British Gas have trashed my credit rating - what can I do?

starrybear

Hello,

 

I’m after some advice if possible please as to whether I have a leg to stand on with regards to a complaint I’ve made to British Gas, and they’ve seemingly rejected.

 

In a nutshell, I changed my energy provider a few months ago and was issued with a final bill. Went online to pay it, but the balance on my online account said nil, so I assumed they had made adjustments at their side and that the account was satisfied.

 

Anyway, this isn’t the case and I now have two, soon to be three late payment strikes on my credit file which, in a short timeframe has had a catastrophic effect on my credit rating. (Had to get my Experian report to determine what was happening)  I never received any sort of reminder or follow up for an outstanding amount.

 

I’ve put my complaint below and the response that I’ve received from BG – they’re now saying that where my balance was showing as nil, I wasn’t looking at the right account. I’ve never had more than one account with BG, and the login details that I’ve always used takes me to the page showing the ‘nil’ balance and clearly shows my name and the correct address for the supply.

 

Having checked through emails & documentation, I don’t have anything that says that the online system is changing, and even if it had, why would it require a new account/online portal, bearing in mind it would still be the same email address/details etc needed to access it?

 

I’m at my wits end with them, but don’t know if it’s worth me pursuing a correction on my account – I honestly feel like they’ve been so sloppy with communication and transparency and I’m extremely upset and anxious, especially as a black mark on my credit file will remain in place for years.

 

Any advice would be so gratefully received.

 

Thanks  

 

 

 

My complaint

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

I am writing to lodge a formal complaint with regards to a mistake that has been made recently by British Gas with regards to the above account.

 

I would hope that the details are logged on your file, as I have already spoken to one of your agents about this, but having changed from British Gas to a new provider earlier this year, I was given a final total owed to you of £300.

 

I went online to make the payment, but to my surprise, the account was showing as a balance of £0.00. I assumed at this point that British Gas had made some adjustments at the end of the energy contract, and seeing that the account was clear, thought no more of it.

 

However, a few months later, I began receiving alerts from credit reference agencies telling me that my credit score / borrowing power etc had taken a downturn. (It was previously perfect.)

 

I put this down to having temporarily utilised half of my credit card limit, which I know can often have a slightly negative effect.

 

However, a few weeks later, the same thing happened, and when I paid to pull up my full credit report, discovered that what was affecting my credit rating was an outstanding amount to British Gas.

 

This has had a catastrophic effect, as in the matter of a few short weeks, I’ve had my credit card limit reduced drastically, meaning I no longer have that as a financial safety net if an emergency were to happen. I’ve also been refused credit (I’ve never been refused credit in my life) on a big purchase I need to make and was long planned and hard thought-out. And additionally, some options on the renewal of my car insurance are no longer open to me. To add insult to injury, I received email correspondence from you yesterday (despite being told I would be called personally), to explain that yes, British Gas had made a mistake, and as a result you’d updated the account.

 

No apology. No update to be seen when I go online (still showing as a balance of £0.00), and a demand that I pay what is owed.

 

I am absolutely beside myself with worry and anxiety as well as a) not being in a position to pay this now unexpected bill and b) not in a position to give my family the Christmas they deserve due to the now poor state of my credit rating.

 

I would like to propose the following:

a.                   An apology from British Gas would be welcomed, bearing in mind the distress and the inconvenience that has been caused

b.                   An update via your credit control team to my credit file, undoing the black marks that have been placed on it unfairly, as well as a reassurance that this has been actioned. This is urgent.

c.                   A waive of the outstanding amount of £300, given it’s not been budgeted for and as a gesture of contrition, bearing in mind the hoops I’m going to need to jump through now to try and get my credit standing back on track, and the extra funds things like my car insurance are going to cost me

d.                   A refund of the £14.99 I’ve had to pay Experian for my full credit report, as well as the same £14.99 monthly fee I’m going to need to continue to pay, probably for a good few months yet. to ensure that this mess is sorted out.

 

I will be waiting for your response at your earliest opportunity, and also understand that I have the option to take this to the Energy Ombudsman should this matter not be resolved to my satisfaction within eight weeks of you receiving this request.

