British Gas Direct Debit issue

Dullville

Getting monthly help with my energy bills from the Royal British Legion via a pre paid credit card which will last for 12 months.
Can I just go ahead and cancel my existing direct debit to British Gas and just keep making monthly payments online with the prepaid credit card?
Tried to get an answer via the online chat with British Gas but they couldn’t quite understand what I was asking.
So far I have paid double in the last 3 months to my electric and gas accounts and have built up quite a bit of credit .
Thanks

Jyana

If you cancel your direct debit, your tariff will be changed unfortunately as it is more expensive for companies to handle payment by other methods. Is it possible to keep a nominal amount each month going by direct debit still instead? 

Dullville

Jyana said:

If you cancel your direct debit, your tariff will be changed unfortunately as it is more expensive for companies to handle payment by other methods. Is it possible to keep a nominal amount each month going by direct debit still instead? 

Thanks.
Tried to reduce the direct debit but the most it would let me reduce it by was £34 and £22, which I have done.
Ref your point about the tariff being changed if I cancel direct debit, I’m just on the standard variable rate anyway as my fixed rate finished last year so is there a more expensive tariff they could put me on if I cancelled direct debit?

MikeJXE

One thats about 10% more expensive 

Jyana

Yes, the rates are cheaper if you pay by direct debit, you have a discount as there aren't any admin costs from their side. 

I'm not sure how this card you have mentioned works, is it already charged up with your payments now, or does it get charged up monthly for you? If it's the former, then you could try adding an amount of it to your account now and see how that effects your monthly payment amount perhaps?

Dullville

Jyana said:

Yes, the rates are cheaper if you pay by direct debit, you have a discount as there aren't any admin costs from their side. 

I'm not sure how this card you have mentioned works, is it already charged up with your payments now, or does it get charged up monthly for you? If it's the former, then you could try adding an amount of it to your account now and see how that effects your monthly payment amount perhaps?

Thanks again.
The virtual credit card is already loaded with the funds and it can be used monthly and has a set amount that can be used each month, I’ve used 3 out of the 12 months available.

ariarnia

if you can afford to keep the dd going while you also make the monthly card payments then that will be cheapest. 

then when your credit has built up (normally they say anything over 3 months worth of dd so if the card payments cover your use then that could be from next month) then you can ask them to refund it to your bank account. 

you can do that every month (pay in the dd and the card payment then ask for the excess back) to keep your credit at a minimum they'll allow and still keep your dd discount. 

Dullville

ariarnia said:

if you can afford to keep the dd going while you also make the monthly card payments then that will be cheapest. 

then when your credit has built up (normally they say anything over 3 months worth of dd so if the card payments cover your use then that could be from next month) then you can ask them to refund it to your bank account. 

you can do that every month (pay in the dd and the card payment then ask for the excess back) to keep your credit at a minimum they'll allow and still keep your dd discount. 

Sounds a good plan.
Thanks very much.