To think British Gas should allow online DD reductions?

[Silverpossum]

Just checked our September bill and having deliberately built up a really decent surplus (£1200) over the summer, and in light of the upcoming Government energy payments) went to reduce our DD from £299 to £200 pcm. Got a message saying DDs can't be reduced online. I appreciate they will want to ensure that everyone has enough credit to cover the winter but surely that's ridiculous? I've now got to faff trying to get them by phone or on web chat when they will likely be snowed under with cap enquiries this month.

It's ridiculous if you've got £1200 credit. I think EON used to let you reduce if you had 2 months worth of credit.

Can you switch to a variable online, then switch back again when you’ve run a bit of credit down?
i switched online with shell to the variable when it wouldn’t let me lower the direct debit amount but I was in credit.
personally I was putting food and holiday clubs and bits of school uniform onto credit cards in the summer holidays whilst leaving my money lodged with them earning no interest for power I may use in winter. They emailed me that they would raise the dd amount when the October rates were announced that was the last straw for me them being allowed to change it but not me when they were already storing my money!
i came to the conclusion that it’s only sensible money management to pre pay through summer if you can do so without borrowing and even then it’s only necessary if you can’t put money aside for winter and mentally ring fence it yourself.
i claimed back my credit and put aside what I didn’t need to pay off the summer spends.

Until a year ago, I would have been all set to say YANBU, however some of the questions people are asking in light of the energy crisis shows quite how little a large proportion of the population understand about their energy bill, and so, especially given the current situation, I think it does need to be carefully managed. Or maybe limited to no more than 10% or something.

British Gas currently aren’t showing me anything, It’s always had a prediction of what you should be paying, which was ridiculously less than what they set it at in April, but now that’s gone along with anything other than make an extra payment.

posted too soon, so since cancelling I pay only for what I use and transfer the extra into a side savings account. If that’s not enough and I need to use credit to make a top up payment then I’ll do that when I’ve actually used that power not borrow through summer as a precaution for winter.

YANBU. Eon let you change your direct debit, its really simple. At over a grand that's ridiculous. I guess you'll just gave to phone up though.

Because a large portion of people don’t understand that fixed only means fixed unit price that isn’t justification for a company who is already holding onto money you don’t yet owe them to refuse to let you reduce the value of over payments you make. Putting aside money not yet owed should always be voluntary.

We’ve reduced ours.
shout loudly and often.

I'm with BG and i set my own DD amount. I've always done this as they always want to take twice what they need to. I can change or amend the dd amount in their website account page.

Eon let you change your direct debit, its really simple

Up to a maximum of 10%. So Op could only reduce to £270.

i hate BG so much. They are utterly incompetent. I e had to spend hours on their useless chat this year trying to get them to rectify even the simplest cock up.

make sure you always check your bill dates with them. Mine had overlapping periods so they were charging me for energy that I had paid for the previous month.

does anyone know what their billing timeframe is? In the last year I had a bill after 30 days, the 62 days, then 11 days, then 94 days. They make it impossible to work out if you are in debit or credit

Scottish Power are the same. I was already in credit, and our energy usage down by a 3rd throughout the colder half of the year, compared to the year before. They put up the direct debit to over double and wouldn't let me reduce it online, or even when I called up. I went over the figures with them, showing that there was no way I'd be using all the credit they said I would need. The system wouldn't let the agent reduce the amount, even though they could clearly see it shouldn't be that high.

So I've switched to paying on receipt of the bill (now every 4 weeks rather than monthly, I'm assuming that's just to make it more awkward ) I worked out how much I think it should be over the year on the predicted rates, upped it a bit, and put the difference into a savings account.

I've just logged into my BG account online.

Under PAYMENTS thre is a link that says MANAGE - click on Manage and there is an option to change the DD. I can change the amount, the day & the bank account.

Do you not ahve that OP?

I always set/amend the DD to the sum I want to pay - I am on the variable tariff and that might make a difference.

im with OVO but can change online. Are you trying on the app? Maybe try the actual website . I’m sure when I was with British Gas you could.

@Silverpossum - as above. I can reduce my DD on the app (am on the SVR and in credit ). It let me reduce it to below the BG recommended amount.

The app and website are shite though! If you tweet them they are good at getting back to you by DM to resolve issues (or so I've found)

I haven’t even had a September bill yet 🙄 It’s always been 9 March and 9 September but still nothing showing. I should be at least £400 in credit as I’m at nearly £800 before my bill.

Mine lets me change it on the app.
Mind you it also won't let me submit a meter reading because I apparently have a smart meter that I don't have