What happens if your DD is too high?

daisiegg

Sorry if I come across as a bit dim - just not sure how this worked as haven't paid by DD before.

We're with British Gas for gas and electricity. We moved house in September into a large five bedroom house, but there are only two of us and we are both out at work all day and away two weekends a month. We don't have the radiators on in all of the rooms and the house is well-insulated.

We set up DD and our DD payments are 250 a month (sorry can't get pound sign to work). I know this is very high! I have been sending in regular metre readings and the last three bills, we have been over 90 in credit each time.

Does this mean our DDs are too high? particularly as it has been winter, and over Christmas we were both at home all day for 2 weeks solid, using lots of heating and electricity etc - yet we were STILL 90 in credit when the bill came!

I assume the DD was guesstimated on their assumption that we were a family of 5 or 6 living in this house, rather than just the two of us.

What happens if the DDs are too high? Is that something they will adjust at their end or do I need to bring it to their attention?

Thanks! sorry for being a numpty.

david39

It should be adjusted in the Spring settlement quarter - you will probably receive the money credited into your bank account to bring the account to zero.

They will then make an adjustment to reduce your DDs to a level more in tune with your consumption.
The initial DD level would be a guesstimate erring on the high side - it's easier to pay you back an overcharge, thereby making you feel happy, rather than ask fir a supplemental sum.

If it is proving a problem, if you talk to them, they will probably make an adjustment now, over the phone.

daisiegg

david39 wrote: »

It should be adjusted in the Spring settlement quarter - you will probably receive the money credited into your bank account to bring the account to zero.

They will then make an adjustment to reduce your DDs to a level more in tune with your consumption.
The initial DD level would be a guesstimate erring on the high side - it's easier to pay you back an overcharge, thereby making you feel happy, rather than ask fir a supplemental sum.

If it is proving a problem, if you talk to them, they will probably make an adjustment now, over the phone.

Thanks very much for a clear and helpful reply!

penrhyn

Its worth noting that if you register your British Gas accounts on line you have the facility to adjust the amount of your direct debit yourself.

daisiegg

penrhyn wrote: »

Its worth noting that if you register your British Gas accounts on line you have the facility to adjust the amount of your direct debit yourself.

Oh, really? I do manage my account online (paperless billing etc) but have never seen an option to do this ...have to go and investigate!

penrhyn

Log on to your electricity or gas account, then click on

daisiegg

Thanks! Have done it, have reduced DD to 200 a month. Also had the option to get a refund of the credit - but I think I'll leave it there for a couple of months just as a buffer. My DD won't be reviewed by them until August.

penrhyn

Happy to help, I recently dropped mine for gas as the mild winter meant I was building up a high credit balance. Good to see BG providing some useful online tools.

rogerblack

daisiegg wrote: »

We set up DD and our DD payments are 250 a month (sorry can't get pound sign to work). I know this is very high! I have been sending in regular metre readings and the last three bills, we have been over 90 in credit each time.

What do you mean by this?
Do you mean that your total credit balance was 90 pounds?
If you do, then this is the period when your demand will be highest, and if anything you should be _increasing_ your DD payment, as 90 pounds credit will not cover your winter fuel, especially when you reduce your DD by 50 pounds as you later say.

If you mean that you were building up credit by 90 pounds, then again, you need to check your actual and estimated meter readings, it's quite possible that this credit has dramatically reduced due to the colder weather this year so far, and may be considerably in debit by the time the warm comes around again.

Again, you shouldn't reduce your DD.

What is the estimated vs real reading at the moment?

daisiegg

rogerblack wrote: »

What do you mean by this?
Do you mean that your total credit balance was 90 pounds?
If you do, then this is the period when your demand will be highest, and if anything you should be _increasing_ your DD payment, as 90 pounds credit will not cover your winter fuel, especially when you reduce your DD by 50 pounds as you later say.

If you mean that you were building up credit by 90 pounds, then again, you need to check your actual and estimated meter readings, it's quite possible that this credit has dramatically reduced due to the colder weather this year so far, and may be considerably in debit by the time the warm comes around again.

Again, you shouldn't reduce your DD.

What is the estimated vs real reading at the moment?

Estimated is way higher than real readings. As I mentioned, we are 2 people living in a 5 bedroom house so presumably they are assuming we'd use much more fuel than we do. Both of our last bills have been initially done on estimated readings, and have then been adjusted when we sent in real readings (I did this because I wanted to see what they'd estimate) - the difference was huge - with their estimations we would have OWED 157 on our last bill (in addition to our DD of 250), and when I gave the readings that changed to being 90 in credit (owing nothing, and having 90 that we can actually claim as a refund to our bank account if we want).

I don't understand what you are saying - we are paying 250 a month, and each month so far this has been 90 more than we have actually used, even through November and December which theoretically will be some of the worst months (if only through being in the house - we were both off work through a lot of December and had guests). Surely, in a couple of months when the weather warms up, if we're still paying 250 a month we will be overpaying by even more than 90 per month?

Anyway, on the BG website, in the 'manage your DD' section, it calculated that we will be owed 400 at the end of our DD cycle (August) and it recommended that we should reduce the DD, and should also claim a refund now of 90. I chose to reduce the DD but did not claim the refund as I thought it would be good to leave it there as a buffer.

rogerblack

daisiegg wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying - we are paying 250 a month, and each month so far this has been 90 more than we have actually used, even through November and December which theoretically will be some of the worst months

Your initial question I read as you might have only had 90 credit in total. If you're building up 90 quid a month, then yes, reducing it is a good idea.