Is British Gas Direct Debit discount still a thing?

dt192

My electricity bill this month was £23, but British Gas had my DD set at £70, along with the £67 from the Gov that would have been an overpayment of £114.

I tried to reduce my DD to £1 on their site so that I could right this situation, but was only given the option to increase, I spoke to an agent who also could not reduce it (at least not to £1), so I cancelled the DD.

I received an email today claiming that they would penalise me by no longer offering the DD discount, however looking at my bill (which I received while on DD) there is no discount on it, the prices match the prices as quoted on the site. On their site it says 'This will be shown as a discount line on your bill.' however I have no discount lines and the prices on the website just match what I have on my bill.

Could somebody confirm that this discount exists and what it looks like? 

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

This means you no longer qualify for the Direct Debit discount and the price you pay for your energy has increased. The bills we send to you will need to be paid in full using a debit or credit card within 14 days.

You can view your new prices by logging into your online account.

Note: for anybody wondering why the bill is only £23, it's because they completely ignored my opening read and just charged me based on their estimate which was a way above my actual. They also ignored my gas reading this month and tried to charge me £187.72 estimated on what was a £23.20 bill once corrected.

Spoonie_Turtle

dt192 said:

I received an email today claiming that they would penalise me by no longer offering the DD discount, however looking at my bill (which I received while on DD) there is no discount on it, the prices match the prices as quoted on the site. On their site it says 'This will be shown as a discount line on your bill.' however I have no discount lines and the prices on the website just match what I have on my bill.

Could somebody confirm that this discount exists and what it looks like? 

The standard variable rates shown are usually the Direct Debit rates by default.  The discount can be seen if you compare with their non-DD version ('other payment method') in their rate tables.

The discount referred to as a line on the bill is probably* the EPG discount, or the unit rate for electricity would be more like 63p than 33p.
*I say 'probably', different suppliers do it differently but the comment about a separate line only makes sense if it's the EPG.

Alnat1

Rather than thinking of it as getting a discount if you pay by DD, consider it as you will pay higher rates if you don't.