British Gas

greyteam1959

British gas will not currently offer me a full bill monthly direct debit.
Their chat says just cancel the direct debit and pay the full bill when I get it it every month.
Will I be penalised with a higher unit rate and standing charge or not ??
I am currently on standard variable rate.

herebeme

Yes. BG do offer variable monthly DD. My father has it. 

Their own website says they offer it 
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-support/debt-and-payment/payment/variable-direct-debit

Just call them midweek. The holiday period chat agents are probably useless. Do not cancel your direct debit. It’s more expensive. I’d make a complaint about the agent that advised that too. 

herebeme

NB. If you owe them a lot of money they may require payment before they let you switch. 

greyteam1959

Thanks for that information.
Looks like you have to call them to change to variable monthly direct debit.
I have saved a chat transcript so might just make a complaint as well.

jazzy

herebeme said:

Yes. BG do offer variable monthly DD. My father has it. 

Their own website says they offer it 
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-support/debt-and-payment/payment/variable-direct-debit

Just call them midweek. The holiday period chat agents are probably useless. Do not cancel your direct debit. It’s more expensive. I’d make a complaint about the agent that advised that too. 

Any idea if the variable monthly DD is the same charge as the standard variable tariff i.e. kwh and standing charge? This is for electricity and gas. 

pochase

As long as you pay by direct debit you should get the same DD discount for variable and fixed direct debit.

That said somebody mentioned a few days ago a supplier that wants to charge higher rates for variable direct debit. If true that would be a case for the Ombudsman, maybe even Ofgem as it is contrary to Ofgem rules.

Kenuser

i have just come off the phone with British Gas.  I had an email about an outstanding bill which i paid two weeks ago.  to avoid the obvious delay in their accounting system picking up payments i asked to pay by variable direct debit. 

i was told they can only do fixed direct debits for domestic clients.  which is weird all my other home bills like water, waste etc are paid by variable direct debit and my british gas business bills are paid by variable direct debit, (they insist on it).  I like variable direct debit as when the bill comes in it is fully paid by the direct debit.  you don't pay an 'estimate' monthly you just pay the whole bill when it comes in.  this does of course stop british gas from 'over estimating' the monthly charge so over paying means you are lending them free of charge your own money.

i don't actually have a personal bank account all my domestic bills are paid via my business account and have been for over 20 years.  (Cost gets posted to my personal drawing account.)  So i get three bills from British Gas.  The two big, business, bills are paid by direct debit and the small home bill i have to remember to pay manually. 

what is it with british gas.  why can't they set up a variable direct debit.  they've been around since i started in business and i am 77 - isn't it about time they caught up with normal banking practice instead of blaming their inability to do this on their 'new system' which isn't so new as it came in two years back. 

Kenuser

by the by having posted the above i went on the link to set up a variable direct debit.  the link only allows you to pay a fixed amount every month.  though the link says 'variable' direct debit the reality is that it isn't available anymore.  though it was available in the past.  Problem for british gas is that with a variable direct debit when you pay the full invoice when issued they can't set up you to pay a fixed price monthly that gives them client moneys to play with.