Hidden Costs?

littleoldlady

Anyone else been told that British Gas are doing away with the paperless billing subsidy and that the direct debit discount will now only apply to units of electricity and gas used and not to the standing charges.

I think I have got this right but the email they sent me was not very clear and seemed to focus mainly on telling me that if I cancelled the direct debit they would not allow me the discount (which seems obvious).

Am I having a senior moment or is this another way of sneakily putting up prices on top of the headline amounts?

insanegloss

littleoldlady wrote: »

Anyone else been told that British Gas are doing away with the paperless billing subsidy and that the direct debit discount will now only apply to units of electricity and gas used and not to the standing charges.

I think I have got this right but the email they sent me was not very clear and seemed to focus mainly on telling me that if I cancelled the direct debit they would not allow me the discount (which seems obvious).

Am I having a senior moment or is this another way of sneakily putting up prices on top of the headline amounts?

What they've done is make the standing charge uniform across the payment types, and made the discount on what is actually used. This isn't a way of putting up prices 'over and above' the headline figures, as those figures are an average total cost of an annual bill.

Now, you can discuss the merits or otherwise of standardizing the standing charges to your hearts content, but it's the overall bill that has been quoted for the price rises.

Does that help?

Nada666

Well, according to Bark01 and Ofgem it is very simple and crystal clear!

Some suppliers apply the direct debit discount to standing charges, other suppliers take a price per kWh discount off the unit price so you will only receive a limited discount based on how much you use. I assume from your description that British Gas are taking a few fractions off the unit prices.

You are correct that if you cancel the direct debit you will pay a higher price.

The headline amounts are correct - but they are averages and the difference to you can vary not insignificantly.

littleoldlady

Right, I get that but what about the paperless billing discount? They must save money by not having to send out paper bills, they were passing on to me a small discount. I will no longer get that.

Sometimes its a nuisance because I may need a recent utility bill for identity purposes, if I pay by direct debit (which I do) and no one sends me a bill (which is becoming more common) I'm stuck.

daveyjp

You still get a bill, its an electronic version you can print out.

littleoldlady

Yes I know that but you try to get anyone official to accept a print out version of a bill as ID! They won't accept anything other than a bill printed on headed paper.

daveyjp

I recently used a printed off SSE bill and a bank statement as ID at a bank, no probs.

The documents are on headed paper as they are a PDF file of the bill they would nomally post.