Beware British Gas end of plan debit predictions!

Sapindus

Mildly peeved with British Gas.  They helpfully told me they estimated I would be £279 in debit by the end of my payment plan, because I was using more energy than expected.  I'd more than likely have £279 hanging around by next May, but on an impulse decided to pay it now.  Made the one-off payment.  My account summary now immediately says they predict I'll be £160 in credit by the end of my plan!  Which no doubt by then will be swallowed up by a massive price hike, but still, I'd rather the money had been sitting in my savings account earning interest, not theirs!  I am £1300 in credit! 

[Deleted User]

The system might be assuming that you will continue to 'overpay' or it might have updated the amount you are expected to use.  Nobody is going to be accurate to the nearest pound about their total energy cost between now and May.

Sapindus

It's misleading then isn't it to say "get back on track by paying £279".

[Deleted User]

It's not the greatest way of explaining it, that's for sure.  It's meant to be a general guide to avoid someone having a large unexpected bill, but they seem to be explaining it as a specific prediction.

brewerdave

I've pointed out before that this figure of "end of plan credit/debit" is nonsensical .At one stage my figure was going up and down without any input -no extra payments ,no meter readings -Nada.
I went on Chat once and the agent couldn't explain how it was calculated -and furthermore couldn't even tell me what date was "end of plan" !!

brewerdave

So on Friday my "end of plan" figure was in debit by ~ £30. Today (no payments, meter reads etc) it shows in credit by ~£3
Some algorithm BG must have    

MWT

Sapindus said:

Mildly peeved with British Gas.  They helpfully told me they estimated I would be £279 in debit by the end of my payment plan, because I was using more energy than expected.  I'd more than likely have £279 hanging around by next May, but on an impulse decided to pay it now.  Made the one-off payment.  My account summary now immediately says they predict I'll be £160 in credit by the end of my plan!  Which no doubt by then will be swallowed up by a massive price hike, but still, I'd rather the money had been sitting in my savings account earning interest, not theirs!  I am £1300 in credit! 

When was your last bill though?

With the suppliers that bill infrequently, just looking at the credit balance isn't all that helpful.

Sapindus

MWT said:

Sapindus said:

 I am £1300 in credit! 

When was your last bill though?

With the suppliers that bill infrequently, just looking at the credit balance isn't all that helpful.

Yes, I appreciate that.  It's the end of summer so I'd expect my credit to be high.  I've reduced my direct debit payments to £200 instead of £214 which has helped a bit with the end of plan prediction.  I'm going to stop looking at it.  It may not help that I'm on my own in the house at the moment so the daily energy usage has gone right down and the algorithm is probably confused.  Lesson learned!