Hello Does anyone know anything about digital meter reading ? I just received a first gas bill from BG, which has an alleged actual reading of last week. The area to where the meter is positioned is chained and padlocked and impossible to be accessed. The only way to gain access is by the occupants of the property unlocking the padlock. Which so did not happen. So my question is: how can Accuread allege to have done an "actual" reading ? I have read up a bit today on this issue. Apparently there are now digital readers which will allow utility companies to drive by and take the readings from meters without ever having to gain access to properties. Now, the property meter has a bar code and is a metric meter but it is 10 years old. Can Accuread now walk past / drive past and direct a digital reader at the meter and take an accurate reading ? Or do the meters have to be new models with a device fitted to allow this to happen ? And can Accuread just lie about the "actual" reading ? The "actual" reading given by Accuread is incorrect. Which is why I wish to get advice before I write a snotty letter of complaint.

Hi All... I hope you can help... I'll try to make this as short as possible. I was a victim of the financial crash.. the business I was in suffered massively and as a result, in 2010, my income reduced by almost 90%. I made arrangements with all my creditors when I could see this on the horizon (totalling around £100k) which have been in place ever since. The arrangements reflected my reduced earnings and most reduced to around 10% of the normal payment with the interest frozen. Most of my creditors subsequently registered defaults against me.. some quite soon after the start of the problems, some a few years later... which, now we are 8 years down the line, is great... a lot have dropped off my credit file and a few have only a short time to go until they do... BUT... i have 2 creditors, Nothern Rock (as was) and Nat west Bank, who refuse to register a default.. they just show late payments every month even though I am thousands in arrears and show as 6+ on my credit reports.. My question is, should they have registered defaults many years ago or can they effectively keep on punishing me, which will ultimately be, for the rest of my life, for an event out of my control? My business will never return to its former glory so I will never be in a position to clear these two debts in full. If I had declared myself bankrupt when the crap hit the fan, this would have been done and dusted many years ago and I would be pretty much back to normal but because I chose to do (what I thought) was the right thing and keep paying my creditors. Would the FOS agree that defaults should have been registered all those years ago or can nat west and Northern Rock keep causing me problems (and they are now becoming quite significant as I need to be credit checked for my work and for business accounts) Any help gratefully accepted Thanks H

Got keys to HA property in March - Within 10 days I noticed infestation of Wood Lice Wood Worm (didn't move in until April due to having flooring fitted and furniture delivered Reported to Housing officer 30th March who said that I am liable as I was now the tenant and if the wood lice were coming through a gap I was to block it up (messages kept) Explained that how could I possibly of known there was an infestation when I viewed the property back in January as viewing was very quick less than 5 mins and who goes around looking for Wood Lice, the same as when I got the keys in March. Explained that I wanted to get this sorted as I was having flooring and furniture delivered the following week prior to me actually moving in. I never received a reply Messaged again on 31st to ask if she had received my message again explaining I had furniture & flooring being delivered I never got a reply April 21st Received a reply saying she had spoken to the Rangers and they do not treat Wood Lice June had a Ranger turn up to clear some rubbish and apparently treat the wood lice infestation, on entering the property he said he was not prepared to treat as the problem was to bad and we were insitu and the chemicals are too dangerous. (The whole bungalow needs doing) Plus I have a son with Sensory problems Fast forward to July Has Surveyor around to inspect a wall, while he was here I told him about the Wood Lice and looked around the property and said the property should never of been let with this problem and that he would raise a job to get the work done the time scale was 6 weeks. He also said that I would have to move out while they treat the property. Nothing really happened nobody contacted me, I kept chasing to no avil. October I threatened legal action as I have not put flooring down in any other room other than the my sons and my bedroom due to waiting for the HA to sort the Wood Lice Kept being told that the surveyor had moved to another department and when I contacted him he said it was not his problem now as he was not in that department. Had another manager come around who didn't really say much other than it was still the Surveyors problem. Last week I called and basically told the HA I was going to go Legal as the Woodlice had been seen on my sons bed and enough was enough. I was told could I defer until the end of the week which I did. Now this manager called who said they are not responsible for removing/lifting my flooring. I politely told him the history and that I was not prepared to lift any flooring as this has been ongoing since March. I got a call yesterday (Sunday) asking to come around and inspect the severity. Of course I had to explain that there is flooring bla bla he got of the phone quickly and said he would speak to the manager I get another call today saying can a Carpenter come around and lift the floorboards in the bedroom and treat the infestation. My question is Am I liable to lift the flooring as I gave the HA a chance back in March and they knew full well I was having furniture and flooring fitted but failed to reply And its the whole bungalow not just one room. The flooring in my sons bedroom is stuck down as it is vinyl plus its obviously furninshed I have carpet and gripper rods in my bedroom and obviously its fully furnished My son has special needs too

