I want a meter installed, but told I have bad credit rating...?!

vitamin_joe

Hi, I phoned British gas the other day, from whom I get my electricity. I want to go from a prepayment meter, to instead getting a standard meter installed, to save money. I was told, without explanation that I don't have a good enough credit rating.

Now- I don't have any debts. I have never owed B.G. money, or any other company. I used to have a student loan- paid off years ago. Why should I be considered to have bad credit rating? And what should I do about it? It just seems like a con to me, they find some reason not to install a standard meter for me so they can get more money out of me. Maybe I should switch to another company? This has narked me off, because I have NEVER had bad debts.

Thankyou!

kingstreet

You may wish to obtain one, or more, of the three versions of your credit file to see if there is incorrect data visible to those searching you;-

Equifax

https://www.econsumer.equifax.co.uk/consumer/uk/order.ehtml?prod_cd=UKSCR

CallCredit

https://www.noddle.co.uk

Experian

http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html#orderReport

Don't pay for services alleging they provide your "credit score" as this is a marketing scheme and of no value to you.

lstar337

vitamin_joe wrote: »

Hi, I phoned British gas the other day, from whom I get my electricity. I want to go from a prepayment meter, to instead getting a standard meter installed, to save money. I was told, without explanation that I don't have a good enough credit rating.

Now- I don't have any debts. I have never owed B.G. money, or any other company. I used to have a student loan- paid off years ago. Why should I be considered to have bad credit rating? And what should I do about it? It just seems like a con to me, they find some reason not to install a standard meter for me so they can get more money out of me. Maybe I should switch to another company? This has narked me off, because I have NEVER had bad debts.

Thankyou!

Sometimes having no credit, is as bad as bad credit.

Just offer to pay a deposit if your credit file doesn't have any naughties on it.

Richie-from-the-Boro

vitamin_joe wrote: »

Hi, I phoned British gas the other day, from whom I get my electricity. I want to go from a prepayment meter, to instead getting a standard meter installed, to save money. I was told, without explanation that I don't have a good enough credit rating.

Now- I don't have any debts. I have never owed B.G. money, or any other company. I used to have a student loan- paid off years ago. Why should I be considered to have bad credit rating? And what should I do about it? It just seems like a con to me, they find some reason not to install a standard meter for me so they can get more money out of me. Maybe I should switch to another company? This has narked me off, because I have NEVER had bad debts.

Thankyou!

- get an easy to get Barclays credit card
- buy any / everything with it including petrol, ASDA shopping, water bills etc
- pay it off each 10 days, never ever go into debit - always pay before due date
- within 26 weeks you will be a trustworthy credit rated individual
- within 52 weeks you will be a top level trustworthy credit rated individual

And no need to pay money to the rip off Experian and other outfits.

Fallen-Angel

lstar337 wrote: »

Sometimes having no credit, is as bad as bad credit.

Just offer to pay a deposit if your credit file doesn't have any naughties on it.

We switched TO British Gas at the start of the year because they said they would move us from PrePayment to Credit and that we could just pay a deposit if our credit wasn't good enough. We switched, came to change the meter and they said

a) We hadn't been living in our CURRENT house for 3 years (even though we had 8 years+ previous history).
b) We can't move to credit unless we were disabled and unable to pay our bill :huh: .
c) They no longer take deposits so if your credit isn't good enough for them then it's tough.

We switched to First Utility after that and had no problems, credit meter installed weeks after the switch and we are all happy now.

I'd switch if I were you, my friend works for BG and after I told her what happened even she told us to take it further as lying to us to get our custom was disgusting.

[Deleted User]

OP you are in the same boat as me, because I ve never borrowed, anything (paid cash for a house ) I ve no record of repaying anything to get positives and collect only negatives when I forget to pay council tax occasionally. Stick to it to improve the rating as the difference with one year fixes by direct debit over standard tariff prepay or credit is as much as 25% in my area. I recently switched to Eon and they requested credit checks on my two credit meters by the way.

kingstreet

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

And no need to pay money to the rip off Experian and other outfits.

£2 each for statutory credit file from Equifax and Experian and free from Noddle?

Agreed if talking about subscription services and "credit scores."

Richie-from-the-Boro

kingstreet wrote: »

£2 each for statutory credit file from Equifax and Experian and free from Noddle?

Agreed if talking about subscription services and "credit scores."

- its an unnecessary excursion into inaccurate and misleading information from the big 3
- each of the 3 agency's has a unique way of rating you, meaning you can have three separate scores
- Which? says that they recently surveyed their members and 1 in 8 people said they’d found errors on their credit file in the past

kingstreet

Yes, so get your credit files from all three at a cost of £4.

Make sure all the data is accurate and stay away from "scores" which are absolute rubbish.

I feel like we're agreeing here?

vitamin_joe

Thanks everyone, all advice much appreciated! (apologies for delay in replying, I had food poisoning)

Fallen Angel, I am in almost exactly the same situation. I switched to BG because I expected to get a standard meter installed in my new flat. Before that I'd been with them 8 years in the previous place. I'm definitely going to look into First Utility, and I think I'll email them tonight.

I don't want to have to get a credit card I don't want and pay it off every ten days for a year, just to get a credit score... is this the only way to do it? It seems like a lot of nonsense to me! I don't even see how that guarantees anything- one could be in massive debt and still be paying off small credit card bills, surely? ...I'm not putting down the advice, I just think that there ought to be an easier way to prove that I am already an honest and reliable customer.

Richie-from-the-Boro

vitamin_joe wrote: »

Thanks everyone, all advice much appreciated! (apologies for delay in replying, I had food poisoning)

Fallen Angel, I am in almost exactly the same situation. I switched to BG because I expected to get a standard meter installed in my new flat. Before that I'd been with them 8 years in the previous place. I'm definitely going to look into First Utility, and I think I'll email them tonight.

I don't want to have to get a credit card I don't want and pay it off every ten days for a year, just to get a credit score... is this the only way to do it? It seems like a lot of nonsense to me! I don't even see how that guarantees anything- one could be in massive debt and still be paying off small credit card bills, surely? ...I'm not putting down the advice, I just think that there ought to be an easier way to prove that I am already an honest and reliable customer.

is this the only way to do it

Yes, because you have bad credit and you need to evidence good credit ! Now we know you don't have bad credit as a fact, but as a qualifying process you have bad credit because no credit rating = bad credit. Its not a human, it checks, and you are not on the radar as good or bad. You could deposit £10k per week in a HSBC checking account, withdraw virtually nothing and still be refused credit .. .. from HSBC.

one could be in massive debt and still be paying off small credit card bills

That's not bad credit, that's good credit, bankers and their money rule the world.

there ought to be an easier way to prove that I am already an honest and reliable

Deposit £500k with Lloyds as a long term deposit and refer any potential creditors to Lloyds - hang on that won't work - the BOT will still check and discover a bad credit [not bad debt] rating.

Best of luck, try a human, invest in persuading a 'call jockey' you have a good track record with your previous 8 years.