british gas bill and dd

thegreenroom

can anybody help got my quartely bill today and it is 206.94 i was paying 65 pounds a month dd and now they want to put it up to 171 pounds a month to cover a debit of 346.83 and i cant afford that can i ask them not to also do the readings look high they are acctual readings and if so arnt they high?
435 kwh
1789 kwh it is a 2 rate meter

jobbingmusician

Are you on benefits? Because if you are there is a cap to the amount they can charge you each month to repay a debt.

Their proposal of £346.83 would repay their debt in less than 4 months, which is very nice for them but obviously impossible for you. How much COULD you afford?

anniecave

When was the last time they changed your direct debit? If it was over six months ago, then I would ask them to spread the cost over the next 12 months.

So then the direct debit wouldn't go up as much. I don't know what your annual figures are but asking you to pay £171 per month if you were only paying £65 per month before is simply not fair!

jammy123

HI,
I have also got a problem with British Gas.
I have been with them for about a year and have always paid by dd £45 per month.
I thought i would contact them to see if i could lower my payment as it has always come down in the summer to about £25, or at least it did was i was with npower who i had been with for 7 years.
Anyway after checking my meter readings against there estimated one i have used over 4000 kw more.
I told him this was impossable,so i had to do a meter reading every morning for the last weekwhich was 117 kw used in 7 days.
I was then told that this was right and meant that i owe them over £400 and he would be changing my dd from september to £105 per month from £45 per month.
I told him i was on income support and couldn't afford that and he said well maybe you should try and put some money away now to add to it.
Is there anything i can do?

anniecave

When you changed supplier, was there a gap in your monthly payments?

I have just changed supplier, (it went over at the end of July) but the first payment they are taking is September. This means that at the end of the year, I will be one payment short.

If so that would mean that you would be a little bit behind.

The other thing I would suggest is that prices are quite a bit more now than they were a few years ago, so I would expect you to be paying more now than you were.

Have you worked out on your current tariff how many units you you use in a year and calculated your annual cost. And then divide that by 12 for how much your dd should be per month?

If you have an arrears figure of over £400 then they will have to factor that in so that's say £35 per month extra over the next year so you can pay it off.


It's always useful to know how much you are using so you can make sure the dd figure is correct.

tripled

Recently (at long last) we have been given more info on how the new blling system calculates direct debit payments. British Gas dd's are designed to run over 12 months. They have an interim reassessment in the middle. So, if when the computer does the interim review it thinks you will be in debt at the end of the 12 months, it will ramp up the dd to get it back to zero by the end of the year. So yes, as pointed out it will be getting the balance back over 4 months, as with your ongoing usage you will be back at zero by the end of the payment year. The only way to get around it is to cancel the dd and set it back up again (thus recalculating the payments over 12 months), but then you may lose your dd discount until the account is cleared.

As to whether your readings are high, I have no idea ased on your somewhat cryptic post. Are they your meter readings or consumption? Do you have storage heating? How big is the property? How many people live there? Is the bill just for a quarter, or a longer period? I assume the readings/consumption/whatever it is you have posted refer to day and night, but which is which?

thegreenroom

those are my consumption readings,no storage heaters,3 bed semi,6 people and 435kwh is night consumption,1789 kwh is day consumption.ihave been paying 65per month since last quaters statmentthe time before i was paying 35per month thanks for replying every1 i phoned them up and they said they cant change the dd amount so i cancelled it and they are going to send a payment card out to pay fortnightly payments of 38pounds so thats much better 171pounds a month

tripled

Based on the info you have provided, you are using around two and a half times the nationl average, so I would recommed trying to be more energy efficient to cut your bills.

Cardew

thegreenroom wrote: »

those are my consumption readings,no storage heaters,3 bed semi,6 people and 435kwh is night consumption,1789 kwh is day consumption.ihave been paying 65per month since last quaters statmentthe time before i was paying 35per month thanks for replying every1 i phoned them up and they said they cant change the dd amount so i cancelled it and they are going to send a payment card out to pay fortnightly payments of 38pounds so thats much better 171pounds a month

If you have no storage heating, why are you on a Economy 7 tariff? Do you realise that you pay more for daytime electricity on Economy 7, so with that consumption you will be better off on a 'normal' tariff.

When you come off a direct debit payment, you are normally put on a more expensive tariff.

38 pounds a fortnight or 171 a month you are still going to have to pay for your electricity, and this way probably pay more in total.