British gas have informed me that they no longer do standing orders to make payments, has any one else had this told to them ?.

Problem with British gas. Thinking of sending this letter to BG any thoughts / advice appreciated I have owned this property for approximately 12 years and it has never been habitable for this time. I received bills from Npower for £0 for electric and British Gas for £0 for gas. Because these bills were for £0 I used to simply throw them away. The bills were always addressed to 'The Occupier' My problem is with British Gas. The meter is situated in an outside cabinet, I have no gas appliances and no gas piping, the gas pipes terminate in the meter cabinet. I received a bill from BG on the 31st August 2013 which showed that the actual meter reading was 1412 (same as 10 years ago) and that no gas was used and the bill came to zero (no standing charges ). The next bill I got was dated the 5th August 2015 Which was an estimated reading of 1413 with a total to pay of £176.63. I immediately phoned BG and explained the situation and was clearly told that I should change my supplier to one that didn't have a standing charge and that this bill would be cancelled as I had never had a contract with BG. I did this immediately but then got a letter from BG to say that they had blocked the transfer as I owed them the £176.63. I again phoned BG and spoke with a lady who was extremely rude and told me in no uncertain terms that I was responsible for the bill and should honor my commitments, not being happy with this I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, no supervisor was available but I was assured that a supervisor would ring me back. (I am still awaiting that phone call). Since that time I have Had standing charges added to my account Had extra charges added to my account for a debt visit (£36.00) and an administration charge (£13.00) Been notified that a legal warrant of entry had been obtained and a visit was to be made on the 25th April 2016 to fit a prepayment meter. - No visit was made Been notified that a legal warrant of entry had been obtained and a visit was to be made on the 30th June 2016 to fit a prepayment meter. - No visit was made Threatened again that a legal warrant of entry will be obtained to fit a prepayment meter Questions that I have of BG From the last 10 years bills (2004 to 2013) you should have known that no gas was ever used why didn't you inform 'The Occupier' that you were going to introduce a standing charge. Why do you persist in wanting to fit a prepayment meter when no gas is consumed. Why haven't you looked at my notes and made that phone call that you promised. Why have you blocked my transfer (you could still have pursued me for the debt) instead heaping as much pressure as possible. Why have you escalated the debt from £176.63 (4th August 2015) to £304.25 (8th June 2016)

Hello. I am involved in a long running dispute with British Gas over standing charges. I wanted to see if anyone can clarify the position on what can be done by them to enforce payment. The situation we have is that we have only one gas appliance, a gas fire, that it never used as it is boxed in by stuff, in a very cluttered front room. I cannot remember the last time it was used. British Gas insist that they are obliged to levy standing charges even when we never use gas. They have also seen fit to send a debt collection company to visit me. I should mention that I am a vulnerable customer insofar as I suffered a stroke 3 years ago and my ability to earn has been affected by this. I have explained all this to British Gas several times and they won't budge. The current bill for these charges is around £100. Is there anything I can do to get these people off my back? I have retained the supply as a standby for years but I think it's time to have the supply disconnected once and for all and put an end to all this grief. Any advice would be very welcome. Thanks.

