Why has British Gas increased my DD?

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: BRITISH GAS FIXED TARIFF V49 (Recommended by MSE) Outrageous Direct Debit calculation..

Stolas

Got message today that they were increasing my DD from £94 a month to… £552! Account was already £200+ in credit. 

I’ve been sending them readings each month so no idea how they can increase the price so dramatically. 

debitcardmayhem

Stolas said:

Got message today that they were increasing my DD from £94 a month to… £552! Account was already £200+ in credit. 

I’ve been sending them readings each month so no idea how they can increase the price so dramatically. 

When did you last get a bill? are they still doing them every 6 months, the “credit” may not be accurate 

GingerTim

Stolas said:

Got message today that they were increasing my DD from £94 a month to… £552! Account was already £200+ in credit. 

I’ve been sending them readings each month so no idea how they can increase the price so dramatically. 

If you provide your monthly readings and tariff details here, no doubt someone will be able to give an idea of how much you should be paying each month.

Robin9

@Stolas  I have asked MSE to create a new thread for you -  that should eliminate any responses to the original post causing confusion.

As others have said more info please -  has the supplier actually been using your readings ?

Electric or Gas or both ?

If this a a six monthly account then that can be confusing -  the (credit) balance you see is the sum of the  credit / balance at your last bill  plus the DD's received.  It DOES NOT  include the cost of energy used in the period. Look at the balance one day and it may be £200; the next when energy cost has been included could be a large debit.

MSE_ForumTeam5

Hi @stolas we've split your question into its own thread for greater clarity

Scot_39

As above go back to basics.

(M3 or ft3 x conversion to kWh x Usage pa x cost + standing charges -£200 credit if real i.e. all usage / charges to date deducted )  and divide by 12.

And challange the increase with that figure.

And you might want to check B Gas has actually been using your readings throughout.

S Gas subsidiary ignored 4 sets of 6 monthly readings - 2 by their own meter readers and underestimated bills in my mums case.

DD then went up by c£50pm  - after my complaints (they initially demanded over £700 in one payment) -  to pay back 2.5 years of under billing.

Grey_Critic

Many DD changes are due to an algorithm - In error I submitted an incorrect reading that only became obvious at the next reading. I rang Octopus and explained the problem and the young lady spotted what I had done and made an adjustment correcting it. Meantime the computer adjusted the DD due to the incorrect reading - again it required them to do a manual adjustment.

Remember it is a computer you are dealing with most of the time and they are as thick as the proverbial.

Bigphil1474

OP, I take it this is just for gas? British Gas treat gas and electricity as 2 accounts and there are usually 2 separate DDs as well. Did they give you a predicted annual cost? Presumably it was somewhere in the region of £1,100. If so, as above, sounds like it might be a computer says no issue, unless you've suddenly started burning gas for fun. 
Simple thing to do is look at your bills for the last few months and make sure you haven't given a duff meter reading or somehow mixed up gas and electric readings - you can access your bills via the app.

Robin9

@Stolas     Have you had a meter change ?