British Gas year old bill !! Just received

[tristar]

Any advice welcome.

I have just received a bill from British Gas for £101.05. Problem is I'm not their customer any longer. I called on 2nd May to be told the system is down, no help available and I when I called back got stuck on hold and after 15 minutes got cut off !!!

So called again, got thru and was told they would call me back, Oh no they didn't !! So today I finally get thru and I'm told this was an oustanding amount from 21 Dec 2006 to 11 May 2006, before I switched to Atlantic Electric and Gas. Only now have they sent me a bill???

Please advise on best course of action, surely they can't just pitch up with a bill for £101.05 a year later and demand immediate payment can they ??

[Ruthie P]

Hi tristar, unfortunately they can bill you now for consumption from a year ago, they can actually do it for two years.... although obviously this is not very good practice. From July they will only be able to bill back a year.

Have you checked that their final reading is correct? If you dont have the first bill from your new supplier, ring them and ask what reading they started billing you from, this should be the billed to reading on the bill from british gas, if its not, ring them and ask for bill to this reading. You can then ask for a payment plan to pay off the bill at what you can afford, but I would put that part in writing and sent the first payment with it.

Hope this helps

Ruth

[tristar]

Hi Ruthie, thanks this does help. I will call my current provider and follow your advice. If it turns out to be correct I will offer to pay @ £10.00 per month, if it takes them a year to bill me, then I'll take nearly a year to pay them !! will keep you posted on progress.

Tristar x