British Gas variable direct debits

cmgurney

I'm switching to British Gas Collective Nov 26 from EDF. They have set up my direct debit but it is for a fixed monthly amount. I asked their live chat to change me to a variable direct debit but they don't seem to understand what I'm talking about. They keep telling me to contact my bank when it's British Gas who need to make a change to how much is billed each month.

Swipe

Send them an email.

MattMattMattUK

cmgurney said:

I'm switching to British Gas Collective Nov 26 from EDF. They have set up my direct debit but it is for a fixed monthly amount. I asked their live chat to change me to a variable direct debit but they don't seem to understand what I'm talking about. They keep telling me to contact my bank when it's British Gas who need to make a change to how much is billed each month.

I believe that British Gas stopped offering variable Direct Debit when they moved to their new billing platform. 

wrf12345

Back a few years when they had two different billing systems I could not understand why they would not switch me to variable direct debit, eventually working out that the "new" billing system had that option permanently disabled. Not the end of the world except that every three months they would insist on increasing the fixed DD despite always being a bit in credit with them, forcing me to engage with the chat system, half hour wait and then a mental tussle with the agent who kept saying they did not want me to get into debt but eventually and reluctantly conceded that they would keep the DD at the same level as before. They will tell you that Ofgem is making them do it as they have told companies to keep people out of debt. I switched to Octopus and their variable DD, would not go back to BG as they also seemed to make up exaggerated bills when they switched people from the old to new billing systems, so not very inspiring despite having some good offers on the rates. On the plus side, when leaving them they did manage to put correct meter readings through the system and calculate the correct final bill and issue me the right refund.

jimjames

I found this page that seemed to suggest you could switch between fixed and variable in your online account.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/help-and-support/billing-and-payments/paying-by-direct-debit

Then realised that was for business customers only. Looks like I'll be cancelling my switch if they don't offer the variable DD as per EDF who I'm with currently.

wrf12345

Fuse might be worth a look, they only do variable DD and seem competitive on rates...

cmgurney

Thanks everyone! I, too, found that help page about variable DDs before I switched but didn't realise it was only for business customers. In my case, the saving on the Collective Nov 2026 tariff is so great that I am prepared to put up with the inconvenience of monitoring my usage like a hawk until November 2026 and negotiating monthly payments down accordingly.

On the plus side, I have discovered British Gas Peak Save which seems better for me than EDF's Sunday Saver. It guarantees half-price electricity from 11am to 4pm every Sunday. I often failed to hit the EDF target (grandchildren living with me who need feeding, use computers heavily etc between 4 and 7pm) and - when I did hit the target - it gave me free electricity at a time I was at church! 

Do note that the default smart meter reading interval for this new tariff is monthly (for billing purposes). You need to manually set it to half-hourly readings in order to join Peak Save.

WiserMiser

The new BG billing system is compatible with Variable DDs, but it chooses not to offer them to new customers.

They did allow existing customers to continue with Variable DDs if they had them on the old billing system.

wrf12345

"The new BG billing system is compatible with Variable DDs, but it chooses not to offer them to new customers."

Fantastic customer service then...

QrizB

wrf12345 said:
Fantastic customer service then...

BG's customer service has a well-earned reputation.