.20 going into a winter period.

I haven't taken into account seaon variations in those figures, however for most people it is likely slightly more electricity would be used in the winter months, therefore more electricity would have been used last winter at the cheaper tariff than when the spring price rise came in, skewing the figures downward slightly.

Of course if Chris is on a capped tariff... then my figures are pretty much meaningless.

Cardew

tripled wrote:

The way I worked that out is as follows: If you were using £32 per month of elec in October 2005, taking into account BG price increases by October 06 you would be using £42.70 per month ele and would have used a total of £451. Add £12.50 p/m (to repay debt) to £42.70 and you get £55.20 going into a winter period.

I haven't taken into account seaon variations in those figures, however for most people it is likely slightly more electricity would be used in the winter months, therefore more electricity would have been used last winter at the cheaper tariff than when the spring price rise came in, skewing the figures downward slightly.

Of course if Chris is on a capped tariff... then my figures are pretty much meaningless.

Sorry you have lost me!

Where did the £32 come from?
Where did the October 2005 come from?

All we know is the OP was paying £25 a month and he has run up a debt of £150, and they expect him to pay £75 a month for an undefined period.

We don't know how long it took him to run up that £150 debt.

We don't know his current consumption.

We don't know his tariff.

We don't know if any of his meter readings were estimated

We don't know the period BG have allowed for him to pay back his debit balance of £150(you have assumed 12 months to make it £12.50)

As far as I can see unless you have that information there is absolutely no way anyone can 'work out' an alternative payment.

Or have I got that wrong?

tripled

It is entirely on the basis that British Gas do a full reassessment of your direct debit every 12 months. As a result, October 2005 would be the date of his first payment last year and he would have used £450 of electricity over the last 12 months. The automatic reasessments also always calculate based on 12 months, so this would be the repayment term. Consumption and tariff are irrelevant as calculations are based on the total cost of energy used. So I used the limited information provided and combined it with a set of standard criteria to work out the payments. If Chris was on a capped tariff which does not follow the pattern of price increases, or there are special circumstances around his reassesment, then further information would be needed.

chriswuk_2

We did sign up for the price freeze thing a while back, but the guy on the phone said this wont be coming into affect for another few months, so were stuck paying the higher price til then !!