British Gas, in debit

TheLeonC

Hello all,

Hope you are all well, quick question.. British Gas were estimating my gas bill, but since giving the readings it appears I am in debit, I pay a monthly direct debit and after my next bill in 5 days or so I will be in debit of £7ish, will this affect my credit rating? Or will this only be affected for late payments or failing to pay. 

Thank you!

[Deleted User]

Do you mean in debt? Or credit? 

TheLeonC

MarkN88 said:

Do you mean in debt? Or credit? 

On the app it says ‘Debit’ but either way I owe them £60 at the moment but once I pay my next bill will be £7. I have kept up to date with all payments, it’s just I’ve used more than they estimated so got charged more. 

sourcrates

No it will not affect your credit file, gas/electric bills yo yo between credit and debt, depending on the time of year, and how much fuel you use, your provider may not even report to the CRA`s, none of mine do.

jjames1985

sourcrates said:

No it will not affect your credit file, gas/electric bills yo yo between credit and debt, depending on the time of year, and how much fuel you use, your provider may not even report to the CRA`s, none of mine do.

British Gas do but I've never been in debit so I don't know how that gets reported. certainly being in credit is reported as a £0 balance.

TheLeonC

I’m just stuck in a situation where if I pay it now, I am basically paying double as my bill comes out in 5 days, so I will make a one off payment today to cover the debit and then my bill will come out and make me in credit again, which I guess isn’t a bad thing 

TheLeonC

TheLeonC said:

I’m just stuck in a situation where if I pay it now, I am basically paying double as my bill comes out in 5 days, so I will make a one off payment today to cover the debit and then my bill will come out and make me in credit again, which I guess isn’t a bad thing 

If it’s helpful to anyone in future or just handy to know.. I messaged British Gas and they said as I pay by DD this would not affect credit score, thank you all for your comments!

RelievedSheff

It won't affect your credit file.

It does sound as though you are not paying enough for your gas and electric though. You should be building up a decent credit balance at the moment to cover your higher winter use.

You have caught it in time this time before you have built up a large debt balance. You need to be providing regular monthly meter readings to ensure that what you are paying each month is covering your actual power consumption.