Credit rating hurt by British gas

andrewmoses

After I had moved out of a rented property I got a british gas bill for an amount of gas after I had moved out, and before the next tenant had moved in. I wasn't going to pay it and I told them when I moved out and disputed it for a long time, during which BG went through 2 credit collection agencies. The first decided that it was happy that I wasn't going to pay, the second threatend court action at which point I panicked and payed up, since realising that the threat was just to get me to pay.

Upshot of all this has thats it had quite a negative effect on my credit rating which I found out after being declined for a credit card.

Does anyone know what I can do to get the credit rating back up quickly? I know I'll have to ring BG and the credit collection agency, but that will probably take a long time to sort out. Any suggestions will be useful!

tripled

The first step would be to dispute the final bill, if it is incorrect. Put your complaint in writing, confirming the dates and the meter readings from when you moved out, along with a copy of your tenancy agreement. This will force them to refund the overpayment to you, and you can then also get their central recoveries team (also known as Minder - not the main callcentre) to adjust your credit records. You can also raise a dispute directly with the credit reference agency - I did this a few years ago whilst I was having a row with Natwest, they didn't contest the dispute so the data got wiped from my file.

If it a question of yourself and the landlord disputing the readings from when you moved out, that is a 3rd party dispute and BG wouldn't get involved.