British Gas credit use (cost + debt), had enough for 4 years so considering court action.

tifo

Qyburn said:

tifo said:

This means from the current smart PAYG meter they can't tell me how much it uses for gas and how much to debt. 

Can you read the meter yourself to see how much gas is being used in cu.m or kWh?

Yes, but that would mean me taking regular readings going forward, and since they're changing it to a credit meter i don't need to. It's not future use i need it's past.

I need a breakdown for the last 4 years, or at least from March 2021 when the smart prepayment meter was fitted, so that we can agree a debt figure for me to make a payment arrangement on. At the moment the amount is higher than it should be. I know i keep saying this but now i have proof also. It's about a £250 difference as it stands and then a breakdown might help more.

tifo

In January 2020 the debt was £1,781, in July 2020 BG said it's £1,593. In March 2021 they said it's £1,636. That's an increase of £43 but I paid £188 debt off between January 2020 and July 2020 (should be £96 at £3.70 a week but seems they charged double at £6.50 a week) and would have paid something, even if £3.70 a week, for the 8 months from July 2020 to March 2021 so at least another £126. So rather than come done by this amount my debt has gone up by £43. BG can't tell me why the debt went up by £43 in 8 months after it went down by £188 for 6 months.

The smart meter is set at £3.75 a week but i've used a lot of credit for both smart and non smart meter.

BG added a debt figure to the smart meter in March 2021, taken from the previous non smart meter, then some weeks later said it hadn't added so they're adding £1,636 to it then. I was expecting approx £1,400 at that time.

£60 of charges were added in March 2021 so these are not relevant for the previous meter. £19 was added later but BG can't tell me what for. The warrant charges are £60 to apply and £90 to execute, that's it. No more than that, so unless someone typed £19 instead of £90 they can't explain the £19. But i've been told further charges are to be added but they can't tell me why and how much.

tifo

In terms of the £250 free credit BG were giving to 'vulnerable' and 'low income' customers, i'm told by BG it's only for pensioners. Which can't be right and not what it says on centrica website or here at MSE https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/11/british-gas-is-giving-p250-free-credit-to-certain-prepayment-cus/ 

tifo

This is still ongoing, BG exec office been trying to send credit to the prepayment meter but the issue is no signal, in the end they changed the meter so that it could be connected to the hub again. I wanted an accuracy test with the (now) 'old' meter as not happy with how much credit has been used over the years, jumping up and down despite similar usage. They were able to read data from it, such as debt figure, but not send data to it, hence no credit or mode change to credit meter. I was advised not to, and they wouldn't waive the fee, the engineer also said he's rarely seen them not be accurate and that ofgem only look at the meter index figure, do some tests and that's it, they wouldn't be able to tell me why my credit use has been high.

The new meter did not connect to the hub, the engineer tried 3 different ones. So it's running as a dumb credit meter because it needs to connect to the hub and customer services need to mode change it to a prepayment meter (when they're fitted), the exec office then need to mode change it to a credit meter.

Does anyone know how to read the debt amount on a prepayment meter? The BG engineer didn't know and neither did the technical team, I asked him to call them and ask. He played about with options, as did I, and we couldn't see where the debt figure would be the amount, he said it's not on the meter and that CS work it out from credit use. But this can't be true as in that case a breakdown of credit to gas and debt would be available and it's not. CS do know that sometimes the meter doesn't deduct a debt amount.

The engineer also said if i've used emergency credit then there is a charge for that as it's not free to use, I thought it was and the amount used is deducted from next top up?

I've asked exec office if the issue could be that the meter is still charging me previous higher rate or the debt amount deducted is higher than agreed, hence the high credit use, but they said no. But, and the engineer could not tell me, if the meter hasn't connected the hub over at least the last 6 months and CS are not able to send data to it, how did they change the charge rates? They dropped in January and April this year, and have done so over the last 2 years.

At the moment BG owe near £450 in credit and compensation offered, from a few departments. The signal to the meter is stopping half of this.

tifo

i'm making slow progress ....

the account has been changed to a credit meter and bills have been generated for my use from readings BG apparently have from the smart payg meter. I don't understand why bills have been generated as i've been on payg for over 4 years, in any case, the transactions show 'Prepay top up' for some months then a bill for gas use and it's all adding to and taken off the debt balance. So there's no weekly debt repayment shown which i've been paying since Jan 2020. All credits and debits are put to the debt balance.

the credit of £128 i was meant to receive for use towards future gas use has been put towards the debt as has the £15.28 credit that was on the payg meter when it was changed. On top of this BG are taking off £3.75 a week from the credit or compensation they're paying.

the debt balance given to me is £1,104 and the debt balance showing on the account is £709.

tifo

Going through the transactions, there's a lot of spikes where the usage jumps from approx. 500kWh per month to approx. 2,000kWh per month then down again next month ..... this happens several times and there's no explanation for it, my usage did not jump 4 times in any month, esp spring and summer.

Qyburn

tifo said:

Going through the transactions, there's a lot of spikes where the usage jumps from approx. 500kWh per month to approx. 2,000kWh per month then down again next month ..... 

Does that correspond with your own meter readings? If so then there's nothing for BG to explain, they hav noway of knowing what's using electricity in your home.

tifo

Qyburn said:

tifo said:

Going through the transactions, there's a lot of spikes where the usage jumps from approx. 500kWh per month to approx. 2,000kWh per month then down again next month ..... 

Does that correspond with your own meter readings? If so then there's nothing for BG to explain, they hav noway of knowing what's using electricity in your home.

It's a gas account, now credit, but previously prepay for 4 years 4 months until this May.

I didn't start looking at or note meter readings until this year, from this thread, as didn't know how to. I only ever used to check credit balance and manually top up when needed.

It's not a matter of my readings corresponding with BG meter readings, there's no reason for usage to have increased x4 in any month. My gas use was the same though credit use was fairly consistent but high. It's posted here that this was one of the issues I was having.

Qyburn

tifo said:

It's a gas account, now credit, but previously prepay for 4 years 4 months until this May.

I didn't start looking at or note meter readings until this year, from this thread, as didn't know how to. I only ever used to check credit balance and manually top up when needed.

It's not a matter of my readings corresponding with BG meter readings, there's no reason for usage to have increased x4 in any month. My gas use was the same though credit use was fairly consistent but high. It's posted here that this was one of the issues I was having.

Same applies. If you don't look at meter readings you're never going to get anywhere.

tifo

Having looked at the transactions list now available in the credit account ('payment history') I see that BG have been generating bills when the account was in prepayment, when the meter credit was being used to pay for gas use, standing charge and towards the debt. Online the list goes to June 2022 and I have it going back to July 2006 through a DSAR request. This transactions list does not seem to take into account credit use and debt repayments while in prepayment, it's just plus (credit) top ups and minus (debit) bills which affect the end balance (in debit, i.e. debt).

I've created a spreadsheet using the BG transactions list, added the collection charges, added top ups as 'credit' and bills as 'debit' and both these columns affect the debt amount. The end debt figure comes to about £120 less than what they're telling me, which is about £300 less than the amount shown in a recent bill as it doesn't take into account credits from the executive team, whose own debt figure is £10 more.

How the bills match credit use i don't know.

All the info i'm mentioning has come from BG not me.