Does anyone know the bank details of Rossendales to set up the standing order, its the account number and sort code of Rossendales i need, its not clear on the website. Its because i have a bailiff coming in the morning and he said he will be taking goods. I have explained i am in terrible grief following the death of my partner, i explained i will not cope with the upset, i am in process of facing all the things i have not felt able, but i have a lot of unopened post so it wont be the only threatening letter. i need to be realistic an offer what i can. I want to set up a standing order to pay in installments the balance , first if i have proof i am repaying will it stop any seizure of goods. secondly i looked on website but cant find the account number and sort code of rossendales to set up standing order. I wondered if anyone else has managed to locate it

Hi All, I am trying to get any information possible on the removal of Settled Accounts that were in good standing from the main credit agencies. I used a well known payday loan company back in 2013 and rolled over the loan a few times and always paid early and in full. Never late and no negative info at all. However fast forward 3 years , I am trying to secure a mortgage and have been refused due to having 6 entries from a specific payday loan lender. Even though they are all settled and paid and closed they underwriters see that as there were 6 entries, that I am a risk !! I have a good credit score and this is the only negative. This is causing me to have to look through other "brokered" lenders who all want to charge fees and I am looking at a higher interest rate also. It crazy that I borrowed and paid back on time and still penalised for it. Can any one give me any advise on how I can persuade the payday lender to remove the settled accounts from my files?? As its causing me financial issues if I have to pay a higher interest rate because of them. Any help appreciated. Thanks

I have been on a DMP with the charity Step Change for a number of years, the original debts being a Lloyds Bank loan I was encouraged to take on as a "consolidation" during a bad patch back in 1999, and a credi card still with Lloyds going back the same period, totaling about 20.000 plus couple of "minor" cards and an overdraft, totaling around 25k. After few years of re-payments, I managed to bring back the balance which currently it's around 12.000, however I have recently separated from my wife and this has had a pretty devastating effect, on the financial aspect of things as well as everything else, I have 3 children and things just don't add-up. I currently have access to a relatively small amount of money which is the result of a share of the sale of an old property, about £6'000 and rather than seeing it disappear as they will I am thinking of trying to offer a settlement to the various creditors, who are Akinika Debt Recovery (5.500.00) Pira Group Barclays (1000.00), Npower 707.00), Lloyds PLC (397.00) plus Cabot Financial, who just took over from Allied International Credit and is not currently included in the DMP. As I haven't test spoken to them but they are writing about their acquired balance of £6'321, it seems a bit of a long shot to put an offer to each of them totaling £6000, but the truth is I will have to ty, failing that, due to my new circumstances I wouldn't be able to keep up the £357 monthly payments to Step Change and the only other option I can see would be filing for bankruptcy. With all the consequences of the case on my job etc, in any case I wouldn't know where to start with offering settlements, and above all without risking losing the sum, or how to make sure that they would actually agree for it to be a final settlement and not just an extra payment, and would it be better to approach them myself, as I suspect Step Change wouldn't enter any hard- negotiation of this sort on my behalf? Is there a template letter I could use to get me started? Have I got any real chance here? any help would be greatly appreciated, sorry to be so long

Hi Please can someone offer me some advice on this matter. I have been living in my Housing Association property since 2011 which I rent through my LA. I have been receiving letters from British Gas addressed to "The Occupier" saying that money is owed for gas supply to the property. I have called them on several occasions informing them that I do not have a gas supply to my property, I only have an electric cooker and the heating is included in the rent. Despite me calling them several times to let them know this, I am still receiving letters addressed to "The Occupier" saying that £301 is owed. I have just come to know about the 26p standing charge for just having a meter, when I called them this evening and I even had to force this information out of them as I am not the registered occupier (according to them) I had no idea about this and it was not made known to me when I took on the tenancy nor when I have called BG, I have always been told it was for gas supply to the property. My main concern is that they have sent a letter saying that they have a warrant to gain access to my property, they will change the locks and I will have to contact them for access. I just want to know if they can do this, do I need to prepare myself and take the day off work. I have not seen any warrant. Will they send this to me?

hi everyone just wondering if anyone can advise how i can be owing scottish power 500 pounds "standing charges" seeing as when i last used said meter i only owed a tenner. roughly three years ago. the meter was eventually "capped" as i stopped using it and now they are billing me for that amount! how can that be right? should i complain to ofgem? this just is not right at all! i didnt want the pay as you go meter in the first place. some silly youngster from the debt collection company told me that pay as you go is actually cheaper. i tried to make a deal with them to pay a certain amount per week but i cant afford what they are asking. if i switch suppliers will the gas be back to normal? i.e. will i be able to start using it again? im sick of cold winters with no hot water! seems very unfair! a rip off no less. im not bothered a jot about debt i just need the gas back on which i am willing to pay fair and square for. seems very unjust. thx for reading.

