Bristish Gas new monthly payment ***BEWARE***

binao

  thanks all

MinuteNoodles

Flt._Lt._Biggles said:

Please read the twitter feed on RHS of screen.

We've found the idiot who believes everything posted on twitter at face value without reading the article or doing any research. It actually isn't a dead duck, it just now is for a certain demographic of customer that it didn't used to be. If you've got over £8000 in the account and especially if you're a Santander mortgage customer it most certainly isn't. However given how many other alternatives have now announced rate cuts following that tweet that advice no longer counts.

SnowTiger

MinuteNoodles said:

Flt._Lt._Biggles said:

Please read the twitter feed on RHS of screen.

We've found the idiot who believes everything posted on twitter at face value without reading the article or doing any research. It actually isn't a dead duck, it just now is for a certain demographic of customer that it didn't used to be. If you've got over £8000 in the account and especially if you're a Santander mortgage customer it most certainly isn't. However given how many other alternatives have now announced rate cuts following that tweet that advice no longer counts.

As you suggest, it's always a good idea to read the detail.

I was alluding to Santander's 123 Lite account, which offers up to 3% cashback on direct debits for standard household utility bills.

Most households would probably profit from it, even taking the £1 monthly fee into consideration.

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/123-lite-current-account

notional

A few years ago an SSE call centre operative admitted to me that they deliberately put up the direct debits over and above what is needed as a way to get customers in credit, and then wait to see if they complain.

Takmon

notional said:

A few years ago an SSE call centre operative admitted to me that they deliberately put up the direct debits over and above what is needed as a way to get customers in credit, and then wait to see if they complain.

Well if they were doing that they certainly wouldn't be telling the call center operatives so there is no way they would be able to say that for sure. 

SnowTiger

I'd be more concerned about standing and energy charges.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/gas-and-electricity/tariffs-a-z.html

Spreadsheet of rates here.

Electricity daily standing charge: 17.49p to 21.343p
Electricity per kWh: 17.755p to 19.662p

Gas daily standing charge: 22.3137p
Gas per kWh: 3.989p to 4.274p

It might be worth paying the £60 (2 x £30) exit fee(s) and moving elsewhere, especially as OP's mother is only six months in to a 24 month fixed rate contract.

notional

Takmon said:

Well if they were doing that they certainly wouldn't be telling the call center operatives so there is no way they would be able to say that for sure. 

The call centre knew because loads of people phoned up all the time moaning about the needless raising of the direct debits, and they were allowed to just reduce them again, no quibble.  I seem to remember that the regulator actually clamped down on this in the end, as it was a way of energy companies effectively using their customers as free credit.

Takmon

notional said:

Takmon said:

Well if they were doing that they certainly wouldn't be telling the call center operatives so there is no way they would be able to say that for sure. 

The call centre knew because loads of people phoned up all the time moaning about the needless raising of the direct debits, and they were allowed to just reduce them again, no quibble.  I seem to remember that the regulator actually clamped down on this in the end, as it was a way of energy companies effectively using their customers as free credit.

Allowing the call centre staff to reduce them without quibble doesn't mean that they are raising them to "over and above what is needed" deliberately, it could just have been they had recently changed the system that calculates direct debits at the time and that's why they were getting a large amount of calls about it. 

But there should be an Ofgem report about it if they investigated it and found SSE were doing this so post a link to that.