British Gas Reviews: Give your feedback

RL11

If the tariff is the same and your usage is the same, the only explanation is that british gas have miscalculated the quarterly (or monthly) DD amount. e.g. If your annual bill is £1200, your cost will be £100 per month or £300 per quarter. If not, british gas are taking the wrong amount, so you will end up with a debit or credit balance at the end of the year. If they don't take enough, it's not cheaper. If they take too much it's not more expensive. At some point the balance will need to be corrected.

victor2

swaledale_one said:

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.

So, if you could switch to paying annually, rather than quarterly, you'd save even more?!

Get real. If you use £1200 worth of energy over 12 months, that is what you'll have to pay for it, be it £100 per month, £300 per quarter or £1200 per year. The only benefit might be in your cash flow, since BG bill you after you've used the energy

swaledale_one

Talldave said:

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. 

I phoned bg and said I wanted to pay quarterly variable dd instead of monthly and they changed it for me...as for tariffs I've been getting them from mse and they have been pretty good I know bg is more expensive and there are cheaper out there but I wanted the new smart meters which only they were installing at the time....ps if you do know your stuff why are their regional differences on the same tariff? It's always bugged me that's all

Gerry1

swaledale_one said:

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?

Your calculation is wrong.  Your fixed monthly payment is merely a contribution to a kitty, the contents of which may or may not keep up with paying your bills.  Any company can set the DD too low to attract punters, but sooner or later it will have to increase by a double whammy, firstly to pay its way and secondly to start clawing back the arrears that have built up.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay

It's amazing how many Forumites can't get their heads around this, they go for someone who promises £10 per month and then wonder why they end up with a much higher DD or a big lump sum to pay when they leave.

Gizasmum

swaledale_one said:

... 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? 

OK. Whenever you switch tariff or receive your 6-monthly Direct Debit review, your DD is adjusted as appropriate by British Gas. The change you made (from monthly to quarterly DD) would likely be the reason your payment changed. All payment reviews are based on actual usage, plus any credit built up, and forecast usage (based on past usage). If you are not paying enough or paying too much then the 6-monthly reviews will ascertain this and BG advise you of this, as well as details of your new payment schedule. This would also be the time that if your account was in credit above the BG £50 threshold, then any excess credit would be returned to your bank account. Therefore, you won't be actually "saving" any money, you'll just be paying what you are supposed to, based on your new forecast usage. BTW Your friend was still talking mince. 🙂

swaledale_one

RL11 said:

If the tariff is the same and your usage is the same, the only explanation is that british gas have miscalculated the quarterly (or monthly) DD amount. e.g. If your annual bill is £1200, your cost will be £100 per month or £300 per quarter. If not, british gas are taking the wrong amount, so you will end up with a debit or credit balance at the end of the year. If they don't take enough, it's not cheaper. If they take too much it's not more expensive. At some point the balance will need to be corrected.

That actually happened to me when I was with flow my estimated usage was way over so the dds put me in massive credit then I complained and they lowered it and I ended up in debit..this is not the case with bg I'm actually only paying for what I've used and each time I've paid my dd my balance has always been zero afterwards. Again it may just be because my dd is no longer an estimate of usage but is the bill from actual usage.

Talldave

And your friend that told you paying quarterly saves you money was talking rubbish. We got there in the end!

swaledale_one

Talldave said:

And your friend that told you paying quarterly saves you money was talking rubbish. We got there in the end!

Lmao kinda but hes not actually completely wrong really tho is he as I'm now paying less money due to only paying for what I've actually used and not an estimated usage which happens on monthly dd's. And instead of paying monthly Ive been putting the money in the marcus an gaining a teeny bit of interest inbetween the bills lol

Talldave

I'm on monthly DDs and pay for what I use, a month in arrears. Better from a friend would have been to check how much you could save by changing supplier. What rates are you paying?

MWT

swaledale_one said:

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.

Well, I guess we both know that isn't going to be happening...