British Gas Reviews: Give your feedback

AWB70

Was with Tonik but switched to BGX, I have first Gen smart meters which were originally installed by BG so I thought it would be pretty seamless. They switched over my electric but not my Gas for some reason which was scheduled for 2nd May according to BGX site. According to Tonik, Gas is still with them and according to BGX the Gas is with them! Still paying DD's at the full amount with Tonik so I'm massively in credit with them and now BGX is taking payment. Managed to get in touch with Tonik who said they would cancel the DD but they haven't and can't get in touch with BGX at all, they only use an online chat tool for communication and no one has answered it for two months.

Ironically Tonik have came up with a better deal than BGX during my switch period but I can't cancel and sign up for that either because their web site isn't functioning properly and according to their system the switch is still underway. Rock and a hard place.

Karenh2105

Wouldn't recommend British Gas X. I requested a move to them from Octopus. They switched over my electricity when I queried with them on their live chat a week later why my gas hadn't moved over they advised they couldn't take it over as I am on an IGT line (from google I think this is pretty common in new build housing estates where I stay). At no point during the transfer had they advised me of this and had they done so I would have cancelled the transfer I didn't want to move just my electricity alone to a new supplier I wanted duel fuel. They have managed to revert my electricity supply back to my previous supplier under the erroneous transfer option thankfully. I have also logged a complaint with them. 

swaledale_one

So far BG have been great, I switched over to get the latest version smart meter that is now the new standard they got fitted within 3mths of joining...now on my 3rd switch with them but have now noticed the new deals on mse no longer include existing BG customers which is abit rubbish...each time I have switched to the better deal it has been seamless other than having to pay the outstanding balance prior to new tariff ie in the middle of the quarter dd I had to pay then the quarter dd restarted from that day.   Since starting quarter dd I've also seen a large saving as opposed to paying monthly.

Talldave

swaledale_one said:

So far BG have been great, I switched over to get the latest version smart meter that is now the new standard they got fitted within 3mths of joining...now on my 3rd switch with them but have now noticed the new deals on mse no longer include existing BG customers which is abit rubbish...each time I have switched to the better deal it has been seamless other than having to pay the outstanding balance prior to new tariff ie in the middle of the quarter dd I had to pay then the quarter dd restarted from that day.   Since starting quarter dd I've also seen a large saving as opposed to paying monthly.

How does paying quarterly save you money? It's the standing charges and unit rates that determine the cost and hence the savings?

swaledale_one

Talldave said:

swaledale_one said:

So far BG have been great, I switched over to get the latest version smart meter that is now the new standard they got fitted within 3mths of joining...now on my 3rd switch with them but have now noticed the new deals on mse no longer include existing BG customers which is abit rubbish...each time I have switched to the better deal it has been seamless other than having to pay the outstanding balance prior to new tariff ie in the middle of the quarter dd I had to pay then the quarter dd restarted from that day.   Since starting quarter dd I've also seen a large saving as opposed to paying monthly.

How does paying quarterly save you money? It's the standing charges and unit rates that determine the cost and hence the savings?

Everything you said is indeed correct however since switching to quarterly dd's I am paying less per month,  a friend of mine who is unbelievably money savvy told me about it and for years I never believed him.....I do now....on average i used to pay £75 per month then went to quarterly and it went down to £65 that was with no tariff change no lifestyle change etc now with a couple switches under my belt I'm now averaging £50 per month with some lifestyle changes.

MWT

swaledale_one said:

Everything you said is indeed correct however since switching to quarterly dd's I am paying less per month,  a friend of mine who is unbelievably money savvy told me about it and for years I never believed him.....I do now...

Please do not take any investment advice from that same friend

This is entirely bogus, you could set your DD to £10 a month but it wouldn't mean that you were saving money...

The bill for your energy consumption is entirely related to the tariff, and the DD is just a way to accumulate money to pay the bills.

If the tariff for quarterly payments is cheaper than the one you were previously on then yes, you will save money, but that is down to the tariff being different, not the quarterly payments...

