British Gas ~ Default Notice ~ What are my options now?

ManicTheHedgehog

So to give a bit of backstory here; I had a Lloyds bank account and on the phone app it came up saying I could open up to 5 savings account and name each one and save for things I wanted, ie New York, etc. So I opened one and moved my money for the month into it and then Lloyds locked it (with my money inside) led me on a 3 month long goose chase - like no bills/DDs could leave my bank and they kept hold of all my money the entire time - to then just close my account and say that I never qualified for the saving account so shouldn't have applied for it - shouldn't have been offered to me then but you know 12+ years being with a bank account to then lose it and have it screw everything up.

In that time British Gas got behind (as had other payments) the supplier got moved to SSE and I owed £135.00 to British Gas which they then passed to this other thing and said I needed to contact them. Like a debt collector sort of thing.

So I phoned them up and explained the bank situation with them and that I was currently waiting to hear about my PIP claim, cause it had been DLA like indefinitely so the move should have been smooth, and they said the best course of action would be to wait for this PIP thing to be sorted out.

Covid19 and lockdown comes in. And then PIP get back to me and say they've decided to not grant me PIP. Great. So I had to appeal it and they said oh normally it takes X amount of weeks but because of Covid it's going to be longer. Like logically they really should've just put it on hold until after Covid but just to make my life that bit more difficult I guess.

So I told these people about that and they said about waiting etc.

And then out the blue today has been this letter from British Gas saying how they're going to give me a "default notice" because of the unpaid £134.00 I owe them. Like it says "We have contacted you several times about your final outstanding balance of £134.00" like they contacted me ONCE after the supplier was changed and then passed it to the debt collection thing, and then there's been nothing from them until this thing right now. But it says if they don't get payment in 28 days (date on the letter is 6th May 2020) they will register a default on my credit file.

And then there's a number to phone British Gas on.

But the debt people who are supposed to have this said they're good to wait for the PIP to be sorted out and then I'm supposed to pay them and they pay it to British Gas, but if British Gas are going to give me this "default" thing, then I don't see why I should stress about the PIP (who aren't going to get back to me on the appeal until 8th June 2020 anyway) appeal being granted and then getting the payment to them.

Like you know, £134 or just give me this default and make my hard life even more harder cause I'm struggling to even get another bank account atm.

How long do defaults sit on credit files for?

[Deleted User]

6 years.

I couldn't make head nor tail of the rest of your post.

D3xt3r5L4b

PIP claim?

mcpitman

Llloyds closed OP's current account, apparently because you opened a savings account with them.
This caused the BG DD to bounce.
This happened at a time when you were also changing energy supplier.

Then some other stuff about PIP and DLA.

OP can you come back and clarify?

LordSomebody

OP was hoping an award of Personal Independence Payment / Disability Living Allowance would allow payment, but the award wasn’t given and the social security tribunals are in a mess due to COVID 19 and are running months behind.

Fighter1986

You'll be able to open a basic bank account anywhere.

Don't worry about the default for now, that isn't your priority. I'm really sorry to hear about the DWP mess. It is very stressful waiting for a PIP appeal especially after been clear running with DLA for a long time.

Do you have someone to help with your appeal? It always helps to have a second set of eyes over something like that before submitting it.

Can you make ends meet in the mean time?

Get set up with a new bank, even if it's a basic account they are quite full featured these days anyway especially Nationwide FlexBasic, all you don't get is a chequebook or overdraft. Which you don't need anyway. 

Once your PIP appeal has been seen to, get BG settled. It will have a negative effect on your credit worthiness for a while I'm afraid but it won't be the end of the world, it just means you won't be entitled to the best ground breakingly low APRs on huge loans for a few years. It shouldn't stand in the way of things like mobile contracts and other sundries once paid off.

Best of luck with everything moving forwards.