Is British Gas Fix a fix?

overload99

We took part in the Cheap Energy Club Collective Fix at the beginning of this year and switched to British Gas for our gas and electricity because they were supposedly the cheapest. The Fix was until December 2016 but within 4 months of switching, they increased our monthly bills from £68 to £132.24. Can they just increase the prices like that if you've fixed? Are we being ripped off? Any advice gratefully received!

Rubidium

It is the tariff that is fixed but you obviously have to pay for what you actually use!

overload99

OK thanks. I still feel a bit cheated though as I've just realised that they've massively overestimated our consumption which probably explains the huge monthly increase.

Rubidium

ruthieb77 wrote: »

OK thanks. I still feel a bit cheated though as I've just realised that they've massively overestimated our consumption which probably explains the huge monthly increase.

Provide actual readings yourself and they will recalculate the bill and change the DD.

You will always benefit from providing regular meter readings.

dogshome

When you switched you would have given BG a meter reading, this will be shown as the Start Reading on the first bill you had.

You know what your meter reads now, so subtract that Start Read to find how many Kwh you have used to date - You know what the Kwh price is and the Daily Service Charge, so a few minutes with a calculator will tell you if the D/D rise is justified or not

datlex

I am with British Gas on a smart tariff. I have to submit monthly readings and get a monthly bill. It means I know whether I owe them or they owe me with a high degree of accuracy.

[Deleted User]

datlex wrote: »

I am with British Gas on a smart tariff. I have to submit monthly readings and get a monthly bill. It means I know whether I owe them or they owe me with a high degree of accuracy.

BG ran a system of monthly readings for customers and called it Energy Smart where the customer got an accurate monthly bill by submitting a monthly reading.They have now ended that but they still can arrange monthly bill if required.
I was on the BG Collective and its certainly not a fix.Just check what the tariff is when they multiply your kwhr usage on the bill, then they add 5'% VAT. Mine was something like 8.2 p a kwhr,
I ve left that tariff now for a slightly cheaper fix of 7.89 p a kwhr and the first thing I check when I switch is that they are multiplying my kwhs at the right price.
No supplier would indulge in such an outlandish con and fiddle the tariffs.There are too many smart alecs out there ready to catch them out but the suppliers will get their sums wrong sometimes on your projected usage.