British Gas - Direct Debit Increases

cozmoz007

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum, so be gentle.

We currently have both our gas and electricity supplied by British Gas, which we pay for by direct debit. In january our payments were as follows:

Gas: £100 pcm (before xmas this was £70)
Elec: £70 pcm (before xmas this was £40)

We do not get bills as we opted for the paperless billing via the internet to obtain a further discount (unfortunately we can never access our account as the website doesn't seem to like us!!)

4 days ago I received a text from our bank (statement notification) which informed me that BG have taken £130 for our gas this month!!! :mad: We have received no correspondance from BG to inform us that our monthly payments were to increase - (something that they also forgot to inform us about when they raised the DD the last time!) This ends up putting our bank account over drawn as we only use that account for DD's and always transfer the required amount in.

I know that the prices have increased by 15% (but I thought we'd already been stung by them in January!), but this is a 30% increase.

We have our meter read every 6mths! I know that its been an extremely cold winter which has dragged on for longer than normal, but I don't live in a Mansion - I can't believe that my gas alone will cost me £1500 (thats if they don't increase it again before the end of the year!) :mad:

I was seriously going to swap to another supplier, but after the hassle I've had opening my new business and trying to get the gas switched from BG to Eon, which BG are refusing to do - even though I don't have an account with them, this has dragged on since October 2007, and is still not sorted, I've decided to stay put at home at the moment!

Hubby is trying frantically to get through to BG to discuss this - no-one is ever able to help (although he did manage to get the previous increase down to £100 pcm, from the original amount of £120).

Anyway, sorry for venting my anger and frustration in my first post, has anyone else experienced the same problems with BG and how did you guys deal with them!!!!

An Exasperated Cozmoz

Cardew

Welcome to the Forum.

You have nicely illustrated the problems with 'paperless billing' and the difficulty of accessing BG's website.

Your increase in DD to £130 must be notified to you under the DD guarantee or your Bank must refund that sum to you together with any charges for being overdrawn.

However the notification is probably in a footnote at the bottom of your on-line bill with a "we have reviewed your account and your DD will increase to £130 wef xxx) comment.

Doubtless BG will say that is their notification to you.

I have had lots of problems with my on-line accounts(I have 2 x gas and 2 x elect) and I have been on a fixed price tariff for 2+ years.(so no rises to deal with)

I actually came off 'paperless billing' because of their inability to get things correct and the problems accessing the accounts on line.

Incidentally I have been told that the 'paperless billing' discount is to cease after the 2008 payments. They are 'pushing' their Click internet accounts anyway.

I have a couple of direct telephone numbers and email addresses of the BG team set up to deal with the problems; but first I suggest you look at your bills on-line if possible.