 

 

 

British Gas response

 

Thank you for contacting British Gas regarding the final bill. I will be looking after you to ensure things go smoothly. I am really sorry for your experience and repeated contact; we do appreciate you bringing this to our attention as this helps us to provide a better service. I am eager to move forward to offer you a solution. What I have done: I have taken the following steps in resolving your case: After investigated your account and found that it has been closed since 26/07/2024 and final bill has been issued on 11/08/2024. As I see you were paying by direct debit, and you have cancelled it with your bank on 12/08/2024 and this is the reason final bill payment for £300 is not received the missing payment mark has been applied on your credit file. I see that your account is switched over to the new billing system since 26/12/2023 and account was set up correctly. It seems that you were looking at old billing system online account and this is the reason you were unable to see the final bill. I can completely understand your concern regarding the credit file, however, the missing payment marks are updated correctly and this is the reason we are unable to remove it from your credit file. Further, Please fine the Link to login to your new online account and you can make the payment.   What we need from you: Once you have had an opportunity to review this, I would be grateful if you can let me know if you are ok for me to mark your case as resolved. What I’ll do: Once you provide the confirmation, I’ll arrange to close the complaint. If you’d like information about our complaints handling procedure you can view a copy by going online at https://www.britishgas.co.uk/complaints.html. Thanks for being with us for your energy.

 

 

 

 

DE_612183

The issue I can see you will have is that you cancelled the direct debit when most energy firms tell you not to.

I can also see you assumed that the balance was zero, but made no effort to confirm that - £300 is a fairly hefty amount - did you have no inclination that there was anything outstanding?

Have you had no communication whatsoever from British Gas about the £300?

starrybear

Nothing at all in terms of a reminder etc, either by post or email which is what's really frustrating - had it been brought to my attention earlier, of course I would have paid it, but as I said, when I accessed (what I thought was) my account online, there was no outstanding balance. So I did make an effort to confirm and pay, I just didn't double check that the £0.00 was the correct amount. Who would waste time doing that when it was there in (metaphorical) black and white on my screen?

debitcardmayhem

Have you since accessed the “new” account ?

starrybear

debitcardmayhem said:

Have you since accessed the “new” account ?

I have logged in several times, but am still seeing the 'old' account details. if there's a way to access the new system/'correct' details, it's not obvious from the homepage, which I navigated to via Google, so it's obviously the most up to date portal. Like I said, my email address wouldn't have changed (which is what you need in order to log in), so i don't understand how I would have been expected to search for another account? Does that make sense?

born_again

d.                   A refund of the £14.99 I’ve had to pay Experian for my full credit report, as well as the same £14.99 monthly fee I’m going to need to continue to pay, probably for a good few months yet. to ensure that this mess is sorted out.

Why are you paying for that?

You can get the same for free...

Gerry1

starrybear said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Have you since accessed the “new” account ?

I have logged in several times, but am still seeing the 'old' account details. if there's a way to access the new system/'correct' details, it's not obvious from the homepage, which I navigated to via Google

Download the latest BG app.

debitcardmayhem

starrybear said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Have you since accessed the “new” account ?

I have logged in several times, but am still seeing the 'old' account details. if there's a way to access the new system/'correct' details, it's not obvious from the homepage, which I navigated to via Google, so it's obviously the most up to date portal. Like I said, my email address wouldn't have changed (which is what you need in order to log in), so i don't understand how I would have been expected to search for another account? Does that make sense?

The email from BG which you posted above gives a link.

starrybear

born_again said:

d.                   A refund of the £14.99 I’ve had to pay Experian for my full credit report, as well as the same £14.99 monthly fee I’m going to need to continue to pay, probably for a good few months yet. to ensure that this mess is sorted out.

Why are you paying for that?

You can get the same for free...

I wanted the forensic deep dive - my free version of Experian doesn't give me the detail, just the score. Not really the point anyway - it's more of an indication to BG as to how much hassle they're causing me, but thank you.

starrybear

debitcardmayhem said:

starrybear said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Have you since accessed the “new” account ?

I have logged in several times, but am still seeing the 'old' account details. if there's a way to access the new system/'correct' details, it's not obvious from the homepage, which I navigated to via Google, so it's obviously the most up to date portal. Like I said, my email address wouldn't have changed (which is what you need in order to log in), so i don't understand how I would have been expected to search for another account? Does that make sense?

The email from BG which you posted above gives a link.

The link above takes me to the same page

p00hsticks

starrybear said:

I just didn't double check that the £0.00 was the correct amount. Who would waste time doing that when it was there in (metaphorical) black and white on my screen?

.. I would if I'd previously been told (by some method you don't describe) that my final closing balance was -£300 and I could see it hadn't been automatically taken from my bank account because I'd cancelled the direct deblt. 

The discrepancy would have made me want to contact BG to confirm which of the two figures were correct.