British Gas | First time buyers

emjk97

Hi! First post on here so hopefully all is okay. 

My partner and I have just purchased our first home. Our supplier is British Gas so we informed them of the move etc and our bill was estimated at £182.00. They’re now saying we’re not going to be paying enough and we should be paying £368.00 to ‘stay on track’. In an email they say they ‘estimated these costs including VAT based on your energy use over the last 12 months’.

We haven’t paid for any energy over the last 12 months (both living with parents). We’re both baffled that they estimate two people who never have the heating on are going to be using almost £400 worth of energy. 

Has anyone else experienced this? What’s the best thing for me to do?

thank you so much for reading!

Blackraspberry

Energy companies have extremely short and strict terms of payments for their suppliers and to function need to be cash reach ( lack of cash was a reason contributing to many companies went busted). That’s why they value payments up front from customers. If they don’t have your usage history they will use pro-forma. Since direct- debit needs to have some base for charging. Unfortunately what most people don’t realize, they tend to make errors on the bills ( eg. Double charging the same period) and since payments are made previously, people don’t tend to check it too often. You can do what they ask or be ready to make one-off payments once the bills are ready. ( they don’t charge regularly due to current market changes so you might be shocked with large bill for longer persiod)

[Deleted User]

emjk97 said:

 We’re both baffled that they estimate two people who never have the heating on are going to be using almost £400 worth of energy.

They don’t know that you never have the heating on, and as you have said they have no personal history for you.  They’ll be looking at other industry data to try and work out what you might use, until they have a better profile for you, and are not supposed to let you run up a big debt so will tend to overestimate just in case.

Have you had a first bill yet? If so, how many kWh did you use across what period?

Blackraspberry said:

Energy companies have extremely short and strict terms of payments for their suppliers and to function need to be cash reach ( lack of cash was a reason contributing to many companies went busted). That’s why they value payments up front from customers. If they don’t have your usage history they will use pro-forma. Since direct- debit needs to have some base for charging. Unfortunately what most people don’t realize, they tend to make errors on the bills ( eg. Double charging the same period) and since payments are made previously, people don’t tend to check it too often. You can do what they ask or be ready to make one-off payments once the bills are ready. ( they don’t charge regularly due to current market changes so you might be shocked with large bill for longer persiod)

This answer started so well until you said that suppliers tend to double charge. They don’t.

Fixed monthly direct debit appears to be desirable to most people. There’s no conspiracy that needs you to switch to a more expensive way of paying to beat it.

badger09

emjk97 said:

Hi! First post on here so hopefully all is okay. 

My partner and I have just purchased our first home. Our supplier is British Gas so we informed them of the move etc and our bill was estimated at £182.00. They’re now saying we’re not going to be paying enough and we should be paying £368.00 to ‘stay on track’. In an email they say they ‘estimated these costs including VAT based on your energy use over the last 12 months’.

We haven’t paid for any energy over the last 12 months (both living with parents). We’re both baffled that they estimate two people who never have the heating on are going to be using almost £400 worth of energy. 

Has anyone else experienced this? What’s the best thing for me to do?

thank you so much for reading!

Does BG supply both your gas & electricity?

Did you send them opening readings when you moved in?

Are you on their SVT? (Standard Variable Rate)

Do you have Smart Meters?

I don’t know how often BG issue bills, but the best way to keep on track is to send regular meter readings. Every month is good. That way, you’ll know exactly what you’re using & how much to budget for. The Gov payments of £66/67 until March will also help

I’m with Octopus who let me set my own DD level. I have a large credit balance at the moment going into winter, but if it gets too big, I can get some refunded. 

Good luck in your new home

Alnat1

If you are sure you won't use any heating, you could ask BG to pay by VARIABLE DD rather than the more usual fixed DD where you pay the same amount all year round. This would need you to give them monthly meter readings, a bill will be produced and the full amount of the bill will be taken by DD around 14 days later, leaving your energy account with a 0 balance. 

If you did put the heating on, the bills would be higher over winter than in summer and you would need to be able to budget for this

Ultrasonic

@emjk97 whilst you may not have had your heating on yet bear in mind that you presumably will over the colder winter period. Note that as a home-owner you wouldn't want to never use heating to avoid property damage, and you may find your home insurance has stipulations in this regard for this reason.

Everything BG is doing is about estimating usage and what you actually pay in the long run will be determined by your actual usage, so if you do end up overpaying now you either get future DD amounts reduced or a refund of part of your credit balance. 

To inform the discussion, are you now living in the property? If so, what were the initial readings you gave BG and the date, and what are the meter readings today?

KxMx

I moved into my flat 4 months ago which was supplied by BG, they offered me only quarterly bills or a fixed DD, I also know of others who have been unable more recently to get a variable DD from them.