Britsh Gas £5 fine for late payments

digp

huh - and who is going to pass a law to allow them to do that?????/ seems bg are desperate for cash, hard times perhaps?

roger56

dc wrote:

Dependant on DD timing the bank charges could be zero OR more than the £5 for a lot of folks.

That is why I do not like any possible hefty DD's.

Perhaps I am a Control Freak, or not as rich as others???;)

Nor do I like giving BG a loan, which is usually what monthly fixed DD's involve.
After all this is MSE

People paying by DD are not affected, the article stated:

"The £5 fine will be levied on any customer who pays by cash or cheque and does not settle their account within 28 days."

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/bills/article.html?in_article_id=416179&in_page_id=510

Cardew

dc wrote:

Dependant on DD timing the bank charges could be zero OR more than the £5 for a lot of folks.

That is why I do not like any possible hefty DD's.

Perhaps I am a Control Freak, or not as rich as others???;)

Nor do I like giving BG a loan, which is usually what monthly fixed DD's involve.
After all this is MSE

Surely this 'fine' is only for those who pay(or rather don't pay) quarterly - so how is DD involved?

Secondly - re giving BG a loan -the Regulator has stated that all of the utility companies are owed far more than they owe; only to be expected when prices have been rising. Often it is their fault because they are so poor in reading meters and adjusting DD to a realistic level.

If you read on here there are loads of cases where customers have a debit balance of £hundreds and £thousands. They often get some of that debt written off and 2 years to pay off the debt.

markb31

i wonder if british gas have the same policy if they fail to repay money owing to customers.my dad is still waiting for his £55 after leaving them in august.they have used every excuse in the book to get out of it.

dc

dc wrote:

Dependant on DD timing the bank charges could be zero OR more than the £5 for a lot of folks.

Cardew and roger56 I think you mis-understood my post??
This was in reply to someone recommending the charge could be avoided by using DD. I was trying to show possible disadvantages of paying by DD (Quarterly)

As someone who doesnt like DDs I was pointing out that someone on DD could end up paying more than £5, if the DD was taken at an inconvenient time that resulted in ones current account becoming overdrawn. I realise that you must pay by Monthly( estimated)DD not Quarterly ( actual cost)DD and so are happy loaning money to BG. Or have I mised something.

masonic

dc wrote:

I realise that you must pay by Monthly( estimated)DD not Quarterly ( actual cost)DD and so are happy loaning money to BG. Or have I mised something.

False dilemma: you do not have to loan money to BG when you are on direct debit. Of course, Cardew has already pointed that out above, so yes, you have missed something.

tripled

dc wrote:

Cardew and roger56 I think you mis-understood my post??
This was in reply to someone recommending the charge could be avoided by using DD. I was trying to show possible disadvantages of paying by DD (Quarterly)

As someone who doesnt like DDs I was pointing out that someone on DD could end up paying more than £5, if the DD was taken at an inconvenient time that resulted in ones current account becoming overdrawn. I realise that you must pay by Monthly( estimated)DD not Quarterly ( actual cost)DD and so are happy loaning money to BG. Or have I mised something.

You can have a quarterly DD, it would always be taken 14 days after the bill date but you wouldn't get a dd discount.

Alternatively if you pay by monthly dd then you can choose which day of the month it comes out.

Personally I usually pay bills as they come in as I don't like direct debits, or I set up a monthly payment book if I don't think I could afford it in one go.