British Gas - In credit £107 - Refund with a catch

jalexa

pimento wrote: »

My review date is in August.

If I'm consistantly in credit, surely my DD is too high!

I'll wait for the review and report back.

Sorry, I didn't explain very well. At the review date (or at any interim review) the objective is a zero balance at the next review date, either by refund and/or adjustment of the direct debit.

The only way to stop this continual cycle of credit/refund is to have a full refund (at the review date) but have the DD payment set to cover anticipated costs taking account of annual consumption and currently announced prices by the next review date. It is fully possible to have an accurate calculation and assumptions (up to you to insist), however winter weather cannot always be accurately predicted.

And an aside for the benefit of others, the calculations don't include bonus or deferred discount that will be earned before the next review date. A sneaky little earner for the company.

pimento

It's British Gas who decide the level of DD though, isn't it?

I had this with my water company. They wanted to up my monthly DD and wouldn't lower it, so I went payment by bill. I would have been massively in credit if they had set the DD amount.

£34 a month for electricty is scandalous!

moonrakerz

pimento wrote: »

It irks me to give them extra money though. I wish I could just go back to the old days of receiving a bill every quarter and paying it.

Your logic is somewhat flawed - you seem to want your cake and eat it.

If you want to pay quarterly you can - but it will cost you more because, in effect, they are lending you the electricity/gas interest free until the bill is raised.
Tesco don't let you buy for free then settle up after 3 months - why should an energy supplier ? They all have bills to pay in the meantime too.

DD is the most equitable way of doing it, but you still complain that they won't give you back the amount you are in credit, OK, suppose they do give it back - I can already hear you complaining when, in January, they ask you for the £200 that your account is in debit !

jalexa

pimento wrote: »

...It's British Gas who decide the level of DD though, isn't it?

Decide? Maybe, but it is up to you to scrutinise the calculations and/or the assumptions. Not easy I accept, but if you can prove any error then if they won't budge, complain. Equally the calculations and assumptions might be correct.

But you cannot argue anything without having the calculations and assumptions in front of you. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by excercising a little customer muscle.

pimento

moonrakerz wrote: »

I can already hear you complaining when, in January, they ask you for the £200 that your account is in debit !

Nope. You wouldn't.

pimento

moonrakerz wrote: »

If you want to pay quarterly you can - but it will cost you more because, in effect, they are lending you the electricity/gas interest free until the bill is raised.
Tesco don't let you buy for free then settle up after 3 months - why should an energy supplier ? They all have bills to pay in the meantime too.

My phone supplier manages to bill me monthly.

I give monthly meter readings for my gas and electricity. If they billed me monthly on a variable DD I'd then only be one month in arrears. You're not trying to tell me that BG don't have the cash flow to lend me a month's gas and electric, are you?

jalexa

pimento wrote: »

I give monthly meter readings for my gas and electricity. If they billed me monthly on a variable DD I'd then only be one month in arrears.

In that case you should go for a monthly billing tariff. They are available. I think BG do one.

The big downside is that energy consumption is highly seasonal. But if that is what you want just before or after Christmas go for it.

unsure

We are with npower. Every year they suggest a new higher dd payment and evey year we question it and agree a compromise figure close to the existing one. This year they suggested a huge increase based on actual usage...then I pointed out that we had just had the coldest winter in 40 years and that was hardly a fair base line. They agreed and let us stick with original payment. Then they came back voluntarily and said they would refund us £277 left in credit in the account. Then they said that on the basis of this year's usage they would be happy to drop the dd by £20 a month. We fixed a new contract at that level.
npower often get a bad press but I think they've been very reasonable and easy to deal with over this issue, even if they did start by trying it on. Might be worth pointing out to BG that other suppliers do allow refunds without raising dd so and you may be looking to switch when then opportunity arises if they don't reconsider.

pimento

jalexa wrote: »

In that case you should go for a monthly billing tariff. They are available. I think BG do one.

The big downside is that energy consumption is highly seasonal. But if that is what you want just before or after Christmas go for it.

I might look into that, thanks.

We're very low users (I'm tight and even tighter now I have a smart monitor...;) ) I pay £34 for electric and £37 for gas. I still think that's too much but from what I read it's not bad.

TIMMY85

If you are on onlinesaver then get energysmart and pay by monthly variable dd as you will automatically get a monthly bill. If you are on websaver then email or phone and ask for a bill to be produced as often as you want - if you have a variable direct debit then each bill will be collected 14 days after the bill is generated. You need to ask for a bill though as submitting the reading in the website will not generate a bill.