British Gas energy payments (£400 rebate)

DiseasedBunny

Following the £66/67 a month rebate, got an email today from BG - talk about overcomplicating things…

If your Direct Debit is £100 a month, you’d pay that as normal. Then a few days later, £67 will be paid in to your bank account. If your Direct Debit is less than £67 a month, say £50 for example, £50 will be refunded to your bank account and the remaining £17 will be applied as credit to your energy account

lisyloo

I pay my bills by variable direct debit. Seem much easier to me.

maisie_cat

I was hoping they'd allow it to sit there as a credit to create a future buffer, we fixed so we pay more than SVR now but will pay less from October until next June. I think I'll just increase the DD by £66 so we don't end up spending it on something else.

brewerdave

It's actually quite useful for me as I'm paying BG over the odds already for electric - when they rebate the ££s to the account ,I can make multiple one off payments to the gas account with EDF  hopefully keeping the gas DD lower for the Winter period and maximise the return from the Santander 123 account.

Jyana

DiseasedBunny said:

Following the £66/67 a month rebate, got an email today from BG - talk about overcomplicating things…

If your Direct Debit is £100 a month, you’d pay that as normal. Then a few days later, £67 will be paid in to your bank account. If your Direct Debit is less than £67 a month, say £50 for example, £50 will be refunded to your bank account and the remaining £17 will be applied as credit to your energy account

So, if you pay a Direct Debit of more than £67, you get that amount paid back into your bank account and no extra goes onto your energy account. But if your Direct Debit is under £67, you only get the amount you paid back - in my case £15 a month - and the rest of it does get credited to your energy account.

So low energy users credit on their accounts will go up, while higher users won't, or have I misunderstood?

DiseasedBunny

Yep that’s how I understand it - we pay 80/m, fixed, so I pay 80 as normal, then BG return me 67…I’d rather they left it as credit on my account - think I’ll move it to a savings account then make a one off payment in March so I don’t spend it on other rubbish 

pochase

The £400 is meant to be used for energy, so it makes sense that the full £66/£67 is credited to your account.

If you pay more than the £67 already, the minimum of £67 is paid into the energy account by you, and you get the full £67 back.

If you pay less than £67, you get only back what you paid so that the full £67 can go into your energy account.

If they also paid you the £67 you could use it for something else, which is not the intention of this grant.

And yes, I know that there are people with a gas account with a different supplier, or with prepaid gas, or people who need to buy oil, coal, wood or LPG. Unfortunately that seems to be the problem with a one for all approach that tries to minimise administration.

Jurgen500

I have head that if my energy account is in credit, i wont get the monthly payment. Surely this is not true? Sorry, just seeking clarification.

sammyjammy

Jurgen500 said:

I have head that if my energy account is in credit, i wont get the monthly payment. Surely this is not true? Sorry, just seeking clarification.

No its not true, as long as the energy account is in your name you will get the money, you should probably have had the first months by now so maybe check your account and see if its been credited.

Jurgen500

Thanks for that, much appreciated. To date, no payment received but will keep checking

PRAISETHESUN

I'm with BG and my monthly DD is less than the £66 rebate. My account is also in credit.

What happened to me is that my DD was taken as usual, then a few days later it was refunded back to my bank account. The difference between the £66 rebate and my monthly DD amount (~£10) was then applied as an additional credit to my BG account balance. No money was lost.

I'd check your bank account + energy statements and see what has happened. You should have had the first month's rebate by now.