hiya im in Scotland if that helps...... i stopped using / topping up my pay as u go gas meter 2 yrs ago as i walked miles to *local* shop , got a tenner top up, inserted in meter and it took it for debt. was very infuriating. since then the meter was capped but i am now getting harassed for 418 pounds. just for "standing charges" scottish power have made a supposed deal with me to pay 37 quid per month but i cant afford that as i am on ESA and only get 100 pounds per week. i find this VERY unfair. can anyone offer any advice on what to do? to me this a real con. i switched to EDF to see if i could "wangle" my way out of the debt and get gas back on the engineer came out thursday and told me i need to have credit in said meter to get it uncapped. he also told me he has been dealing with a lot of similar cases recently. i personally think this is totally wrong the this supposed Great Britain. just wondering what to do as its rather cold up here just now and its make my already depressed life even more miserable. thankas for reading guys.

Received a computer generated letter from Halifax stating that as my monthly S/O to pay my rent had been returned they were going to add to their extortionate profit pocket and charge me £10 for doing sweet nothing. So I looked at the online banking, to see that my S/O had been set up to pay four weekly? Strange as I had set it up to pay on the 25th of every month, I had never seen this 'four week' option in the drop down menu before. So I changed it to pay on the 25th of the month thereafter, thinking it may well have been a genuine mistake on my part? (fat fingers!) Then looked at the letter, which claims it tried to pay on the 19th of the month, so checked my on-line statement, which showed it had in fact been paid on the 25th, and a little further down it showed the 19th failed payment. A bit peeved, but in the grand scheme of things a tenner is nothing compared to ten years ago when I owed considerably more than that! Checked my on-line statement again the day after, and lo and behold, the standing order date had changed AGAIN! to the 26th of the month, and there was no record of the failed payment on the 19th?? Done the obvious and changed the PW, but it can only be an issue with the bank, as they're surely the only ones with the facility to change the bank statement?

Hi - my daughter completed her degree this summer and left her rented accommodation at the end of June. She forgot to cancel the standing order from her bank account to the letting agents and so a payment of £912 was paid to them at the end of September. The rent was paid quarterly and I think the summer one didn't get paid as she had no money in her account. She had just received her first month's salary which meant there was sufficient funds for the standing order to be paid this time. She called the letting agents as soon as she realised what had happened and they said they would send her a cheque less £10 admin fee. The cheque didn't arrive, so she called them again and was told the cheque was in the post and that is should arrive within the next day or two. It didn't arrive so she called again yesterday, and was told it would be put in the post and should arrive today, but it still hasn't. Could somebody advise as to the best course of action please? Thank you!!

Long story, I try to keep it brief... Around 2007, I took a mortgage with HBOS. HBOS made error on my bank account which resulted in around 6 months mortgage arrears. I did not know about the arrears until a few days before repossession. Because of bank error, the funds were there to clear the arrears. I cleared the arrears. I also paid extra to put account in credit. House was repossessed despite me being told that clearing the arrears in full would stop repossession. Since repossession, I have sent HBOS a number of complaint letters which were stamped by local branch to act as a receipt. All complaint letters were unanswered. I've taken advice from a police sergeant - the advice was both as a friend and as a policeman, explaining how I can stand outside the bank giving out leaflets to passers by showing the facts of my complaint. I have been working 18 hour shifts the last few months but now have a lot of time off to concentrate my effort in HBOS and I have no hesitation in standing outside their branch giving out my leaflets! I have informed HBOS press office of my intentions as well as giving them 2 weeks to answer any one of my complaints during the last 10 years. I know that there is a time limit of 12? years to bring a claim against a mortgage. Should I do as planned and stand outside their bank in the hope that it will shame them in answering my complaint? Or perhaps a more conventional method? Apparently I cant complaint to FOS since the mortgage was not regulated. The only choice I see I have is to either stand outside their bank after the 2 week period, or perhaps some other method to get them to answer my complaint, but, I do not know what? Local newspaper said it will attend bank with photographer, if we are forced to stand outside the bank! Apart from losing the deposit I paid for the house £16,000, my other financial losses are that the house was sold far far below its market value by around £40,000 Working 18 hour shifts a day is tiring, but I now have some holidays I don't want to waste my holidays standing outside a stupid bank, but do not see any other alternative to get them to answer my complaints unless someone can suggest something?

