Switched to British Gas from People's Energy DD issues

Hazaria

So like many we got moved to British Gas after People's Energy bit the dust.  Very happy there so it was a shame.  Anyway I'm 63 and an unpaid family carer, my sister is 56 and has learning difficulties and schizophrenia. She can't read, write, tell the time, use mobile phones or computers etc. I have to manage all the household bills, and be her appointee for most things.   Anyway, I had our finances sorted, we paid 600 pounds a month into a joint account, direct debits for most bills came out of that, as it I were to be ill my sister would have no clue that bills even needed paying let alone how to do it so direct debits at least would make sure they would be.    Email came from British Gas, DD discount on new customers from PE only  applies if switching to DD before December 30th.  I check our online readings as our smart meter works with BG.  The first payment to them was ninety something pounds and the one for December they have listed is 72 pounds.  So I go to set up the DD and it quotes 500 pounds per month.  Got to be wrong I think, no way would we use over five thousand pounds a year energy.  Can't get through on the phone as we didn't have the contract pack thing yet, so did the online chat thing.  Person on the other end says yes 500 but reduced it to 400 which is still way to much and won't leave enough in our account to pay our other direct debits.  They assured me that it would be looked at and reduced and I would get back my money owed from People's Energy.  But I am panicking as we really can't afford that so I need to know if they will reduce it to a realistic usage rate pretty quickly?  We have had an awful year and I can't face much else going wrong.  I so wish companies had to have trained people who could deal with accounts and people like my sister and be more understanding. 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

With British Gas (and several other suppliers) you can pay by Variable Direct Debit so you only pay for what you use in the previous period.  It makes bills easier to understand and avoids the problems of credit or debt building up because of fixed DDs being set too high or low.  However, it does mean bigger bills during the winter, but at least you get earlier warning of high consumption.
They don't publicise this so you'll ahve to call or use the chat facility.

Hazaria

thank you so much will try that in the morning. 

wild666

Does the BG account allow you to reduce or increase the payments like many of the other utility companies do? If so then take your highest kWh usage from the PE bills and multiply them by the charges for BG then add 30 days standing charges to each utility. Then you can go back to BG and say that this is my usage worked out using your kWh figures and standing charges for my highest monthly usage.