British Gas free energy days

johnnyrico

A year ago last March I was encouraged by British Gas to take out their Exclusive Fix Sep 2022 tariff. I thought it was bundled with 25 free energy days. They are not to be seen anywhere in my account and British Gas have no record of an email being sent with that information! They are denying it was sent. I have deleted all emails from that period and have no proof. British Gas are asking me to prove it was sent. (Lesson learned). Did anyone get that offer please or am I dreaming?!  Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you. 

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

The only mention I can find on the MSE Forum (where I would expect an offer like this to get debated in detail) is here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78268122/#Comment_78268122

Here's a page on the same offer from i news:
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/british-gas-free-electricity-loyal-customers-how-get-claim-explained-429183

It looks like you should have signed up with BG Rewards at the time you took the deal. Did you?

johnnyrico

Thanks for your reply. Yes I was signed up and it looks like the offer did exist. Thanks for your help. 

wild666

 I was on BG's free electric in  to July 2015 to March 2018 that was to encourage people to get a smart meter, which I did, but dumped them just before it ended when I got an email saying my DD would increase by over £7 per month as I used to hit the free electric with everything electrical during the free period.

Mstty

wild666 said:

 I was on BG's free electric in  to July 2015 to March 2018 that was to encourage people to get a smart meter, which I did, but dumped them just before it ended when I got an email saying my DD would increase by over £7 per month as I used to hit the free electric with everything electrical during the free period.

So you dumped 25 free electric days because they upped your DD by £7. Surely you would only give that up if they upped the kWh price on the tariff? Otherwise that makes no sense.

BUFF

25 free days in 1 year is ~7%. £7 monthly DD increase is £84 p.a.
If £84 was more than 7% of their annual spend at that time it would not make financial sense.
I didn't take up my free electricity days offer for similar financial reckoning.

RogerBareford

BUFF said:

25 free days in 1 year is ~7%. £7 monthly DD increase is £84 p.a.
If £84 was more than 7% of their annual spend at that time it would not make financial sense.
I didn't take up my free electricity days offer for similar financial reckoning.

That logic doesn't make sense. The direct debit is just the amount your paying per month which they expect you to use averaged out over a year.

If they increase your direct debit it doesn't mean your paying more for your energy if the unit rates havn't changed. So if you have refused free electricity days becuase of a higher DD payment then you have made a bit of a mistake there.

Mstty

RogerBareford said:

BUFF said:

25 free days in 1 year is ~7%. £7 monthly DD increase is £84 p.a.
If £84 was more than 7% of their annual spend at that time it would not make financial sense.
I didn't take up my free electricity days offer for similar financial reckoning.

That logic doesn't make sense. The direct debit is just the amount your paying per month which they expect you to use averaged out over a year.

If they increase your direct debit it doesn't mean your paying more for your energy if the unit rates havn't changed. So if you have refused free electricity days becuase of a higher DD payment then you have made a bit of a mistake there.

I agree unless they kWh rate changed they were only taking extra money on the DD that they could reclaim later or put evidence to suggest it's not needed on previous year's usage.

Perhaps there is more to this story

Mstty

BUFF said:

25 free days in 1 year is ~7%. £7 monthly DD increase is £84 p.a.
If £84 was more than 7% of their annual spend at that time it would not make financial sense.
I didn't take up my free electricity days offer for similar financial reckoning.

Doesn't make sense unless the kWh rate changed as all you were doing was paying forward for electricity to either reclaim on have a credit on account but still have the 25 days?

jimjames

Mstty said:

wild666 said:

 I was on BG's free electric in  to July 2015 to March 2018 that was to encourage people to get a smart meter, which I did, but dumped them just before it ended when I got an email saying my DD would increase by over £7 per month as I used to hit the free electric with everything electrical during the free period.

So you dumped 25 free electric days because they upped your DD by £7. Surely you would only give that up if they upped the kWh price on the tariff? Otherwise that makes no sense.

I think it's more likely someone doesn't understand that the monthly DD amount is not the cost of energy that they are using.

BUFF

RogerBareford said:

BUFF said:

25 free days in 1 year is ~7%. £7 monthly DD increase is £84 p.a.
If £84 was more than 7% of their annual spend at that time it would not make financial sense.
I didn't take up my free electricity days offer for similar financial reckoning.

That logic doesn't make sense. The direct debit is just the amount your paying per month which they expect you to use averaged out over a year.

If they increase your direct debit it doesn't mean your paying more for your energy if the unit rates havn't changed. So if you have refused free electricity days becuase of a higher DD payment then you have made a bit of a mistake there.

No, I was offered "free electricity days" in exchange for an increased DD (by way of a surcharge). The value of the "free electricity days " to me based on my usage & cost per kWh was less than the DD surcharge. Good for BG's finances, bad for mine.