British Gas Raising Minimum PAYG Payment from £1 to £5 Immediately!

Simbad

I have just received an email from British Gas informing me of changes that will become effective on 2nd December (yep, 2 days ago!).

One is the Payzone switch.

But the other thing is that they will be increasing the minimum top up payment on PAYG meters from £1 to £5.

I am so angry about this. Is it not bad enough the people on top up meters have to pay a higher tariff than people who are able to pay quarterly, when by and large people on meters are on low incomes?! I am on a low income and I can't tell you the amount of times that I've had to top up my meter by £2 or £3 to tide me over for a few days until I get paid. And there are many people worse off than me. Raising the minimum payment by £4 might not sound like a lot, but if you are on a low income and have £10 in your bank to last the week it could be the difference between not buying food.

There were definitely posts and articles online about the Payzone switch, including here on MSE. But I've had a search and nowhere can I see any announcement about the minimum top up payment rising and I feel like British Gas has really done this under the radar.

I am definitely going to be complaining about this.

[Deleted User]

Don t complain, simply switch to Bulb.Much cheaper than BG and prepayment meter rates are the same as the credit meter rates..
Once with Bulb you qualify to earn £50 in referral fees for every customer you pass onto Bulb

UnclaimedEnergy

You then get to spend on average 19 minutes waiting for your call to be answered =D

(Which? investigation)

Takmon

Simbad wrote: »

I have just received an email from British Gas informing me of changes that will become effective on 2nd December (yep, 2 days ago!).

One is the Payzone switch.

But the other thing is that they will be increasing the minimum top up payment on PAYG meters from £1 to £5.

I am so angry about this. Is it not bad enough the people on top up meters have to pay a higher tariff than people who are able to pay quarterly, when by and large people on meters are on low incomes?! I am on a low income and I can't tell you the amount of times that I've had to top up my meter by £2 or £3 to tide me over for a few days until I get paid. And there are many people worse off than me. Raising the minimum payment by £4 might not sound like a lot, but if you are on a low income and have £10 in your bank to last the week it could be the difference between not buying food.

There were definitely posts and articles online about the Payzone switch, including here on MSE. But I've had a search and nowhere can I see any announcement about the minimum top up payment rising and I feel like British Gas has really done this under the radar.

I am definitely going to be complaining about this.

If you top up £6 every week or £2 three times in a week it's still the same amount of money!. You have a serious budget problem that you need to get under control.

I would suggest you get over to the DFW part of this forum and post your SOA and get them to help you sort out your finances so you can plan ahead and not get into these kinds of problems.

Michaelw

I noticed the local Co-Op are not taking British Gas payments On there Paypoint recepts either.

The problems are much worse for those tied in on prepayment smart meters then on standard key/card who can freely switch more easly.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/11/paypoint-top-up-for-british-gas-prepayment-customers-set-to-end-/

[Deleted User]

UnclaimedEnergy wrote: »

You then get to spend on average 19 minutes waiting for your call to be answered =D

(Which? investigation)

19 minutes is good going by today`s standards with the small suppliers ..The "Which " investigation means nothing..
The late unlamented Eversmart would guarantee never to answer phone, email , chat line ever ! least of all in a 19 minutes

UnclaimedEnergy

They also had a 1 in 12 success rate of being available on live chat.

11 times they couldn't get through on live chat...

All of the companies that have gone bust started their downfall with poor customer service... I don't think these reports should be ignored just so that current customers can continue to receive their £50 referrals.

[Deleted User]

UnclaimedEnergy wrote: »

They also had a 1 in 12 success rate of being available on live chat.

11 times they couldn't get through on live chat...

All of the companies that have gone bust started their downfall with poor customer service... I don't think these reports should be ignored just so that current customers can continue to receive their £50 referrals.

I m recommending Bulb purely because they are the cheapest, or one of the cheapest prepayment meter tariff suppliers in the UK..They also have an above average customer service record and will pay any exit fees ( for credit meters )..Website is very good too .

Michaelw

UnclaimedEnergy wrote: »

You then get to spend on average 19 minutes waiting for your call to be answered =D

(Which? investigation)

This is the trouble,if the smart meter has failed and the supply has been cut off and the meter is not of same manufacture?

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/smart-meters/article/smart-meters-explained/smart-meter-problems-and-solutions

wrote:

Many customers of Bulb energy reported that their smart meters (although they probably meant their In Home Displays) suddenly changed from displaying English to showing Welsh. The correct response to that would be to stop any further installations whilst conducting an immediate software review. Instead this was treated as a joke, with the supplier’s spokesman responding to the failures by quipping that “We think Welsh is a great language”. They might have acted differently if it had changed to Chinese and displayed the message that “Our Government is listening to you”, but they’d probably have made a joke of that as well.

https://www.nickhunn.com/when-smart-meters-go-wrong/

[Deleted User]

Michaelw wrote: »

This is the trouble,if the smart meter has failed and the supply has been cut off and the meter is not of same manufacture?

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/smart-meters/article/smart-meters-explained/smart-meter-problems-and-solutions



https://www.nickhunn.com/when-smart-meters-go-wrong/

Having worked in the energy industry for 20 years attending hundreds of call outs on dumb prepayment meters over the years of meters which have run out of credit ( which you call "failed" ) and cut power , I can guarantee with 100% certainty that modern smart prepayment meters are a vast improvement on the outdated ones from the last century
..I m not sure what an In House display has to do with anything.. They are a complete irrelevance even though people insist on calling them "meters " including Mr Hunn !

Simbad

Takmon wrote: »

If you top up £6 every week or £2 three times in a week it's still the same amount of money!. You have a serious budget problem that you need to get under control.

I would suggest you get over to the DFW part of this forum and post your SOA and get them to help you sort out your finances so you can plan ahead and not get into these kinds of problems.

You can seriously go jump with this comment!