£815 British Gas bill

Skelthwaite56

Hi Newbie here

I decided to leave British Gas after several years of having them as my electricity provider paying them £94 pounds a month. I followed advice and joined Octopus on £78 a month which soon dropped to £56 a month. Meanwhile I reclaimed an over payment of £500 in credit from British gas, but when I contacted them to retrieve my last direct debit of £94 , they informed me that I was in debit to them for £900+ they said I was underpaying them, but they have not provided me any proof of this just a demand to pay the bill. Where do I go for help on this matter please?

The_Unready

First step is to get the final bill from BG, compare their readings with yours and then work out your bills based on the tariffs at the time and your usage.

EssexHebridean

I believe that they also have a time limit to have produced your final bill with them - if they have not raised that bill then I think there is compensation due to you. Someone else will be along shortly to confirm or deny this, I'm sure! 

I have a feeling that BG might have been one of the suppliers who used to work on 6 monthly billing too - in which case it is perfectly possible that the credit you thought you had was indeed just built up ahead of a bill being produced. Having said that, I'd suggest that they should not have released it to you before billing you to the end of your contract with them. 

Hoenir

With a smart meter fitted you would have known exactly what your account position was. The direct debit is not your bill, merely a payment on account based on estimated usage. 

MWT

EssexHebridean said:

I believe that they also have a time limit to have produced your final bill with them - if they have not raised that bill then I think there is compensation due to you. Someone else will be along shortly to confirm or deny this, I'm sure! 

6 weeks to produce the bill and then 10 days to pay any refund due. £30 due for a failure to do that and a further £30 if they do not automatically pay the first £30 within 10 days of the failure ..

I suspect though that when the final bill is actually produced it will not be showing a refund.

Billing once every 6 months continues to confuse people with the high balance showing until the actual use is billed...

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