British Gas Credit file lies stopped me getting a mortgage.

Mumof3G7GC

I am a house owner (outright) with a small loan for credit purposes
I was with British Gas (not by choice, Bulb failed) and I was paying £350 per month. At beginning of year, they were alternately sending me (by paper) we owe you/you owe us bills.
After several heated conversations they finally decided I owed them over £1000 and needed to up my DD to £1000 month which I politely declined, knowing the debt would be cleared by the end of the summer as is the cyclical way.  This was agreed and I continued to pay until I left at end of May (I paid a regular £350 on 28 May), whereby I requested a full and final bill, I was almost immediately locked out of my account (bizarrely) and had nothing form them to this day on paper showing what the final bill was.

Several phone calls and emails failed to get a bill to materialise. (in the meantime, I have moved to Octopus by the way who so far are brilliant).

I paid them nothing in June or July but paid a cursory £150 in August not wanting a black mark on credit file.

In September I found another property to purchase (getting older wanted something smaller).

I have a sizeable deposit (60%) and went through the motions of offer acceptance whilst waiting for the full mortgage offer as the seller want completion ASAP.

On September 18th I was notified by financial adviser that the mortgage company had declined my mortgage due to something on my credit file.

Upon checking my credit file, I discovered that the ONLY possible issue is from February this year, British Gas have been recording me as not paying/in arrears.  (The sum that they showed is what I then paid on 18 September through my bank account to clear the account)

This is what has stopped me getting a mortgage.

I have spoken in excess of 20 times since 18th September with different service staff at British Gas but the complaint was only registered on 16th October.

Yesterday I got an email telling me it was all resolved (but not how).

After I called and complained and requested a call back from a manager, and sent an email response, I got another email saying it is closed there’s nothing to be done.

 

I appreciate the following:

 

1.      I should have kept on top of my credit file BUT as I have never struggled getting credit and had everything I needed I didn’t see why I needed to spend £15 a month to track this!

2.      I should (maybe) have continued to pay the DD to British Gas until they had completely cleared my bank account??!! (Can’t imagine they would let me know when the outstanding monies was paid off).

Thoughts/ideas how to move forward,  This will affect me for the next 6 years!

DE_612183

Have BG corrected the situation?

Mumof3G7GC

No they havent, they have advised me that there is nothing to correct

Gerry1

Mumof3G7GC said:

After several heated conversations they finally decided I owed them over £1000 and needed to up my DD to £1000 month which I politely declined, knowing the debt would be cleared by the end of the summer as is the cyclical way.  This was agreed and I continued to pay until I left at end of May (I paid a regular £350 on 28 May)

I paid them nothing in June or July but paid a cursory £150 in August not wanting a black mark on credit file.

2.      I should (maybe) have continued to pay the DD to British Gas until they had completely cleared my bank account??!!

It sounds like you cancelled the BG Direct Debit?  If so, you were probably in debt from around February until August.  Being Devil's Advocate, this will have been the case that's been accurately recorded in your credit file.  If the account has now been settled, BG will say that's the end of the matter hence they don't need to rewrite the credit file history because it's not incorrect.

That said, BG don't exactly have an outstanding customer service reputation and it seems that among other things they have failed to deliver a closing bill in a timely manner.

To make a case, you need to gather as much factual evidence (including recordings or transcripts of the phone calls) as you can.  Start by making a Subject Access Request.  Don't phone any more, keep everything in writing.

When you have all the evidence you can then submit a formal written complaint to BG.  Make sure it's headed COMPLAINT.  Summarise it, keep it brief, bullet points in chronological order are probably best, and limit it to two sides of A4 at most.  Make clear what you want as a resolution, e.g. (i) your credit file adverse info to be cleared, (ii) £30 + £30 compo (for failing to provide a closing bill in a timely manner and failing to pay the £30 compo it triggered) plus (ii) a further £50 compo for all the aggro.

That may not sound very exciting but realistically it's probably as good as you are likely to get.  The big win will be to have clear ed your credit file.

You can then go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter, or after eight weeks if they don't send one.

