MSE Cheap Energy club collective switch - British Gas want £215 upfront!!!

jd87

I applied to switch to British Gas last week through the current MoneySavingExpert collective switch. I was a bit wary as I've had trouble with British Gas in the past but thought I'd give it a go.

I received a welcome email a couple of days ago, so I was impressed with the speed of things so far. However today I've received two letters demanding I pay a total of £215 as a security deposit (£125 for gas and £90 for electricity) before they will continue with the switch. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I am obsessive about my credit history and I have no problems getting large limits when I apply for credit cards.


I called British Gas as there is clearly a mistake. They told me "it is based on information from your previous supplier, perhaps you're in arrears with them?" I am actually £179 in credit with my existing supplier Ovo and have never had any problems with them or anyone else. I called Ovo to check and of course they haven't even received a request from British Gas yet to take over my supply and they certainly haven't given British Gas any "information" about me. Anyway the Ovo lady and I had a good laugh about how pathetic British Gas are so that was nice.


I can't be bothered to fight this ridiculous situation. Life's too short and I'm in the cooling off period so I'll just cancel and either look elsewhere or stay with Ovo. Just wanted to warn others that British Gas are useless liars.

paragon909

jd87 wrote: »

I applied to switch to British Gas last week through the current MoneySavingExpert collective switch. I was a bit wary as I've had trouble with British Gas in the past but thought I'd give it a go.

I received a welcome email a couple of days ago, so I was impressed with the speed of things so far. However today I've received two letters demanding I pay a total of £215 as a security deposit (£125 for gas and £90 for electricity) before they will continue with the switch. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I am obsessive about my credit history and I have no problems getting large limits when I apply for credit cards.


I called British Gas as there is clearly a mistake. They told me "it is based on information from your previous supplier, perhaps you're in arrears with them?" I am actually £179 in credit with my existing supplier Ovo and have never had any problems with them or anyone else. I called Ovo to check and of course they haven't even received a request from British Gas yet to take over my supply and they certainly haven't given British Gas any "information" about me. Anyway the Ovo lady and I had a good laugh about how pathetic British Gas are so that was nice.


I can't be bothered to fight this ridiculous situation. Life's too short and I'm in the cooling off period so I'll just cancel and either look elsewhere or stay with Ovo. Just wanted to warn others that British Gas are useless liars.

So why you posting on the forum is you cant be bothered fighting, There is nothing to fight, It's quite normal for them to ask for a deposit.

CashStrapped

When did you last get a credit report? It is possible that something incorrect has appeared on there and is affecting the result of any recent credit searches.

Is all the information you filled out on the form/all the information that British Gas have 100% correct and spelt correctly. Sometimes even the smallest error can cause an issue. Even things such as having a house name (e.g The old farm house) rather than a house number can cause issues as it does not come up correctly on some companies' systems and therefore cause credit search issues.

I know it should not happen but these are things to consider/check.

jd87

You may have a point, in that the address used by the Cheap Energy Club website and British Gas doesn't fully match the address used by banks/Ovo and shown on my credit file. I live at "Flat 1" but British Gas are using "Ground Flr Flat".

The rest of the address is correct though so any well designed IT system should've been able to match my application to my credit file. The person I spoke to at British Gas yesterday completely refused to entertain the idea that the credit assessment is in some way wrong. I was basically told "pay up or p*** off. End of story".

jd87

Spoke to the collective switch team and they still insist that "a credit check is on a person, not a property, so the address makes no difference", which of course is true but if the address is wrong their system still won't be finding my credit file.

I've cancelled the switch. MSE have lost money because of this. I'd be interested to see a response from either a British Gas or MSE rep.

CashStrapped

Have you done a recent credit file check to endure no mistakes have appeared on the file?

The alternative view point is that although you have to pay something upfront that money is there to pay for energy for the next 2/3 months. To be honest, I am pretty sure you would be able to request the credit back within after month.

jd87

The deposit is held for 12 months. No errors on my file I've checked Noddle (call credit), clearscore (equifax) and my statutory Experian report recently.

Robin9

jd87 - do let us know how you get on with other utilities in your attempt to switch.

You may well find that BG are not alone in asking for a Deposit and others (eg OVO) will require you to pay the DD upfront.

jd87

Paying the DD upfront is fine. I'm quite low usage. My current DD with Ovo is £35pm and was expected to be £30 with British Gas. That's why this is so obscene. They wanted over 7 months payment in advance, in addition to the direct debit.

jd87

British Gas are now harassing me with text messages and letters demanding I pay the security deposit, even though I've told them to just cancel the whole thing (a total of 6 letters received now).

I emailed the cooling off address asking if they can make sure it's cancelled but they claim they can't even find any history of my order. Useless awful company.

brewerdave

jd87 wrote: »

British Gas are now harassing me with text messages and letters demanding I pay the security deposit, even though I've told them to just cancel the whole thing (a total of 6 letters received now).

I emailed the cooling off address asking if they can make sure it's cancelled but they claim they can't even find any history of my order. Useless awful company.

Glad I held off switching away from EON to this BG deal:rotfl: