I think British Gas is ripping me off

rainykd

Hi! I hope this is ok to post, I am new here.  Ive got a problem with British Gas and I was hoping for opinions and insights?

So in October 2018 I had a pre-payment meter fitted by British gas. I was about £470 in debt. They asked if I was on benefits (I'm not) so they set the meter to collect weekly on a Tuesday at £8.50.
Which I've been keeping up with.

Last year (Spring I think) I was struggling financially again so I asked if they could reduce the weekly collection amount. They agreed to set it to £5. 
I kept topping up not really looking at the screen. 

This winter I've found a weird pattern. I'm topping up £20 a week on a Wednesday, which is the day I'm paid. 
The meter takes £8.50 for debt (seems they never applied the request for paying £5 a week)
Around £6 for emergency credit (although I only have £5 limit in my emergency credit).  Meaning I have £6.50 left for Gas for the week.
Every Friday morning my gas goes off and my meter is empty. Which means I'm spending £6.50 in two days.

I then have to put emergency credit on... The £5 emergency credit last Friday morning until Tuesday morning. 
So already my actual credit (£6.50) lasts 2 days. But my emergency (£5) lasts 4?


Seeing this I turned all my radiators down and reduced the hours my heating is on in a day.  My house is now freeeezing most of the time.
That has made absolutely no difference to the pattern mentioned above. 

To add to this I have a debt management plan. My DMP management messaged me the other week asking me to confirm that my gas debt was paid off. I got on live chat to BG who told me I had £120 of debt outstanding.

My meter was fitted October 2018.
I've been paying 8.50 for 69 weeks.
8.50 x 69 = £586
The debt was £460 to start with.
So I should have more than wiped my debt by now? 

None of it really makes sense to me? I'm wondering if anyone has a clue before I ring them? My experience with BG is their customer service isn't fab so I want to be clued up before I call.

Thank you!

Gerry1

Start reading the meter daily, keep a record, and think of your usage in kWh, not £.  You should then see some realistic correlations, e.g how cold the weather is, the hours that you heat your property, how high the thermostat is set, etc.  When you have the kWh readings you can then do the sums and check your balance.

Smodlet

Hi OP.  The debt has reduced considerably from what you say:  It was between £460 and £470 and is now £120 so you have paid approximately £345 off; the end is in sight especially with the mild winter and the days lengthening.  If you are paying the meter £20 a week but £6.50 is going on debt, that leaves £13.50 for your usage; 4.5 (ish - weeks in a month) x that is £54 which sounds about right unless you have the heating on all the time/up really high, cook with gas or live in a large, detached property.  FWIW, my usage costs about that at the moment for a small-medium 3 bed semi but my cooker is electric.

Gerry1 is, as usual, spot on.  The only way to figure out what you are using and therefore should be paying is to read the meter(s) every day and work it out yourself.  If you have a record of your calculations in front of you when you call BG, you will be armed with the relevant data to avoid being fobbed off.

MWT

I suspect that at least part of the confusion is that while you are in 'emergency' mode the meter does not collect the standing charge.

When you top up, you have to repay the emergency money you have used and the standing charge for the days since your meter ran out of credit. That is why you are paying more than the £5 emergency limit.

As Gerry says, you need to pay attention to the meter reading when you top up and note what it shows when the credit runs out then again when the emergency credit runs out.

When you do your calculations keep in mind that the daily standing charge will only be deducted duing the first period between your top-up and the meter first running out.

Re the old debt collection, is it possible that the central records show you as repaying £5 per week as per your request, but the meter was never actually updated?