British gas havent taken direct debit for 18 months

[thelightbrigade]

I set up  DD with British Gas I think back in early 2019,

I have a specific bank account just for all of my direct debits,

I transfer money in each month and let it roll on, I don't really examine it so I didn't realise that British gas have not taken any direct debits,

I have a larger balance with them than when I set it up,

 

I have had no letters from them but I did find hundreds of emails from them in my spam folder, all the same, basically saying there is a technical error on their side, they couldn't take the DD but all sorted now and they will retry, these are all automated emails by the look of them

 

I now have quite a big balance with them and when I checked my credit file it is on there - no missed payments but a growing balance.

I haven.t called them yet, I am going to ring them tomorrow.

 

I am not happy at all, I thought it was being paid just ticking along.
This only came to light because I received an email from them the other day that didn't go into spam, saying I have cancelled the DD and I need to contact them.

Has anyone ever herd of this happening before?

[dx100uk]

no but you have the money ready and you have evidence now that they acknowledge its their error so once on the phone it should be sorted.

 

you do know you can do this all online at their site, then you don't need to worry about this in future.

how do they get readings have you a smart meter?

 

[45002]

OP had advice here

 

https://tinyurl.com/ybjpxl57

 

too.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by 45002
url as ever

[dx100uk]

simply needs to log in to their account on the BG website

its THAT simple.

 

then you can view everything and instantly pay what you owe.

[BankFodder]

Well I see that on MSE you have received a load of moralising holier-than-thou judgemental responses.

It would certainly be a good idea to check your spam folder routinely – apart from anything else, it will become so full that the task of checking it all could be overwhelming.

However, you're quite right that a direct debit set up is meant to take care of all this slog and if the direct debit is in place and if the money is there, then the duty lies with British Gas to execute the direct debit quickly and take the money rather than the cause you problems. That's meant to be part of the service they provide.

One of the problems with companies like British Gas is that if they get it wrong, they are often not very good at sorting things out but what they are quite good at is leaping into debt collection mode and smashing up your credit file and smashing up your financial life because of an error which they made.

One important thing to ask is whether they have been billing you correctly? Have you received bills? I would say that you do have a certain duty to check your bills and to see whether they have been received.

If they haven't built you correctly then clearly you have a larger problem – but also you could benefit from the back billing code which requires that they bill you correctly and if they failed to do so, then they are only entitled to recover 12 months of arrears.

This is worth checking.

I think you need to get into action very quickly. You can either simply pay the money over in one go using the British Gas website and accessing your account – as suggested by my site team colleague above – or you could check that the bills have been issued at the correct times and if you find that there has been no billing then this is definitely a matter that you need to take up.

Of course the other problem is that although you have discovered this issue and you may decide to bring your account fully up-to-date, you now have no guarantee that they are going to be executing the direct debit in the future and this could be a continuing problem.

I would suggest that after you have checked your bills, assuming that the billing has been correct and that is simply a failure of direct debits, that you bring the account up-to-date but then you should contact British Gas customer service and raise the query with them. I would suggest that you record your calls having first read our customer services guide.

I think you should confirm everything in writing. I think you should confirm the fact that they are at fault by not executing your direct debit correctly and that you are trying to deal with the problem and you are trying to get them to confirm that they are going to remedy it so that it won't happen again in the future. Having a paper trail is essential if you want to protect yourself against stupid bumbling bureaucracy that will simply roll over you without blinking.

[thelightbrigade]

Yes I got a lashing on MSE, not really sure why, and then some of my replies removed by admin,

I only wanted to know if this is a common issue before I contact BG,

 

I did get onto a chat with an agent and was promised an email by end of day, still not heard anything,

I will ring them tomorrow when I have some time off.

 

I have received no bills, I have email statements, which I didn't really bother with because I thought it was all rolling along, the meter was read in October so the balance would be accurate

 

- MSE people seems to think I am trying to not pay or it is somehow my fault that BG haven't sent me a letter or called me.

 

I am not happy that my credit file has been affected, not with missed or late payments but a higher rolling balance

[dx100uk]

do you have access to your online account?

 

dx