In Credit but British Gas increasing DD

400ixl

bob2302 said:

400ixl said:

What is your annual consumption? Should be on your bill.

Take that and multiply it by the unit price, divided by 12 will give you how much your monthly DD should be. You can do a calculation with your current credit to identify what it would be if you didn't take the credit back.

You forgot to add the SC

Good point, yes that needs adding.

YBR

I find that most companies over-estimate how much energy I will use (kWh). BG was the worst by some margin (50% overestimate on Gas and 30% on electricity), and would not accept the history that I have. 

Octopus over-estimate by around 5% at the moment, but I have the flexibility to change my DD payments.

wrf12345

I am on variable direct debit with Octopus and it is a relief after the constant hassle of chatting with BG to stop them increasing the fixed DD. And it is nice, albeit for a short period, to actually owe them money rather than having an increasing credit sitting there. If with BG in chat quote Ofgem as not allowing companies to increase fixed DD when in credit (made it up but seemed to work), usually worries the agent enough to refer it to her line manager, they do back down if you persist (just to add insult to injury, sometimes their system will log you out due to inactivity when waiting for chat reply) - but who needs the hassle of doing that many times a year? If everyone did it their chat system would disintegrate but maybe Ofgem mandating that they should keep customers out of debt by doing these DD reviews is the root cause? I found it astonishing that BG's new accounting system does not allow variable DD but perhaps it does because someone who was moved from the old system said he kept his variable DD and they are just stopping new customers from accessing it. 

BarelySentientAI

wrf12345 said:

 If with BG in chat quote Ofgem as not allowing companies to increase fixed DD when in credit (made it up but seemed to work), . 

The official requirement is "not to let customers have excessive credit balances" - nice and vague so you get to have an argument about 'excessive' - but your phrasing will work much better with the customer service reps.

wrf12345 said:

I found it astonishing that BG's new accounting system does not allow variable DD but perhaps it does because someone who was moved from the old system said he kept his variable DD and they are just stopping new customers from accessing it. 

Completely agree.  VDD should be a standard offering from all suppliers.