Refused Credit Card thanks to British Gas

lwsshaw

To my shock I was recently refused a Virgin Credit Card. I had no idea why because me and my wife pay all our bills on time and always have!! I activated an account with a Credit Ratings Agency and to my horror British gas had been penalizing my credit score for two years since we left them early 2010. :mad: Supposedly when we switched supplier there was an outstanding bill of £53 that would of been taken out of our current account via direct debit but we cancelled this as we thought we had settled our debts.

Instead of contacting us for the outstanding amount they have just been penalizing my credit rating for 2 years without any kind of contact!!!

Last week I payed the outstanding amount but British Gas are refusing to wipe the negative scores off my rating? They are saying because we were no longer with them they didnt bother to contact me? However they still have felt the need to penalize my credit score?

Has anyone got any advice as British Gas are being rather smug about the whole thing and are refusing to wipe my score?

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

We were with British Gas and I discovered that the sneakily began to report our gas bill to Experian. In fact if you search the forums you will find a thread on it as a lot of people were unhappy that they had started doing that.

On discovering this we move from British Gas for that reason and told them so. I also demanded that the entry was removed as I had given no permission or received any notice that they were doing this. I also told them that it was not a regulated credit agreement and the entry open to billing errors and had no place on a credit file.

I would never touch BG with a barge pole now. Their decision to invade people's credit files came as a shock to a few people:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?235128

duggie1982

As far as i'm aware - is gas/electric not credit??

You will probably see that this happens with credit and i'm sure this will be said on T&C's

P.S. They have been reporting for a number of years on mine

guesswho2000

duggie1982 wrote: »

As far as i'm aware - is gas/electric not credit??

You will probably see that this happens with credit and i'm sure this will be said on T&C's

P.S. They have been reporting for a number of years on mine

Yes, completely agree, it is credit and they've been reporting my gas/elec accounts since day one - something I have no problem with.

I think the issue is that they're the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to reporting to CRAs.

That's not to say anyone who is repeatedly missing payments shouldn't have this information disclosed, but I must admit I'd be in the OPs position if they hadn't bothered to contact me but had been reporting negative data for two years. I think a little common sense from BG should be shown here.

Unfortunately, as I'm still with BG I can't give any more useful advice, but I'll keep watching this thread, as I'm planning a switch (I inherited BG from the previous owners).

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

How do they report the bill if it says "The Occupier"?? Our water bills say that.

callum9999

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

How do they report the bill if it says "The Occupier"?? Our water bills say that.

Well that's rather unusual. Virtually everyone will be getting a bill in their names from gas/electric/water etc.

amyloofoo

This has come as a surprise to me too. To be honest OP, I would be very surprised if they agreed to remove the negatives from your credit report. I agree that they should have contacted you but as far as they're concerned, they're just receiving a very late payment and probably won't see the point in reporting it as anything else.

happy_bunny_2

Why not send them a complaint then refer to the ombudsman if they decline? Cost you a bit of time and a few stamps.

You should argue that they made no effort to recover the money owed when your direct debit was cancelled, which could be seen as unreasonable.

What did they put on your report, a default?

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I find it hilarious. My Mum and Dad are with British Gas and no doubt are being "reported" on to the CRA's yet their Direct Debit bills are always massively in favour of British Gas. Ergo British Gas owe them. Therefore my parents are unsecured creditors of British Gas so how do they "report" British Gas to the CRA's?

chanz4

Gas and electric are service agreements, BG have had the cra clause in for a while.

izools

Yeah BG are well within their rights to report to credit reference agencies much the same as mobile phone suppliers can.

No, you don't have a credit agreement with them and they aren't a licensed creditor but then they don't profess to be - they don't classify the account as a credit agreement on your credit files - they classify it as a "Utility account".

I undersant OP's plight. My mother was with BG for two years and has now moved to EDF. She was advised by BG that her account was in credit and that she was to cancel the DD, which she duly did.

Problem is that although the final meter readings left her account in credit the final bill hadn't taken this in to account so her account now shows up on Experian and CC as being one month in arrears.

They have ignored a notice of dispute from Experian and are refusing to take responsibility for the fact this bill was only unpaid (or rather paid late) due to incorrect advice given by their staff.

We'll take it further once we return from a trip abroad as this is the only blemish on her credit file and obviously it might cause her credit card companies (who she has astonishingly good rates with) to get uncomfortable and raise her APRs.