I've checked my gas and electric account online today as i knew i was in credit. I found combined it was nearly £300. I was in credit last month and phoned them about reducing direct debits which they did by 10% and told me was up for review end of July. I've since heard nothing and there still taking the amount less 10%. My bills i receive online are quarterly but my direct debits are monthly.

I want them to:

1. return all/ most of the credit ( i dont mind leaving a small credit on the account but not this much)

2. reduce direct debits to reflect the amount im using

3. change direct debits to quarterly to reflect the billing.

has anyone had experiance with british gas and how easy is this to do, obviously phone lines aren't open until 8am so i can't do anything yet and didnt know if i'd face any problems with this.

barmycharlie:

Well its already after 8am so maybe you already have your answer but in that case I'll answer for the benefit of others.

There is lots you can do to ensure accurate payments.

(1) Whenever you get your quarterly statement always replace any estimated readings with an accurate customer reading.

(2) Ask your supplier what your annual consumption has been.

(3) Go to a price comparison website and plug in the annual consumption data for the tariff you are on to see what the actual annual cost is.

(4) Divide by 12 to see what is an accurate direct debit payment.

(5) Armed with this information tell your supplier what you expect the payment to be and ask for any surplus to be refunded. The amount of the refund will be subject to some negotiation because its reasonable for a surplus to maintained in summer to meet the heavier winter consumption.

(6) Look at the results at (3) and decide if you would get a better deal by switching to a different supplier (assuming you are not in a fixed term)

Switching (using annual consumption) is a guaranteed way of getting all your surplus back if you are not satisfied with the amount offerred. Also if you switch using your annual consumption, accurate direct debit payments should be set.

Regarding changing from fixed monthly direct debit to quarterly billing it may or may not be possible on your existing tariff. You possibly receive a discount of up to 6% for fixed monthly direct debit. Only you can decide but you can check the extra cost of quarterly billing over fixed monthly direct debit using a price comparison website.

Later edit:

Here is the BG help page on too high direct debit payments. Note the aim in bold.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/HelpAndAdvice/TypeID/?Id=754&Sec=R

Hi there,

Not with British Gas, but had the same thing with another supplier. Additionally I used to work for a supplier in the complaints dept.

It's fairly easy, but be prepared to be on hold for a long time ;)

The supplier is required by law to return any credit on the account to the customer should they request it. So basically all you need to do is phone up with accurate reads, and request any credit be sent to you. They'll usually try and issue this via cheque, but this takes ages to get sent then cleared, if you're insistent enough they MAY offer you a BACS transfer to your account.

They may suggest you leave some credit on your account to tide you over winter, this is fair enough as it could stop you being short then.

At any rate, this doesn't really keep you right. What you need to do is ask to get switched onto an online billing account (as long as it's a better rate). Then you can submit reads monthly, and your DD will always accurately reflect your usage, saving you time and hassle.

Im not sure about quarterly DDs. As far as I know this isn't something that's offered, but I could be wrong.

mrstella0:

The supplier is required by law to return any credit on the account to the customer should they request it.

Not disputing that other than I didn't realise it was that simple. Interestingly the British Gas information states the aim is for no balance after 12 months though it seems to want to achieve that by direct debit adjustment. Scottish Power has a clearer commitment but it's only automatic above a certain threshold.

http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/Home_Energy/Payment_Methods/Direct_Debit/Credit_balance_refund/

I think we are agreed that the key is accurate meter reads and online billing makes that easy. Not sure about BG but the Scottish Power online billing sytem instantly calculates the account balance whenever a meter reading is submitted online.

My advice to anybody is switch using accurate annual consumption and you will get a full refund (or have to pay any debit in full !!!) and accurate direct debits should be requested whatever time of the year you switch because the aim is to have a zero balance after 12 months.

they were surprisingly easy to deal with and helpful

they wanted an up to date meter reading, billed me to date then told me the remainder credit i had. i chose to leave some credit on each account and they refunded me the rest. they also reduced my direct debits to reflect my energy usage. i left it as quarterly billing and monthly dd, i forgot to ask!