Please can someone make sense of this British Gas statement

vigman

Coffeekup said:

They are working off estimated readings for a start, I would speak to the family member/s and get them to take a picture of the gas meter and one of the electric meter and send them to BG, and let you/us know so we can see if they are using more or less than BG's estimates.

I'm not sure what the migrated opening balance means? Was they with BG in a another property and the balance has been brought over from that property?

Thanks. They’ve provided both meter readings and have been at the property for years. 

BooJewels

Coffeekup said:

They are working off estimated readings for a start, I would speak to the family member/s and get them to take a picture of the gas meter and one of the electric meter and send them to BG, and let you/us know so we can see if they are using more or less than BG's estimates.

I'm not sure what the migrated opening balance means? Was they with BG in a another property and the balance has been brought over from that property?

I think it's because BG are moving customers to a new system and they basically close your old account and open a new one and transfer your balance.  That's the adjustment being made. 

vigman

BooJewels said:

Coffeekup said:

They are working off estimated readings for a start, I would speak to the family member/s and get them to take a picture of the gas meter and one of the electric meter and send them to BG, and let you/us know so we can see if they are using more or less than BG's estimates.

I'm not sure what the migrated opening balance means? Was they with BG in a another property and the balance has been brought over from that property?

I think it's because BG are moving customers to a new system and they basically close your old account and open a new one and transfer your balance.  That's the adjustment being made. 

Thanks. Would it really be too difficult for British Gas to make all this much clearer?

BooJewels

I know @vigman - I didn't even know they were going onto a new system until I saw it mentioned here. 

I gave a meter reading on 29th September and got a bill a few days later with the subject of "Your September-September energy statement" and saying "Your final statement is now ready." which sounded a bit terminal to me - I wasn't leaving.  A few days earlier I'd got a message saying "we've updated your account" and "it's all set up for you" - which it wasn't, everything was empty - no DD set up, no bills, no payment history etc.- which I'd discovered at the start of September for myself anyway. 

I then get another email on Friday with exactly the same content as the first one about my September statement, but with a revised bill, cancelling the earlier one and instead of using the meter reading for 29th September I'd given them, they used an estimated reading!  And £5.83 difference in credit balance, which has disappeared.  My old account shows a 0 balance and the new one is the amount 'adjusted'.  It was already right before they issued the new bill.

No mention that I've seen of how they're doing the migration to the new system and why additional bills and about these adjustments.  I was just hanging on to see if there was a slew of confused people posting here - because I certainly was.

vigman

I’ve just noticed that the migrated opening balance doesn’t say if it’s a debit or credit balance?

Jyana

vigman said:

DullGreyGuy said:

vigman said:

BooJewels said:

Credits made (DDs paid or manual payments) = £373.62 - minus fuel used of £214.13 (inc VAT) = £159.49 credit. 

Add that to the 'new balance' of £1207.43 and it makes the adjustment amount of £1366.92.   In my own case, the adjustment on page 2 (which we haven't seen) is the credit that was applied to my new version of the BG account.

Thanks. So is £1207.43 (the new balance)  owed now or is it what it will be in a year’s time due to the £1366.92 estimate for future use?

The suggestion is that there has been some new system implemented hence the invoice starts with a £0 opening balance and has an adjustment which would be moving the credit/debit over to the new system from the old one.

1) need to see page 2

2) what was the closing balance on the last statement? £1,366.92 in debt is probably the answer. 

Thanks. He’s just sent me this image link to the second page. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/i1qnBSGhb2iHup5b8

The £1,366.92 adjustment amount is the debt that has been transferred to this account from the previous bill/account, no?

Energy bill is:
Gas & Electric = £214.13

Direct Debits = £373.62

Therefore overpaid by £159.49 for the time period, so that amount is now a credit on the account, until:

That amount is used up by taking it away from £1,366.92, which leaves a current debt of £1,207.43 on the account.


But, BG have used an Estimate for the current readings. So the bill won't be correct until they send in the current readings. And if the property has been empty and no energy used, I imagine the debt will be around £890ish instead once standing charges have been taken in to account.

BooJewels

vigman said:

I’ve just noticed that the migrated opening balance doesn’t say if it’s a debit or credit balance?

I think it's a debit unfortunately, as mine has a CR next to the number on the bottom line:

vigman

BooJewels said:

I know @vigman - I didn't even know they were going onto a new system until I saw it mentioned here. 

SNIP

I have a dual fuel account with BG and have had no notification of any new systems or balances moved over!?

Although not well at the moment, I’m not particularly stupid being an IT expert, writing complex spreadsheets etc, but I would say that documentation is confusing, possibly deliberately so. 

Why not just say we are moving systems, you didn’t pay us enough through your direct debits in the past and therefore are carrying over a debt of £n on the new account?

DullGreyGuy

vigman said:

BooJewels said:

Coffeekup said:

They are working off estimated readings for a start, I would speak to the family member/s and get them to take a picture of the gas meter and one of the electric meter and send them to BG, and let you/us know so we can see if they are using more or less than BG's estimates.

I'm not sure what the migrated opening balance means? Was they with BG in a another property and the balance has been brought over from that property?

I think it's because BG are moving customers to a new system and they basically close your old account and open a new one and transfer your balance.  That's the adjustment being made. 

Thanks. Would it really be too difficult for British Gas to make all this much clearer?

It probably could have though as noted in an earlier post the £0 opening balance would have looked odd if you had the previous statement to hand and the page 2 states its the transfer of the previous balance as an adjustment.

BG numbers are a debit unless explicitly stated as a credit (or CR) hence on the front page everything is just plain numbers other than the payments made which is noted as a Credit.