I moved to my current address late December 2012. There was a gas meter in a utility cupboard just by the front door of my flat. I have not consumed a single "breath" of gas since moving in. Indeed gas has not been used in this flat for a number of years past. Back in 2012 I contacted BG to come and remove the meter. Quelle suprise: nothing happened. Recently someone came to read the meter. I told the meter reader that I had asked for its removal. "Thats ok Sir, let my take your details and I'll get that done for you" says he. I unwittingly gave my name, Dob etc., and the date that I moved in (day before calling them asking to remove the meter). 48 hours later I received a bill for £118.29p from British Gas for the "outstanding" standing charges for the meter from the day I moved into my flat. A week later the meter was indeed officially removed................................... However. I have since been inundated with further bills and demands for payment, threat of all kinds of action and lots of nuisance calls from them. Where do I go from here, I live on Pension Credit and cannot afford to pay for a service which I have never used. Please contact me with any help you can give.

Why are energy companies levying standing charges to domestic customers? 50 years ago only commercial and industrial premises where charged standing charges. So why the explosion in the domestic market? is this a hidden tax? Why do Companies such as npower and or Ebico offer no standing charge tariffs? What are these standing charges for? Most Energy companies would have you believe its to do with maintenance charges. But my experience of all energy companies is they do not carry out maintenance and certainly meter operators never do mainatainace on meters as most meters are inaccurate most of the time. Can anyone provide a clear explanation to this charge?

In the course of examining our church accounts I noticed that there was a huge difference in water charges for the 2 Anglican churches in our Parish. The lower charge is for the church without mains drainage. The other church has meters water and used only 9 cubic metres last year. As a domestic consumer I use about 110 cubic metres. Because it is classed as non-domestic the church pays a standing charge of £144 pa compared with £87 for me. This seems grossly unfair. Can we challenge this charge?

I would like some advice about a situation that I've been trying to deal with for the past couple of months now. I had received a gas bill from Scottish Power (henceforth SP), for £26.07p, but I do not use gas at all in my home (we did have an old meter here but it has now since been removed, and I've lived here for 10 years now and have never used gas). I queried this charge and they told me they would look into it, which took a while for them to reply. While waiting for a reply about my complaint, I received a final demand for that bill, so I contacted SP again. This is when they told me that the charge was a standard charge (or something like that) and that I still owed them that money, at which point I started a complaint with them as I felt I did not owe them anything at all (because I've never ever used gas). They also gave me a number to call about getting the meter removed, which turned out to be complete rubbish as the number I was given only dealt with electricity meter removals, so I contacted SP again, and they admitted that error, and informed me that when someone wants a gas meter removed, the customer service advisor is meant to send an email to the group that remove gas meters. Scottish Power again were taking ages to get back to me, and for the guys to remove my meter too, and during that wait I had received another gas bill from them, this time for £52.29p, which is slightly over double the previous bill so I'm not sure if this amount includes the first charge, or if it does not. So I could potentially 'owe' (and I use owe in the loosest of terms because I feel I owe them nothing) them £78.36p. Shortly after that, my meter was removed. I contacted them and informed them of this, they said they would no longer be sending me any bills from the date the meter was removed, at which point I queried the legitimacy of the first two bills, they still insisted I owed them money for that. I tried asking Ombudsman for assistance but they told me they did not deal with standard charge problems. I am currently booked in to speak to CAB on the 19th sept, but I was hoping someone here might have some advice for me. Can anyone help me?

