Monthly Debit for Sainsburys British Gas

AndrewRO

Took my latest Gas and Electricity reading over the weekend, submitting these online on Saturday 30th April.
Result was a bill that was calculated immediately and showed that over the year and the recent/current winter weather we were £5 in credit. Not bad given the fact that the summer is just around the corner (we hope). This morning another email from Sainburys/British Gas informing us that our monthly direct debit will go up in June from £134 to £168 per month.
Over 12 months that is an extra £400 for the year.
Needless to say we are not impressed and will be actively seeking alternative suppliers whilst asking how this increase can possibly be justified.

Robin9

This is probably a prediction based on you transferring to their standard tariff when the existing one runs out.

dogshome

Welcome to the planet Utilities, on which a 'Year' isn't a year as we know it

Look at past bills and some of them will tell you the dates of your 'Accounting Year', which will quite likely will not even start on the month you joined that supplier let alone the day, and it changes from time to time.

It is their last complete 'Accounting Year' on which your D/D's are based, and you are now in the yet to be completed current year.
So despite a 100% accurate record of your consumption over the last 12months, the supplier is still claculating your D/D's on data that is well out of date.

Get onto MS/BG and raise cain, you'll find that with some reluctance they change the D/D amount

[Deleted User]

Why get rid of Sainsburys because of a simple d/d problem. Do what I did and have an online chat on your account and get your d/d reinstated. The d/d would just have been increased to that amount by some error in the program. I got £150 credit refunded and they doubled my £35 a month to £70 .no probs because speaking to a human rectified it and they lowered it to £30

System

The OP needs to apply a touch of realism here. The last two winters have been very mild. Suppliers base their projections on past usage (EAC and AQ) which are adjusted to reflect annual weather averages. If we have a normal winter in 2016/17, then its is a certainty that we will all have to pay more for our energy.

I am not saying that the supplier has got its estimates correct but an increased DD is no reason in itself to change suppliers. I would suggest that the OP needs to do a full comparison based on last year's usage plus a bit for a normal winter. For example, I used 7850kWhs of gas in the past year. My normal usage is in the range 8500 to 9000kWhs. The important factor for me is the cost of those additional 500kWhs, and that is why I chose Zog.

The key point that people choose to forget is that DD payments are only credits to an account. In terms of annual charges, they are meaningless.

footyguy

AndrewRO wrote: »

Took my latest Gas and Electricity reading over the weekend, submitting these online on Saturday 30th April.
Result was a bill that was calculated immediately and showed that over the year and the recent/current winter weather we were £5 in credit. Not bad given the fact that the summer is just around the corner (we hope). This morning another email from Sainburys/British Gas informing us that our monthly direct debit will go up in June from £134 to £168 per month.
Over 12 months that is an extra £400 for the year.
Needless to say we are not impressed and will be actively seeking alternative suppliers whilst asking how this increase can possibly be justified.

Use a comparison site to find the best deal for you
(Beware of any early exit fees that may apply your your existing supply)

There's a lovely MSE article that explains how to challenge unfair direct debit changes.
Cutting off your nose to spite your face is not good moneysaving

kporter229

Robin9 wrote: »

This is probably a prediction based on you transferring to their standard tariff when the existing one runs out.

This seems to be what British Gas do. My daughter's six month review changed there forecast from being on target, to forecasting a debt of £300 at the end of the period. The six month review clearly sets up a new 12 month period, instead of just forecasting the position at the end of the fixed term. They now seem to have done the same with my account, although my debt will not be quite as big.