British Gas Pay-As-You-Go meter questions

DebtHater

Hi all,

A prepayment meter has been in our flat since we moved here, I assume previous tenants weren't paying the bills, due to the amount of debt letters that have been received over the past year.

Anyways, it was on N Power, we requested a switch to British Gas because they do the home-topup scheme, so I can top up from my PC.

Just had a letter today saying that the prices are rising on average by 16% and would I like to fix my energy for the next two years at a 16% prise rise plus 5% premium.

I telephoned BG about changing to a standard meter and then going onto a Direct Debit scheme to save a few £, they came back to me and said they would only change the meter if I paid a £550 deposit, returnable after 12 months bills have been paid in full.
I have been on direct debit schemes with other providers before, never had any issues, but BG want £550 otherwise we have to stay as a prepayment.

So my queries are;

1) Is there a way of approaching another provider and asking them to take us as a standard customer, or will they insist they take us as a prepayment customer?
2) Would it be better to stay with BG and just live with it?
3) If it is better to stay with BG, would it be a wise move to fix our prices for the next two years? This is at a cost of 5%

Any advice would be gratefully received :rotfl:

DebtHater

Can anyone help?

macman

The deposit is due to the bad record of debt/default at the property, not a lot you can do about that except try another supplier. At least they didn't ask you to pay for the meter change, which some will.

Joyful

The deposit is not due to the property or previous tenants debt. It is based on a personal credit vet of the new tenant. If you have been asked for this returnable security deposit you must have failed the Credit Vet. This may mean you also fail a check from other providers.

Airmike23

Who were you supplied by before you moved into current property, if good credit history with that power co, i.e not in debt on bills each quarter, then I would imagine they would do it for free, sse will often do the meter exchange without charge, but there may be other t+c's attached to that with no up front cost.

bengasman

BG has a long history of overcharging and misleading customers ( BG have more convictions than any other energy supplier in the country iirc ), so by no means should you believe all they tell you.

Contact the ombudsman and/or similar organisations; with a BG pre pay meter, you are paying an absolute rip off price per kWh. Compare the BG price per kWh ( comparing unit price in kWh is one of the few ways that can not be manipulated ) with other suppliers on normal meters. ( get ready for a shock )
Bad idea to move to BG in the first place, but that is a different matter.

Grendel90

bengasman wrote: »

BG have more convictions than any other energy supplier in the country iirc

I keep seeing you say this. What proof do you have? Or is this just conjecture on your part. If you keep saying it you must be able to back this up with proof.

bengasman

Grendel90 wrote: »

I keep seeing you say this. What proof do you have? .

Publicly available ASA data.
I just googled "asa complaints british gas" and got 274,000 returns.

Joyful

Just for fun I googled asa complaints Eon and got 683,000 returns! What nonsense but I remember your word was convictions. Perhaps you should look up the meaning of that word.

bengasman

Joyful wrote: »

... I remember your word was convictions. Perhaps you should look up the meaning of that word.

ASA have found BG/Centrica guilty of misleading the public more than any other gascompany in the country. About prices, about service, about emissions, about numbers, about........ you name it.
Call it what you want: I call it: GUILTY!

eurmalian

I went through the ASA convictions online when I saw you post this on a previous threrad. Yes, BG do have more, but a fair chunk of those are for the Homecare, which a lot of the other suppliers don't do. Saying 'don't use this supplier, because a completely different and unconnected part of the business isn't very good' doesn't make much sense, so lets filter them out. Lets also filter out the complaints that weren't upheld as they don't mean anything.

If you compare just on upheld energy complaints over the last 5 years then British Gas are equal with another supplier (I think it was npower, but I wouldn't swear it) and only one or two more than most of the rest (with a total of somewhere arround 10). Not exactly this all conclusive, terrible thing that you keep going on about, is it.

We all understand that you don't like BG, but why don't you try to persuade people by using your experiences (assuming that's the reason for your dislike) instead of massively misrepresenting figures and trying to mislead people (which is exactly what you accuse British Gas of after all).