British gas lol

[mejinks]

For months they have been overcharging, going from nearly £300 a month to £25.82

Yes, I've asked them to look at our bill as there is no way we are using that much electricity, but oh no, its the correct amount. Robbing *******s

 

[Hotwired]

Why are they charging you anything if your account is 1.5k in credit

 

[Rimsy]

Why are they charging you anything if your account is 1.5k in credit

So they can make lots of free money off you in the form of interest from your money being in their account.

 

[randal]

I've got into the habit of checking Octopus every month or two now, and I claw back the money. It's like a little bi-monthly bonus.

Probably should just cancel the DD and settle up each month, utterly pointless exercise I know.

 

[VincentHanna]

I've got into the habit of checking Octopus every month or two now, and I claw back the money. It's like a little bi-monthly bonus.

Probably should just cancel the DD and settle up each month, utterly pointless exercise I know.

Mine is perfectly set. Builds up May to October and draws down November to April

 

[randal]

Mine is perfectly set. Builds up May to October and draws down November to April

Mine is not

It's from a time where this house had 4 people living in it full time, now it's just me and the kids half the time.

I know how to turn lights off and control the thermostat, and know when to put appliances on haha.

 

[200sols]

I've got into the habit of checking Octopus every month or two now, and I claw back the money. It's like a little bi-monthly bonus.

Probably should just cancel the DD and settle up each month, utterly pointless exercise I know.

You can adjust your DD to whatever you want through the octopus account already, they've now added the option to switch to variable DD online as well so its really simple to build up zero balance now.

 

[NickK]

So they can make lots of free money off you in the form of interest from your money being in their account.

You should be able to demand it refunded or ombudsman..

 

[throwaway4372]

I did BG a refund recently, was a button click and wait a few days.

But yeah I'm not defending them. They're behaving like banks but not regulated as banks.

 

[mejinks]

My question is, if I've been paying £250 a month more than is owed, there will be a time where the new amount won't cover the actual bill and then I would be owing. We submit meter readings every single month, so I have no idea how they arrived at this figure and how far back it goes.

 

[throwaway4372]

Get a refund for the entire balance. Then look at your bills and set a sensible DD amount yourself.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Get a refund for the entire balance. Then look at your bills and set a sensible DD amount yourself.

I don’t think you can. We had something similar with Eon recently. We were allowed to draw down most of it but had to leave £150 credit in there. Still, better in my account than theirs!

 

[stuman]

Just move onto the full monthly payment? You could go as far as to open a new current account, transfer your chosen fixed amount into each month if you really need the consistent payment… I’m sure there are accounts which offer cashback on utility bills?

 

[throwaway4372]

I don’t think you can. We had something similar with Eon recently. We were allowed to draw down most of it but had to leave £150 credit in there. Still, better in my account than theirs!

I just did it, but maybe it isn't the same in all situations.

 

[chrismscotland]

My question is, if I've been paying £250 a month more than is owed, there will be a time where the new amount won't cover the actual bill and then I would be owing. We submit meter readings every single month, so I have no idea how they arrived at this figure and how far back it goes.

Generally they work out usage over the previous 12 month period and then add or remove the current balance (Credit or Debit) and divide my 12 to get the Monthly Payment figure.
I worked there for about 5 years and unless something has massively changed there isn't much complex about working out the billing itself.

 

[mejinks]

Generally they work out usage over the previous 12 month period and then add or remove the current balance (Credit or Debit) and divide my 12 to get the Monthly Payment figure.
I worked there for about 5 years and unless something has massively changed there isn't much complex about working out the billing itself.

Ive been asking them to look at our bill for months and months, but they kept saying its correct. Now Im over £1500 in credit? They've got something very wrong and im loathed to ask for the full amount as this happened with Swalec many moons ago for a similar amount. Once it was credited from the elctric bill and I had a refund, they tried to say I owed £1500 in gas. Is there a service where you can ask them to go through all records with all companies and get any refunds owing?

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

I changed my E.ON to take the full amount each month, not just guess, which they seemed to love doing, building up a nice balance

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Ive been asking them to look at our bill for months and months, but they kept saying its correct. Now Im over £1500 in credit? They've got something very wrong and im loathed to ask for the full amount as this happened with Swalec many moons ago for a similar amount. Once it was credited from the elctric bill and I had a refund, they tried to say I owed £1500 in gas. Is there a service where you can ask them to go through all records with all companies and get any refunds owing?

You could dump all your bills into your LLM of choice, and ask it to work it out?

 

[throwaway4372]

I've been asking them to look at our bill for months and months

This is your mistake. Don't ask them, tell them. Their process isn't designed to help you, it's designed to take money from you. The account is yours and so the responsibility for making sure the bills are paid correctly is yours. Therefore you can take your refund and pay whatever DD amount you want. They might make you say it twice, but you can just tell them and they will do what you want.

 

[Feek]

I've got into the habit of checking Octopus every month or two now, and I claw back the money. It's like a little bi-monthly bonus.

Probably should just cancel the DD and settle up each month, utterly pointless exercise I know.

I know how much my energy should cost over a year. I’ve divided it by 12 and added a bit.

Each month, Monzo automatically transfers that amount into an interest bearing Chase account on the day I get paid.

Each month, Octopus take for what I’ve used out of that Chase account.

There’s enough in the pot so that winter months are covered and I pick up a few quid interest. It’s not much, but why let someone else have it?

Doing it any other way is inefficient and can lead to situations @mejinks has described.