Helping out a friend here. British Gas have started billing my friend a "Standing Order" charge. Friend has NO gas. He owns the flat. It is pretty old fashioned - there are no gas pipes into his flat; no central heating, no boiler, no gas hob. Absolutely NO gas. He has the ground floor flat in a block of 5 flats. In the basement vaults of the block - outside in a communal area - there are meters for the block - and I assume that all the other flats have a gas supply. I rang BG on friend's behalf - with all the bills to hand - and queried why - after more than 20 years - BG has suddenly started sending "Standing Order" bills to my friend, despite him not having the utility. BG advised that legislation changed in November 2013 and that for every meter they are now sending out "Standing Order" bills !! BG would not listen that friend does not have gas - that surely BG can not start billing people for a utility that friend does not have.....??? This practise seems illegal. And I wonder how many other people BG are "ripping off" in this way. S-C-A-M Does anyone have an appropriate answer to BG ????

Hi all posted on here last year when i was really in debt since then i have had repayment plans and managed to pay 4 creditors off so slowly getting there! Now to my problem one of these creditors quick-quid flexicredit i had a standing order repayment plan with since the end of April 2014 and so far had 5 payments gone out of my account and have the bank statements as proof. I had an email off them today first one ever saying it was a statement so i logged on to my account and wanted to know how much i had left and was shocked to see i still had £727 from an original balance of £787 i was advised to phone the final resolutions team up where they told me they have only received one payment and that was in July, yet i have the proof on my bank statements that i have made 5 payments of £60 each month. they asked to see proof of these bank statements via email so I'm wondering is if this is actually legal? and where has all my money payments gone? Thanks for any help you may be able to give me!

Hi guys so I spoke to somebody from QQ on live chat a week ago and they told me I had to talk to collections to sort out a repayment method on the date repayment was due.. so today is that day, I have just spoken to somebody (via live chat) from collections (Loretta) and I gave her my story and told her I had sent an I/E form to the collections team and the hardship team, and that I just need some bank details verified so I can start making my payments immediately... so the fun begins in this cat and dog chase where I want the details to make payments and they keep saying they cannot confirm the details for me. Loretta told me I need to either call (which I'm not doing) or email hardship team (which I already have and had no reply). In the end I got frustrated and told Loretta I would email the hardship department asking to verify the bank details for my standing order/repayment plan. Maybe they will have the decency to email me back this time! it's never easy huh

Hi guys (1st post here) I've read through quite a few posts and I think the advice you guys give is nothing short of amazing, I have a Wonga loan which I have now cancelled all cards and CPA with and I'm setting up a standing order with the details they have given me... My account on Wonga shows... Total amount owed - £1124.79 Capital repayment - £880 Interest repayment - £233.79 Transmission fee - £11 Their reply to me cancelling my CPA and debit cards was to say that 'interest will continue to accrue on the outstanding balance' is that something I just have to accept as I have asked for interest to be frozen whilst I make payments as and when I can afford to, So I guess my question is exactly how much should I be looking to pay back? Thanks in advance guys.

I set up a standing order to pay someone £120 every 28th of the month. In January, they took out the money on 24th of the month instead, after getting charged for being overdrawn and calling them twice, they told me I had set up the standing order for the last friday of the month, and not the 28th of every month. The last Friday of January was 31st!, I told them this and they put me on hold, and then came back and avoided answering it. I told them I had my online banking on the screen and I can see it is set for the 28th, yet they just "good will" refunded, and asured me it wouldn't happen again.... Well it happened again, today, (25th), I'm overdrawn by £80 thus will get charged for it again. I don't wish to spend another 40 minutes of my mobile minutes calling them again, how should I go about reclaiming the charge, and my costs for all of this (an hour was spent on the phone last time this happened).

Hi All I've had a letter saying that Cabot Financial have taken over one of my debts from Barclaycard. I've gone through CCCS in the past (now Step Change ?) and pay all my creditors £1.00 per month by Standing Order as it's all I can afford. I have recurrent mental health problems so finding work and/or keeping it is very difficult. I've looked on all the Cabot paperwork and their website and although they say that Standing Order payment is an option they don't give any account details - so you have to contact them directly I assume ? I can't cope with speaking to people directly and writing can become tricky and may cause delays so that I fall behind and lose my payment plan option. Does anyone know where Cabot's bank details are listed so that I can just set up the SO and keep 'up to date' without having to go through the distress of contacting them please ?