To be annoyed at British Gas about the £66 payments

[Pineapplemeringue]

I pay by direct debit. I was meant to get £66 refunded each month from October.

They haven’t refunded it. I contacted them a week ago- asked for £132 to be credited to my account which they agreed to but I haven’t had it and was told today just to wait a bit longer. I’m £800 in credit on my account as well. No payments are pending into my account today so I’ll have to contact them again (and every time that takes at least an hour to get through to anyone even on chat)

Is anyone else having a similar issue with them?

I did I spoke to them a few times about 2 weeks ago - i got £132 through this morning.

I think I’ll have to wait hopefully mine comes through too . They haven’t made it straightforward at all !

Can you do anything online? I'm with Octopus and can change my direct debit online and if I had a credit that was 'too big' (unlikely, as they seem to be very good at setting an appropriate direct debit) I could ask for it back online.

No because it’s telling me to increase to ‘stay on track’ despite being in credit ??!! I can’t lower it only increase?

Oh that's strange because I'm with British gas and had the refunds into my bank account last month and today as promised?

How much is your monthly cost, averaged over the whole year? You should be around 2 months in credit at this time of year to account for higher winter costs, so if you're a high user, than the £800 will be right, although obviously not if you're a low to medium consumer of energy.

I had this, only today did we get October's payment- I had to really push! They have given me the dates so we will now always be a month behind but we do pay our bill on the 28th of the month.

I used chat and badgering them on twitter!

Just to add it took 10 days to recieve after being told it had been sent

I am with British gas for electric and had not been paid the money into my account after my direct debit had been paid some time ago. So after some digging I have found that they have credited my British gas account with the money (two payments) instead of crediting my bamk, very annoying but cannot be bothered to phone them. So worth checking your online account to see if that has happened to you op,

I had the issue where they were trying to double my payment despite me being £1000 in credit and their own calculations at the bottom of the letter showing I would not be using anything like enough to justify that cost. And that was without the £66!

I rang up and I did get someone very helpful, who reduced my direct debit back to a sensible amount. She said she could see the government help on my account, but I don’t know what that means because it’s nowhere on my statements. It doesn’t feel very transparent does it!

I got £132 this morning for Oct and Nov after a LOT of pushing them

Totally understand your frustration, for info on the British Gas APP I can see the payments under Billing & payments history section when you click on your account.

Shell energy the same, I am over 800 in credit and paying 250 a month so don't see why I need to keep all that credit and pay as well. They have predicated our usage bit we have used less this year with the milder weather

We got last month’s a few days after we paid by DD, but there’s no sign of this month’s 🤷‍♀️.

Well they lied …….

last week I’d been told the £132 payment had been made and then Monday I’d contacted them again as hadn’t had it and they confirmed it had been sent and the account details etc .It still hasn’t appeared in my account today so I contacted them again and got told no it’s actually been credited to my account and I’m not getting the £132 - despite being a dd payer and that I’m meant to get £66 back each month and despite being in hundreds of pounds of credit !

So British Gas like to lie to their customers

It's supposed to credit your BG energy account and then come back out and get sent to your bank account.

What has happened in your case? Just credited your BG account?

I’m with British Gas and have had two months of £66 paid without any issues

Yes and I pay by dd and had an email saying I’d be refunded £66 each month what has really annoyed me is they have lied to me twice saying the payment of £132 was made and then today I’m told actually no we didn’t despite confirming it twice it’s actually credited to the account

Can you get them to lower your direct debit instead? That's what Octopus are doing; lowering the direct debit by £66 and crediting the £66 to the energy account

I will have to try that. I just don’t see the need for the lying though confirming they’d issued a refund to my bank account then yesterday confirming again and the account details etc to then be told today by a third person they actually hadn’t

I’m with BG, the £66 went to them then they refunded it back to my bank account the same day (I just paid it straight back to them again). I thought it was automatic if your account was in credit 🤷🏻‍♀️😕

BG are supposed to automatically send it back once the monthly direct debit has been made. It seems to take varying amounts of time to receive it to the account. I know some on here said it took 11 days in some cases

We are with BG. The first one went into our bank and this month we have it as a credit on our bill - worth others checking this.

That’s what I thought and we are approx £800 in credit

Yes we had the email saying it was £66 for I think 4 months then a slightly different amount can’t remember exactly for the last 2 months I think