British Gas got me over a barrel...I need help

alien28

Hi,

British Gas recently hiked up my monthly payment to more than double that what I currently paying. This increase was beyond my means and after some calculations more than double worth what I use on average plus anyone I think that lives on their own in a small terrace house!! In fear of the DD puting me in the red (incurring further charges) I cancelled, and using this websites advise immediately found a cheaper alternative. However British Gas are now blocking the move due to the fact that I owe an outstanding balance. I accept that I owe this money, I am happy to pay them the money however...
..in order to do this I have to continue being a British Gas customer, using them as my supplier until the money I owed is paid, then of course you have to keep adding on the money for the gas I will use in the mean time, while paying off the money I owe. So now I am trapped each month I will make a payment within my budget an each month British Gas will charge me as much if not more for the gas I need to use in the mean time resulting in the balance never getting paid, well unless I accept waiting until summer when gas usage is down. :mad: :mad:

Is there any suggestions out there how I can get this resolved?

PS the person I last spoke to at British Gas couldn't even comprehend the fact that they were charging more than twice what I used, what hope do we have!!! :rolleyes:

vicshippers

It all kind of depends on how much you owe them and how long it will take for you to pay it off.

When we switched from Devil Gas to EDF, EDF took on our debt so that they could start supplying immediately. But then - we only owed about £60, and we just added £5 onto the DD to cover it!

Cardew

Firstly all Utility Companies will block customers moving to another company if they have a large debit balance.

This is perfectly understandable as otherwise some people would move from utility company to utility company leaving a trail of large debts, which would never be recovered. Indeed some people go Bankrupt just to avoid paying a single company what they owe; think what would happen if they could run up debts with several companies!!

The reason why BG(and every company) block your move is that whilst you are their customer they can force you to have pre-payment meters which will be set to recover the debt; or they can in the last resort cut you off.

By cancelling your direct debit you will be paying more for your gas/electricity anyway, and if you don't pay them enough off your debt you will have pre-payment meters installed and be even worse off.

The reason for your DD doubling is because your DD payments have not been sufficient and you have built up a debit balance. The DD payment is calculated to recover that debt and cover what you use.

Suggestions?
1. Pay them what you owe and they will let you move.

2. Get back on a DD and negotiate a payment that allows you to pay back your debt as quickly as possible, so you can move.

3. Get yourself on BG's Click 5 internet only tariff(if you can) as that is the cheapest BG tariff.

alien28

Thanks for the advise so far, I think my only option to not have to pay british gas anymore of my cash is to find a kindly relative to give me a short term lon. The amount owed is about £150.
Its been the third time that they have tried to increase my DD. And if as mentioned above it was becuase I wansn't paying enough over the year to cover my usage it would be fine but the truth is the actual increase I would need is about £4 (nased on calculations covering 2 years worth of usage) however british gas are looking for a monthly increase of £24!!!!
I am suprised that big compaines like BG do not ahve a financial contract in place to cover outstanding balances for when people get behind on their payments that allows customer/ex-customer to pay back what they owe without being trapped into using them as a supplier still. And this is what has gotten to me the most...as I stated in my post I know I owe them money, I want to pay them but still have my rights to choose my supplier. In this situation now I have no choice and thats what bugs me the most. I have follwed advise from martins money tips and user on the forums for a number of years now and cannot praise everyone here enough but I have to say that it saddens me the way in which business's try to pinch every last penny out of you and we are powerless more or less to stop in. Am I wrong to fear that consumer rights are becoming a thing of the past and we are now moving into an era, where everything has a financial cost...

alien28

ps excuse the spelling mistakes!!! Not the most proficient of typists!!!!

Ken68

You could economise, Alien, switch orf the gas, go to bed with an electric blanket. Get warm by going for a run, open up the fireplace, make extra money by saving electric.//switch orf the fridge or freezer. Stop watching tv. Use the computer at the library. Lots you can do rather than get into debt.

Cardew

Alien28,
I don't mean to be unkind but you don't appear to have got the point and I can't agree with your post.

All BG want is that you pay your bill before leaving them.

If the Utility company let a customer just leave when owing money then they would have great difficulty, with many people, to get their money.

You do have choice to go to any supplier you want - you just have to pay off your debts first.

darbs

Hi, I felt compelled to join the forum when I saw your message, as the same thing has just happened to me with British Gas for both my gas and electricity, I owe about £50 to BG and they wanted to double the amount payable for my gas account and put the electricity up by about 50%.