Mumof3G7GC

I have escalated to the Ombudsman as I already have a deadlock letter and have sent all backup documents.  What irks me most is that I am aware most people are owing money on their energy bills in the winter months, I do not dispute I did, what I do not agree with is that my credit file should show me in DEFAULT of payment which makes it look and sound as if I paid nothing at all!  This is factually incorrect. My credit score is 926 !!!!!! I have never defaulted on anything in my life, i usually clear any loans or credit purchases much earlier than the final term and I own my own house outright, I just wanted to get something smaller, (but needed a small mortgage).

DE_612183

credit score is not a big a deal as you suggest - missed payments are.

when they asked you for £1000 a month and you declined - were you still on a tariff that required a direct debit?

did you cancel your direct debit with them?

the payments you made ( you state 150 and 350 ) how were these paid?

many tariffs have the condition of paying by direct debit as a condition of the tariff - they give you a reduced rate for this.

If you stopped the payments, when BG request the payment and it's refused - this is a default ( regardless of the balance on the account )

this action of picking and choosing when to make payments is something that lenders frown upon, so a mortgage provider would probably look at your record as that of someone they would not want to loan to.

Largs

You can add a NOTICE OF CORRECTION to your credit file until this is resolved.

https://help.equifax.co.uk/EquifaxOnlineHelp/s/article/What-is-a-Notice-of-Correction

You need to check if BG report your accoun to all 3 agencies or just some.

Having been with them all my life either energy supply or Homecare I now would not go near them, they have recently gone into near customer service meltdown after moving accounts over to a new billing system.  Like you I did not receive bills online and then completely lost access toi my accounts and all I could view was bills from 2023.

Good luxk.

Gerry1

Mumof3G7GC said:

What irks me most is that I am aware most people are owing money on their energy bills in the winter months

That used to be the case, but no longer.  It was swings and roundabouts, sometimes you were in credit, sometimes you were in debit, but it all came out in the wash.  It was fair to both sides and just smoothed the bills.

However, apparently dozy Ofgem then ruled that suppliers shouldn't let accounts go into debit at any time.  I can (grudgingly) admit that there may be some justification for this because fixed DD customers changing supplier in the spring after a cold winter might get a shock when the final bill showed a significant debit that suddenly had to be settled all in one go.

However, the downside was that it allowed suppliers to build up a nice little mountain of cash that earns them interest.  Even worse, several companies used this to fund their businesses, Ponzi style.  When wholesale prices suddenly rose around 30 companies went bust... the law of unintended consequences.

Chrysalis

Mumof3G7GC said:

I have escalated to the Ombudsman as I already have a deadlock letter and have sent all backup documents.  What irks me most is that I am aware most people are owing money on their energy bills in the winter months, I do not dispute I did, what I do not agree with is that my credit file should show me in DEFAULT of payment which makes it look and sound as if I paid nothing at all!  This is factually incorrect. My credit score is 926 !!!!!! I have never defaulted on anything in my life, i usually clear any loans or credit purchases much earlier than the final term and I own my own house outright, I just wanted to get something smaller, (but needed a small mortgage).

One point here, people having a negative balance is not necessarily a debt arrears, its something the supplier (creditor) has decided its ok so there is nothing to log on a credit file.

So whilst that may seem unfair, it is important to understand that.
In your case it looks like the supplier wasnt happy that you were meeting monthly obligations so logged it on the credit file, good luck in getting it removed, but I wouldnt bring up any points about the fixed direct debit system on other customers as an argument, as that wont get you anywhere.

Mumof3G7GC

when they asked you for £1000 a month and you declined - were you still on a tariff that required a direct debit? 
Yes, continued the agreed £350 per month

did you cancel your direct debit with them?

Only cancelled DD when transferred over to new supplier.

the payments you made ( you state 150 and 350 ) how were these paid?

the £350s ALWAYS paid by DD.
the £150 through BACS.

born_again

So just how much were they billing you for your usage (not DD) a month, given a debt of £1K?
How much was the final bill?

Given a debt of £1K, which the £350 a month was clearly not covering & your decline to increase DD to help clear the amount. Only adding a extra £150.
I can see why they marked your CF

But this alone would not be a reason for a mortgage decline. Something else such as affordability may have come into play.