British Gas and AR marker arranging Direct Debit Payment Plan

principlecounts

Well this is a surprise, I recently switched from British Gas to Octopus - the best thing ever. However, around 6 weeks after switching there was a rather large bill from British Gas to pay, around £320. It was a bit unexpected as I had been paying regular direct debits with British Gas, however there had been issues with the electric smart meter, and for a while for various reasons I was paying half the usual direct direct, but when the final bill was calculated this had all caught up. OK that's fine. When I decided to pay this, I asked if there was a payment plan I could arrange to make managing this extra payment over some agreed time period - as my direct debit with Octopus was lower than British Gas and this extra payment would be a similar amount I was paying with British Gas. I was offered a direct debit plan, I accepted and we went our separate ways. 

Now today, I tried to make an online purchase using my Barclaycard, and for some reason I was blocked from making the purchase. Calling Barclaycard, it turned out my credit limit had gone from £16000 down to £300. Barclaycard said I would need to contact the credit file companies to see what was going on. My credit is excellent, and I pay everything on time, and my money management is good. Looking closer into my credit file the only aspect raising a flag is this 'AR' marker against the arranged payments I have been making with British Gas.

Now had British Gas said or stated anywhere this would be marked adversely on my credit file I would have refused this payment, and found the funds to pay it. I'll be paying this in full tomorrow morning, and will be making a formal complaint. I'm not even a late payer, I'm making an agreed arrangement to pay it. I see I'm not the only one here, interested in hearing experiences. I'll keep people posted. 
 

fatbelly

You say that you have an agreed arrangement to pay BGas and that is exactly what the AR marker says.

I think you need to be complaining to Barclaycard and/or using another credit card. They clearly don't want your business

Alnat1

You say you always pay on time. BG sent a bill for the energy you have used and you asked to repay it over an extended period - this is not paying on time.

QrizB

If I was a credit card company and I found that one of my customers couldn't pay a £320 energy bill in a timely fashion, I'd be reconsidering their £16k credit limit too.

principlecounts

QrizB said:

If I was a credit card company and I found that one of my customers couldn't pay a £320 energy bill in a timely fashion, I'd be reconsidering their £16k credit limit too.

If I was an energy service provider and my customer wanted to pay the final bill by direct debit, I would be saying an 'AR' marker will appear on your credit file, and explain what this means and the implications. Then I would have reconsidered this option. The way this payment option is sold is to help manage payments without sharing the implications, this is different from other scenarios like late payments, missing DD's etc. where implications are more clear.

And yes, my other credit card limits appear fine, and Barclaycard have now become a disgrace to me. 

HillStreetBlues

Do/did you use your Barclaycard  often?

la531983

HillStreetBlues said:

Do/did you use your Barclaycard  often?

This ^^^^

There have been numerous cases on this forum of Barclaycard reducing credit limits on cards that are barely used. This may all just be a coincidence. 

principlecounts

Alnat1 said:

You say you always pay on time. BG sent a bill for the energy you have used and you asked to repay it over an extended period - this is not paying on time.

I paid on-time as in direct debits were regularly being deposited. I've just called them and paid the balance off. The operator wasn't helpful on the credit file side of things, but was using language like I'll be removed from their 'blacklist' after paying so it's best I do it. Next step will be complaints.

I did check the emails I received about this payment plan, and it was only after I setup the payment plan, did it say the following: Your credit rating If you are an existing British Gas customer with a repayment plan set up that lasts over 12 months or a customer that has left us, we have to share some of your account information with credit reference agencies. We need to let them know you have a payment arrangement on your credit file. This could lower your credit rating – meaning it could be harder for you to get credit. It can also lead to lenders giving you higher interest rates or stricter rules for borrowing. You can learn more about your credit file online. 

Wow, just in, after paying the the full balance, I get this email: Your agreed repayment plan to pay off your outstanding balance has now been cancelled. This could have been because you cancelled your Direct Debit, missed payments or you asked us to cancel it yourself. You still owe an outstanding balance of £310.00.

This company is beyond help.

principlecounts

la531983 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Do/did you use your Barclaycard  often?

This ^^^^

There have been numerous cases on this forum of Barclaycard reducing credit limits on cards that are barely used. This may all just be a coincidence. 

Interesting, I used the card regularly until recently where I did a balance transfer and now the card is empty. But all clues suggest this 'AR' marker was a trigger. I've been with Barclaycard for twenty five years.

Alnat1

I'd think it is unlikely that a card company would be checking the credit ratings of existing customers on a regular basis. They are only likely to check if you request a limit change or ask for further services from them.

You've explained above that you recently took the balance to zero and have stopped using the card, this is much more likely to have triggered the limit reduction.

mmmmikey

I'm not really seeing what I would consider a reasonable cause for complaint against British Gas. You have asked them if you can defer paying what you owe them, they have agreed and updated your credit file accordingly. They have made no judgement about your creditworthiness - just accurately updated your file accordingly.

This is not a bog standard monthly direct debit agreement where your balance goes up and down over the year with occasional adjustments. This is a more specific agreement you have made to repay a debt and has been recorded as such.

Presumably when you asked to be allowed to defer paying what you owed you gave a reason along the lines that it would be difficult to pay and in those circumstances BG would have tried to be helpful and accepted your proposal. If you had been open about having other means to pay then BG may have expected you to do so. So in this respect BG could be seen as having legitimate cause for complaint themselves.

As far as the Barclaycard is concerned, you don't know with any certainty to what extent (if any) the AR marker has had. There's a lot more to credit scoring than repayment history, and even in the (in my view unlikely) event that Barclaycard did a credit check you might well find that it's having a large amount of unused credit that's the key factor.