Grrr. Gas+electric problems. How do we switch from a meter to DD?

crispsandwich

Aside from the arguments in our HMO about paying for gas and electric (we're on prepayement meters), we've just lost £20 of credit on the electric in 4 days :mad:. I rang British Gas and was told the accounts were still in the previous tenant's names and so they couldn't talk to me about why so much had been taken. Fair enough, data protection etc. However, we got a letter from our LL last Sept saying a new account had been set up in our names so I was a little bit miffed that this was not actually the case. Someone has messed up. She asked me if I could give my details so it could be set up in my name and she'd 'backdate' it but when I asked what liabilities this might incur, the young lady on the phone just kept skirting around the question. So I politely refused.

Anyhow, we're paying through the nose (£200 a month+ for gas an electricity - it's a single glazed, old terraced house) and so we want to change to monthly DD. How easy is this to do? We don't want to go with British Gas. I've checked online on USwitch and there are a number of good deals there.

Would it be simple to switch?

SwanJon

If you get the account set up in your name and back dated they will refund you any extra you have paid, so it is worth doing.
If there is a balance on the account (currently previous tenant), they can object to you leaving, so it would help there as well.
Once you have the account in your name you can look into changing the meters and getting the better deal on DD/online.