Has anyone successfully challenged British Gas re: price rises?

[JambalayaC]

Our monthly bill last year (gas and electric) was £145. This has since been hiked 3 times to the new monthly sum of £356, which is making me feel a bit sick.

We don't qualify for any help and are lucky enough to not be hanging on by a thread financially, as I know so many people are, but this has really worried me.

So before I spend a good chunk of my working day on hold to them, is it even worth ringing?

Meter readings are all up to date and accurate, BTW 😞

I challenged over the live chat - they tried to put mine up to 300 from 130. I was 100 in credit and my usage was about 80 per month so I told them I would pay 150 to build up some for the winter and they put it to 150 without any hesitation.

I think it depends if you are a high energy user. As there is predicted to be a 51% increase to the price cap in October so the companies have to guess what monthly amount will cover you over the winter months aswell. How much do you actually use, my dd is set to 84 a month but only use about 60 at the moment, so slowly building the pot, luckily I'm on a fixed tariff but depends if your going to be on the variable once the price rise hits

Depends how much you are using and what your tariff is. Will that payment put you in credit or will it just cover your usage?

No. DH tried and the first question they asked was, “Do you want to pay more?” Ermmmm… no thanks! Then they said they couldn’t see how much we were using (surely they can!) and they wouldn’t reduce the direct debit.

What kind of Property do you live in?

Monthly amount is kind of irrelevant, its about your usage, and estimated usag over next 12 months during which time cost are going up if you aren't on a fixed deal?

You don't have to accept their monthly amounts, either ask them to lower or come off the DD scheme and just pay twice a year for actual usage