My battle with British Gas

By the time I got through to someone at British Gas to complain about them holding £491 of my money in credit, they were holding £924. This was made up of £858 of my own money plus £66 from the government support scheme, the first instalment of which had just hit my account. So there it was, nearly a thousand pounds sitting there, doing nothing, and the builder boyfriend and I were agonising over whether we could afford to go to West Byfleet for a kebab.

British Gas had emailed me to inform me that it was giving me this £66 a month. And I had emailed back to complain bitterly about it. I just thought it was a cheek that they were giving me charity while holding my money in credit, having overestimated my usage ahead of winter and the excruciating price rises, so I’m paying £368 a month. This is more than £4,000 a year – for all the gas we might not use this winter because obviously we are cutting down now it’s so expensive.

I had gone online and been told by the automated system that I did not qualify to have the £491 in my account paid back to me because my past usage was too high. And now they were giving me a £66 handout? I want my own money back, not money that’s only notionally mine, because it’s the taxpayers’, and I’m being treated like a benefit claimant.

So I contacted British Gas’s parent company Centrica to complain, and I asked them what happened to all the customer credits they’re holding in their bank account. My £500 and all the other £500s belonging to everyone else who is in credit with them by that much or more, which must add up to many millions of pounds.

A very nice lady called Claire rang and told me that all the credits they hold cannot earn interest. They are ring-fenced, in case they go into administration. I suppose that’s one comfort, as we all huddle together in the coming months to keep warm. I know the thought that British Gas might go bust will cheer me up no end.

All the same, I told her, I’d rather ring-fence my money in my own bank account. ‘I totally understand,’ she said.

This lady then broke it to me that I was in credit by double what I thought. She said that since I saw the £491 figure by logging into my account another payment had come in, making it £924.

‘I see,’ I said, trying to stay calm. But then I couldn’t contain myself: ‘I couldn’t get through on the ordinary phone lines, you know. I only got you because I told them I was writing about this.’

I told her I thought it was a filthy cheek that Liz Truss had put £66 a month into my bank account until March – £400 in total. I wanted to send it back, direct to Ms Truss’s bank account, with a reference saying ‘Good riddance!’

She told me she couldn’t do anything about the £66 because the government was making them do that. However, she was going to refund me my £858. That’s £924 minus the £66 from the support scheme that had already been paid to me.

‘You don’t need to have that much credit on your account or be paying that much,’ she admitted.

But did I want to leave my direct debit as it was, even though it did seem a bit high? ‘You are using an average of £170 a month if we factor in prices increasing by 30 per cent and therefore, assuming your usage stays the same, you need to pay £224 a month. Your direct debit is £368.04.’ So too high, in other words – as I had been arguing, in vain, for months.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘I was thinking of not turning on the gas, you know, putting on a jumper, cooking over an open fire, heating water in a big pan for a bath. But maybe leave my direct debit as it is. If I manage to live like a vagrant all winter then I guess I’ll have more credit to claim back.’

‘Righteo,’ said the lady, who had a lovely Welsh voice, like Stacey from Gavin and Stacey. I couldn’t be cross with her. ‘I know it’s not your fault,’ I said, feeling tearful, because someone was being nice to me. Is this what it has come to?

‘Can I just ask,’ I said, ‘if I hadn’t got through to you like this, at what point would someone have realised you have a thousand pounds of my money?’

In March, came the answer. So by then I’d have had thousands of pounds in my British Gas interest-free savings account?

As things stand, we’re off to Byfleet for a celebratory kebab.