I would move away from British Gas. Try Ebico, much easier to deal with than the rude people at British Gas. I think ebico charge the same whichever way you pay them. Good luck and do let me know how you get on.

I thought I was explaining, not judging. Unfortunately, not using credit IS having a 'bad' credit history. I agree this is a bit unfair but that is the world we live in and they vote for.

National average bills stretched over a year have topped £100 per month. People easily use four or five times the energy when it is cold. £650 for a winter quarter is not at all excessive. Other companies do not ask for deposits because they don't have the same size of risk or variability of useage and are free to stop providing a service precipitously.

There are other energy companies. You should continue to shop around and you will find one which will not ask for such a high deposit or any deposit. But that will be them taking a gamble.

i dont know anyone living in a 3 bed terrece getting a 650 pound winter gas bill, and we dont have a bad credit history, we dont have a credit history at all, we live within our means. the only reason we have prepayment meters is because they were here when we moved in 10 years ago, we pay everything else by direct debit and no other company has ever asked for a deposit. please dont judge other people before you know all the facts.

What's the problem? If you can not afford to pay the deposit how do you plan to pay your quarterly bills? It's winter. It's easy to spend more than £650 over a winter quarter on heating. To protect their other customers the company has to know you can afford to pay this bill. If you can, great, get a credit meter. It you can't, bad luck. You have a bad credit record. You can not get cheap (in this case, free) credit. Another salient example of why it is a bad idea to mess up your credit history.

we are on prepayment meters at the moment, we asked to go on monthly direct debit to bring our bills down and they asked for a deposit of 650 pounds after a credit check. how do you get off prepayment without going bankrupt.