Gizasmum

swaledale_one said:

...each time I have switched to the better deal... Since starting quarter dd I've also seen a large saving as opposed to paying monthly.

And there's your answer. You switched to get a better deal and therefore your quarterly payment reduced. If you chose to move to a monthly payment it would also have reduced. You don't save anything by paying quarterly DD unless you have a tariff that gives you a better rate for doing this. I strongly suspect that is not the case, since companies want to be paid often not less frequently to help spread their cash flow out. Paying monthly @£10 is exactly the same as quarterly @£30. Please explain the saving there. I'd be very wary of taking any financial advice from your very much mistaken friend, especially if he tries to sell you some magic beans. 

Talldave

swaledale_one said:

Talldave said:

swaledale_one said:

So far BG have been great, I switched over to get the latest version smart meter that is now the new standard they got fitted within 3mths of joining...now on my 3rd switch with them but have now noticed the new deals on mse no longer include existing BG customers which is abit rubbish...each time I have switched to the better deal it has been seamless other than having to pay the outstanding balance prior to new tariff ie in the middle of the quarter dd I had to pay then the quarter dd restarted from that day.   Since starting quarter dd I've also seen a large saving as opposed to paying monthly.

How does paying quarterly save you money? It's the standing charges and unit rates that determine the cost and hence the savings?

Everything you said is indeed correct however since switching to quarterly dd's I am paying less per month,  a friend of mine who is unbelievably money savvy told me about it and for years I never believed him.....I do now....on average i used to pay £75 per month then went to quarterly and it went down to £65 that was with no tariff change no lifestyle change etc now with a couple switches under my belt I'm now averaging £50 per month with some lifestyle changes.

If the tariff doesn't change and consumption doesn't change, then the cost remains the same. If you're paying less, you're simply running up a debt. It's simple maths.

That said, how did you switch to quarterly DD without a change of tariff?  It would be interesting to know your unit rates and standing charges, before and after the switch to quarterly DD. We could probably save you money (that's actual savings, not just paying less) by finding a cheaper monthly DD tariff. 

swaledale_one

MWT said:

swaledale_one said:

Everything you said is indeed correct however since switching to quarterly dd's I am paying less per month,  a friend of mine who is unbelievably money savvy told me about it and for years I never believed him.....I do now...

Please do not take any investment advice from that same friend

This is entirely bogus, you could set your DD to £10 a month but it wouldn't mean that you were saving money...

The bill for your energy consumption is entirely related to the tariff, and the DD is just a way to accumulate money to pay the bills.

If the tariff for quarterly payments is cheaper than the one you were previously on then yes, you will save money, but that is down to the tariff being different, not the quarterly payments...

Incorrect I was paying bg monthly then switched to quarterly and started paying less per month as I said then I switched and saved more and then switched again and saving even more...I suggest instead of rubbishing what I've said try for yourself and i truly believe you will be back and confirm what I've said...paying quarterly dd does for some reason bring your bill down.

swaledale_one

Gizasmum said:

swaledale_one said:

...each time I have switched to the better deal... Since starting quarter dd I've also seen a large saving as opposed to paying monthly.

And there's your answer. You switched to get a better deal and therefore your quarterly payment reduced. If you chose to move to a monthly payment it would also have reduced. You don't save anything by paying quarterly DD unless you have a tariff that gives you a better rate for doing this. I strongly suspect that is not the case, since companies want to be paid often not less frequently to help spread their cash flow out. Paying monthly @£10 is exactly the same as quarterly @£30. Please explain the saving there. I'd be very wary of taking any financial advice from your very much mistaken friend, especially if he tries to sell you some magic beans. 

So when I was dd monthly I was paying  £75 per month I then switched to quarterly and it went down to £195 on my first full quarter and subsequently continued to be there or there abouts which is basically £65 per month so my limited mathematical brain believes thats a saving of £10 a month is this calculation wrong? And no I didn't switch tariff .
Unless the savings been caused due to the quarterly dd being the actual usage as opposed to maybes the original monthly dds were potentially estimated usage?