I contacted them by email, as I have an on-line british gas account and asked how they had worked the new sum out. They sent a standard response saying that they had re-calculated based on my usage (without adding any calculations), and said that they could also take over £80 of your cash, over what you had used (ie you overpay) and they will keep it towards the following years payments, which is giving them your hard earned cash. So I did my sums and worked out that the bill shouldn't have gone up £29, but only £16, even with the money I owed them. I asked them to ring me to discuss, which they did, and a really nice lady said that she agreed with my figures, as it made common sense and would change accordingly, which they have now done, and without asking, put me onto the lowest tarriff they have for both Gas and Electric.

Because customer service agreed with me, I didn't move my account to anywhere else, as the prices are somewhat volatile at the moment.

If you do your figures, don't forget to put in the money you owe. Be able to explain your workings out, it could work out better for you to pay some extra (and therefore pay the outstanding debt off slowly) every month, than moving to another supplier (unless another supplier is much cheaper) and pay BG a lump sum.

Also BG re-calculate your usage twice per year, and I think this is where the problems are coming from as your usage goes down in the summer (it is certainly how they got me!) so they re-calulate using a low figure. Next time they halve my payment, I will do the same exercise to ensure I don't come unstuck.

Hope this helps.

neas

They increase 'what you normall pay'... to get rid of the extra amount you owe them... which you have used.

Example

DD per month: 30 pound
Usaeg of gas per month:40 pound
Extra gas used but not paid for: 10 pound worth a month

So if you continued paying just 30 pound a month and using 40 pound over 15 months say you'd owe 150 pound (which i must add is alot to owe on a BG bill).

They will never take more money from you, they just up your monthly contributions so you overpay over time i.e:

Owe BG:150 pound
Pay per month: 50 pound
Use per month: 40 pound
Paying back BG per month: 10 pound

so in 15 months you will pay them back what you owe them..

BG will never rob you ,they will adjust your DD to eventually pay them back, and then when you overpay them a bit you can 'review' your DD again.

Basically use less gas

Im intruged to know what you normally pay per month to BG and then what the proposed amount was.

Thanks

MarkyMarkD

alien28

I'm sorry, but you are confused in what you are saying.

You claim that BG were wrong to try to increase your DDs twice previously, but you owed them £150 at the point you tried to switch.

There are only two reasons why this could be the case:

- firstly, because they were correct that you needed to pay more per month. Maybe not as much extra, but something extra. And you chose to refuse and hence built up arrears; or
- secondly, because you have sought to switch suppliers in the winter when most people on a annual review plan will tend to owe their supplier money.

I believe that probably both are contributory factors here.

The answer to (1) is to increase your DD - as BG have suggested - to eat into your arrears. The answer to (2) is to switch suppliers at the end of the summer - around October - when your balance will be the lowest.

alien28

Firstly I must apologise for the confusion caused in my post. I let my frustration get the better of me. I recently have dealt with a number of much larger financial issues that I feel without the help of this site I would not have been able to resolve. I have been working very hard to clear a number of debts from mistakes in the past yet still at times it feels as I am only just keeping my head above water and it gets the better of me at times.

With regards to the £150 I owe, I made a mistake resulting in the debt & I take responsibility for that, this was not a result of paying too little over the last year but instead a mistake with my payments during the attempt to switch. I want to repay BG and appreciate their position. I just felt I was being trapped in a situation that would not be able to get out of as the longer it would take me to repay BG the more I would owe them.

With regards to the DD amount. I originally was paying £20 a month for gas. I took the last 2 years of usage and using BG own calculations worked out that I should be paying around £25.

With all the experience the BG in their industry I struggle to understand why the insist on checking the payments bi-yearly. they surely must appreciate that a lot of people rely on the fact that because the usage is much higher in the winter but lower in the summer that they can make an average payment that remains within their budget the whole yeah through. Having this payment hugely increased, when every penny counts, I feel is an unnecessary event if BG would just look at the whole picture. Being informed that your direct debit has been increased can be quite unnerving and unfortunately on this occasion the reps I talked to at BG had no understanding of this despite the figures I was able to quote them. They were very insistent that my DD would be £48, which I could not afford and could not justify. Plus this to the balance I owed them and I became worried my debt would increase too much for me to cope with before the summer months came about, especially with the recent weather here in the U.K.!!

I have taken steps already to reduce the amount of gas I am using this winter to bring the forthcoming costs down and will call BG tomorrow to reasonably and patiently discuss how I can repay them.

I thank you for taking the time to advise me on this. It is very much appreciated and I am sorry for the wrong impression I initially gave.