British Gas discriminating against me because of previous owner

paul1964_2

Hi

I have recently bought a new house, which has prepayment meters and British Gas as the supplier. The previous owner had money problems and left a debt on the meters, which was wiped off by BG.

I wanted to get a better rate by paying by direct debit, so I asked BG for credit meters but failed the credit check. They said they use Experian, so I checked my score, which is 968 (Excellent). Rang BG again for an explanation and was told that 968 was not high enough.

I am pretty sure that if the previous owner had been on a credit meter, I would have been allowed to keep it - i.e. BG would have given me credit. I am also pretty sure that a high percentage of people on credit meters do not have a higher credit score than myself. So I can only conclude that BG will not give me credit meters because they do not have confidence in people who move into a house where the previous owner had a debt on the prepayment meters.

Does anyone know what credit score you have to achieve to get BG to change the meters? And does anyone know if any other suppliers are easier to deal with when asking for credit meters?

Many thanks

Paul

[Deleted User]

You are correct that if you was the worlds worst debtor and there was a credit meter in situ then BG would have allowed you to set an account up with them with no credit checks whatsoever. You then could ve run up a huge debit with them, then moved on. That is what happens with BG. Eon are the only enlightened supplier I m aware of who will credit check you before accepting you as a customer with credit meters.. All suppliers need to do this in my opinion.
Meantime you have the problem of the highest rates and the most inconvenient ways to pay with these prepay meters. EDF are known to be pretty slack in credit checking and also have a good record in switching the meters free. Their dual fuel "price blue " tariffs are also very good so its maybe worth your while to do a switch to EDF and collect cashback at the same time. If you re staying on prepays Robin Hood Energy have better rates.

HappyMJ

paul1964 wrote: »

Hi

I have recently bought a new house, which has prepayment meters and British Gas as the supplier. The previous owner had money problems and left a debt on the meters, which was wiped off by BG.

I wanted to get a better rate by paying by direct debit, so I asked BG for credit meters but failed the credit check. They said they use Experian, so I checked my score, which is 968 (Excellent). Rang BG again for an explanation and was told that 968 was not high enough.

I am pretty sure that if the previous owner had been on a credit meter, I would have been allowed to keep it - i.e. BG would have given me credit. I am also pretty sure that a high percentage of people on credit meters do not have a higher credit score than myself. So I can only conclude that BG will not give me credit meters because they do not have confidence in people who move into a house where the previous owner had a debt on the prepayment meters.

Does anyone know what credit score you have to achieve to get BG to change the meters? And does anyone know if any other suppliers are easier to deal with when asking for credit meters?

Many thanks

Paul

You could try offering a deposit upfront to cover let's say 3 maybe 6 months usage to remove the meters and instantly be in credit.

Or just switch supplier.

paul1964_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

You could try offering a deposit upfront to cover let's say 3 maybe 6 months usage to remove the meters and instantly be in credit.

Or just switch supplier.

The thing about switching suppliers is that I would have to switch on to their prepayment tariff and then go through the process of trying to get a meter change (where I might be rejected again). That's why I am trying to find out which supplier(s) are more likely to allow the change.


Good point about offering a deposit - I might try that.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

My evidence is purely anecdotal, but it would appear BG now simply refuse to replace PPMs with credit meters, and use credit scoring as an excuse. Almost certainly a commercial decision - they probably figure (correctly) that most of the public are too lazy to change suppliers, and the extra revenue generated by PPMs more than compensates for those that do leave.

Bark01

EDF Energy currently don't charge to swap a ppm to credit meter. I don't know what they are like for credit checking though. I'd just ring them up and ask.

cifpower

paul1964 wrote: »

The thing about switching suppliers is that I would have to switch on to their prepayment tariff and then go through the process of trying to get a meter change (where I might be rejected again). That's why I am trying to find out which supplier(s) are more likely to allow the change.


Good point about offering a deposit - I might try that.

Switch your prepayment tariff to EDF. Once switched, stay with them for 28 days then request your meter be swapped. This is done free without any credit check. Once your meter has been swapped you can switch to whatever supplier you want.

Switch via Quidco or Topcashback each time and get some cashback too.

Cardew

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

My evidence is purely anecdotal, but it would appear BG now simply refuse to replace PPMs with credit meters, and use credit scoring as an excuse. Almost certainly a commercial decision - they probably figure (correctly) that most of the public are too lazy to change suppliers, and the extra revenue generated by PPMs more than compensates for those that do leave.

Also anecdotal, but your postcode is a big factor in BG's decision.

agrinnall

Your credit score is an irrelevant number and had you not mentioned it BG could not have used it as an excuse because they have no other way of knowing it. Which isn't to say that a check of your credit record might not give them reason to turn you down - have you checked your records with the credit reference agencies to see if there are any nasties lurking there?

paul1964_2

agrinnall wrote: »

Your credit score is an irrelevant number and had you not mentioned it BG could not have used it as an excuse because they have no other way of knowing it. Which isn't to say that a check of your credit record might not give them reason to turn you down - have you checked your records with the credit reference agencies to see if there are any nasties lurking there?

BG said they used Experian. That is what prompted me to check Experian to find out my credit score - there don't appear to be any nasties lurking there.

agrinnall

paul1964 wrote: »

BG said they used Experian. That is what prompted me to check Experian to find out my credit score - there don't appear to be any nasties lurking there.

But your credit score is a made up number that nobody but you and Experian can see, it's just used by them to make people think they need to see it and will pay to do so.

If you don't have any issues on your Experian record and that is the only CRA that BG use then it doesn't seem likely that your credit history is really the problem.