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British Gas cancelled our direct debit in error and we now owe £400+
Theta99waves
Posts: 8 Forumite
in Energy
Hi everyone - keen to get your thoughts on this.
We moved to our rented property in September last year and immediately set up a monthly direct debit with British Gas, solely for our gas (our electricity is supplied by other means).
British Gas took our first payment in September, followed by a payment in October and also November. We then altered the date of the direct debit to come out on the 1st of each month (payments had previously been taken around the 20th of each month), and received a confirmation email at the end of November saying the next payment would be taken on 1st December. So far, so good.
Around this time, British Gas were undergoing a big system reshuffle and porting everything over to a new system. We have today found out that there was an issue transferring our payment details over to their new system, and subsequently our direct debit was erroneously cancelled (by them) at the end of last year, without our permission or knowledge. No payments have been taken since November 2022, and we are now more than £400 in debt to British Gas.
We were aware that our debt appeared large (for us), but had put it down to rising energy prices and also moving into the property just before autumn/winter, therefore not building up much credit. We had assumed it would begin to come down over the summer months with our regular direct debit payments being taken. It is a real shock to find out that no payments have been taken for eight months.
British Gas have admitted all of this this is their error, not ours, and they also admitted they never notified us that our direct debit was cancelled (I have all of this saved in a chat transcript).
Initially, all they offered to do was to re-set up the direct debit to the original amount. We then asked if any compensation would be offered. We were offered £30 "as a gesture of goodwill", then £40. Their final offer was £50, but this would need to be signed off by someone senior if we accepted it. We have so far not accepted anything.
We have spoken to Citizens Advice, who have suggested taking it to the energy ombudsman, which we intend to do. But we would be keen to know if anyone else has been affected by this, and what the outcome was for you. Many thanks for your time if you've got this far.
NB - For those who think it is our responsibility to keep an eye on our direct debits - we agree wholeheartedly. However, we do regularly log into our British Gas account, and we are almost certain that until very recently our direct debit was still clearly showing up on there, set to £78 a month. But when we logged in today, there is no evidence of the direct debit. We genuinely feel like we are losing our minds, as we are so certain it was showing up even within the last month. The reason we are so sure of this is because we were anticipating an increase, so were checking in regularly.
We moved to our rented property in September last year and immediately set up a monthly direct debit with British Gas, solely for our gas (our electricity is supplied by other means).
British Gas took our first payment in September, followed by a payment in October and also November. We then altered the date of the direct debit to come out on the 1st of each month (payments had previously been taken around the 20th of each month), and received a confirmation email at the end of November saying the next payment would be taken on 1st December. So far, so good.
Around this time, British Gas were undergoing a big system reshuffle and porting everything over to a new system. We have today found out that there was an issue transferring our payment details over to their new system, and subsequently our direct debit was erroneously cancelled (by them) at the end of last year, without our permission or knowledge. No payments have been taken since November 2022, and we are now more than £400 in debt to British Gas.
We were aware that our debt appeared large (for us), but had put it down to rising energy prices and also moving into the property just before autumn/winter, therefore not building up much credit. We had assumed it would begin to come down over the summer months with our regular direct debit payments being taken. It is a real shock to find out that no payments have been taken for eight months.
British Gas have admitted all of this this is their error, not ours, and they also admitted they never notified us that our direct debit was cancelled (I have all of this saved in a chat transcript).
Initially, all they offered to do was to re-set up the direct debit to the original amount. We then asked if any compensation would be offered. We were offered £30 "as a gesture of goodwill", then £40. Their final offer was £50, but this would need to be signed off by someone senior if we accepted it. We have so far not accepted anything.
We have spoken to Citizens Advice, who have suggested taking it to the energy ombudsman, which we intend to do. But we would be keen to know if anyone else has been affected by this, and what the outcome was for you. Many thanks for your time if you've got this far.
NB - For those who think it is our responsibility to keep an eye on our direct debits - we agree wholeheartedly. However, we do regularly log into our British Gas account, and we are almost certain that until very recently our direct debit was still clearly showing up on there, set to £78 a month. But when we logged in today, there is no evidence of the direct debit. We genuinely feel like we are losing our minds, as we are so certain it was showing up even within the last month. The reason we are so sure of this is because we were anticipating an increase, so were checking in regularly.
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Comments
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But when we logged in today, there is no evidence of the direct debit. We genuinely feel like we are losing our minds, as we are so certain it was showing up even within the last month. The reason we are so sure of this is because we were anticipating an increase, so were checking in regularly.
What does a check of your Bank statement reveal?
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Take the £50 and move on, you've not suffered any loss. Keep a better eye on your bank account."You've been reading SOS when it's just your clock reading 5:05 "6
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Hi,check your meter reading and last statement, actual or estimate, would £78 DD cover usage?You will need to pay for whatever has been used, bit of a gunk, but did you not think bank balance was healthier?0
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I had an issue with my supplier So Energy sporadically failing to take payments. One time for six months in total. Fortunately I had spotted this and "put the money to one side" so it wasn't a problem when the collected the whole amount (£1000ish) in one go without any prior warning.
It definitely pays to keep a close eye to ensure all DD's are collected (or not) to prevent this sort of thing snowballing from a minor admin error to a big problem.1 -
Take the £50. You're going to have to pay for the gas you've used (there's different rules if the usage was a longer time ago), so treat it as a little bonus. BG should be able to adjust your direct debit so you can pay off what you owe over the coming months rather than expecting your to pay it one lump sum.2
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It's not really about the money for us. And of course we would be prepared to pay for our gas. We just find it incredibly poor that our direct debit was cancelled without our permission or knowledge, and we suspect this may have affected other customers also.MeteredOut said:Take the £50. You're going to have to pay for the gas you've used (there's different rules if the usage was a longer time ago), so treat it as a little bonus. BG should be able to adjust your direct debit so you can pay off what you owe over the coming months rather than expecting your to pay it one lump sum.0 -
Unfortunately not, which is probably a sign of the times.did you not think bank balance was healthier?1 -
Hi,all blame seems to be directed at BG, was it maybe bank at fault?1
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Good point, but we are pretty sure it's a BG error. An advisor told us that when our account was transferred to the new system, our direct debit details were not transferred over with it.frugalmacdugal said:Hi,all blame seems to be directed at BG, was it maybe bank at fault?1 -
It is unfortunate, but you are actually going to be £50 better off because of their mistake.4
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