I have a gas prepayment metre, I usally put on the card £50 a month every month which generally leaves a surplus on the meter for over winter, however 8 months ago my boiler broke and was condemmed. I am saving for a new system. Hence i have had a surplus on my meter over £80 never been used. Is there a standing charge on gas? Is there anyway BG can bill me in some way for not using any gas for 8 months?. I as don't want an unexpected bill as i am on low income. I dont think BG have even done a meter reading in this time or send me a statement. As i would like proof (via statement) that i used no gas incase they try to wrongfully charge me as i hate haveing to speak to BG customer service. Also i have no money saved to pay for an unexpected bill.

For how long have you not had statements? Your questions would be answered on the statement. Unfortunately you will have to contact British Gas to find out where they are. It might have been an idea to a have done that eight months ago!

Does your prepayment metre have consumption details? Have you taken note of what your actual consumption is?

Standing charges may or may not be on your account - prepayment metres can have either type of tariff. Of course, if you are not using your gas for heating you should check and switch to a no-standing-charge account or, more accurately, standing-charge-hidden-in-a-higher-cost-per-unit tariff.

I'm afraid you are going to have to overcome your (understandable) dislike of phoning BG's customer service. Eight months late is better than never.

Oops, I forgot. If it's an OLD prepayment metre then you will be paying a standing charge. No standing charges are only available with more recent models.

Well i just went into my gas folder and i dont have any statements ( well if these are it there not very good) i have letters which say prepayment gas account annual summary. These are the latest i have.

You hvae used 5869.32kwh of gas since 6 jun 2006 this was sent 18 jun 2007

I then have another prepayment gas account annual summary which says

You have used 10312.39 kwh of gas since 6 june 2006 this was sent 18 jun 2007

So am confused why i have 2 sent to me at the same time with 2 different gas consumption figures

Hi Tucker

I'm afraid i agree with ShiverKitten, you will have to bite the bullet and contact BG customer service (PP Team) they will be able to give you the answers.

I know very little about quantum meters, but i do know that if its an older model, then it takes the daily standing charges every wednesday morning (about 1am!) so if the credit has remained on your display as £80 then i imagine it isnt doing this, also i am suprised, well actually i aint, by BG, that there system hasnt either sent you a letter stating the obvious (why havent you bought any gas for 8 months) or sent you an estimated statement as when you put your card in the meter, to download your last lot of credit, then go to the outlet to buy more, the quantum card stores the meter reading from the last time you put it in the meter, and transmits this, via the outlet to Siemens (in newcastle) in turn going to BG, so based on this I would have thought, as you havent used the card, they have no readings, so send a statement based upon estimates, even slight over what they would have on record as your true usage, just to prompt you to call, but seeing as you have had two statements with two annual usages on, then I'm afraid it reflects how good (NOT) they actually are.

If your meter is still £80 in credit I would ring them and tell them this, explain the circumstances, and just simply ask for any unused credit back.

Good Luck

Well i phone BG today, they demanded a new contact number, have a horrible feeling that will backfire!. They say there is no standing charge on my metre. They said a statement will be sent soon as. They did not want a metre reading saying it was updated from card. I explaned that i not used it for 8 months, made no difference and that they can see it not been used for 8 months. So i will wait for my new statement to see what it says. I did ask for a statement which actually has metre readings on it and not just a gas consumption figure from a previous date as i dont see how thats any use?.

Thanks

hi, BG only send yearly statements to people on prepayment meters, don't understand why. and there new one's only have a gas consumption amount for the year with no previous meter reading or payments on. appartenly you have to put it in writting if you want a full statement with these details on. however if there was a standing charge then your £80 would have been going down. as for trying to get a credit back hope you have better luck than me. i was told that as it was prepayment and i only pay for gas used then i wouldn't be able to get into debt or credit and they only offer refunds if i change supplier. the fact my meter went wrong with £45 credit and the replacement had nothing is irrelevent.

Well thanks missyb, I will put it in writing as I have now phoned twice and still recieved no statment of any kind. just proves there incompetence if you ask me!

Though good news I'm having a new boiler within the next 4 weeks cant wait! Guess I be soon using my credit up.