BG fixed tariff end Warning!

judyspur

We are part of the Cheap Energy Club Fixed Tariff coming to an end at the end of February, with British Gas. In the first week in Jan, BG emailed us to say they were increasing our direct debit by £26 per month due to our consumption over the last year and in line with our Tariff Period of 1/1/17 to 31/12/17 and that they would be collecting the first payment on Jan 21st. We ignored it thinking they had made a mistake but they duly collected the inflated amount!

Has this happened to anyone else? When I phoned them, it was clear that their accounts dept had assumed we were going onto their standard tariff and so had started it from the beginning of the year thus doing us out of 2 months of our cheap fixed tariff. They have agreed to refund us the £26 and stick to the fixed tariff as agreed. We were instructed that we would have to phone in and agree a new, larger amount after the end of February. We did not tell them that, by then, we would have found a better deal elsewhere.
I hope the same doesn't happen to anyone else.

Judy

CashStrapped

It probably would have been automated. It is quite common.

Remember, the DD is nothing to do with your actual bill. So, if it ended up being an overpayment to your account, when you gave a final meter reading when switching, it would have sat in your account as a credit and been transferred back anyway.

A DD is not a bill. It is just an estimate that credits your account with your energy supplier, kind of like a bank account. It is the actual bills produced and deducted from that account (when you give a meter reading) you need to keep an eye on.

I would just ensure you have been giving regular actual meter readings to ensure the account is indeed in a credit balance.