PAYG Gas - debt owed, not topped up for a while

fake_smile

Hi all, hope this is the right place.

When I first moved into my flat I was receiving quarterly gas bills from British Gas, after falling behind with payments it was suggested that I have a meter installed which I agreed to.

My debt was to be paid off via the meter at the minimum rate of £3.50 per week. This is steep but I could not get it lowered.

With the recent warm weather I have simply forgotten about topping up the gas because I haven't needed to (I forgot about the debt).

On Wednesday I topped up £8.00 which left me with 80p after clearing some debt and half of the emergency credit.

God knows how much I'm going to have to put in before I can actually heat the place up. Is it worth calling British Gas and asking if they can reset the meter? Is this even possible?

I have certainly learnt my lesson now and will be topping up at least £5.00 per week during the summer months in preperation for the winter.

Thank You

macman

As you say, the low usage summer period is when you should have been able to reduce your debt. Much harder now with the heating going on.

SwanJon

Don't think there's much that can be done to stop the meter doing this.

• The meter will only ever try to catch up by twice the weekly rate, and it will take this from the credit on the meter at 2am each morning.
• It will also look for this week's payment when you top up, along with any emergency credit you have used.
• And thirdly, it will look to catch up on the standing charge (or equivelant) that it has missed while out of credit or in emergency. You can see this by pressing the red button until it says OWED.

This third one will be the more immediate step to get the heating on. Once you get past it and until you catch up your meter will recover (£3.50x2 / 7=) £1 from the credit each morning.