# Bord Gais 'level pay'



## redwellies (20 Feb 2017)

I was one of the unfortunate customers who was consistently undercharged for a long period of time for gas on the level pay scheme. I signed up for Level Pay specifically to avoid high bills.
In October of last year I was informed I was €1000 in arrears and my new monthly bills would increase to >€200 per month. 
I have been paying this increased rate since then. I lodged a complaint with Bord Gais but heard nothing in response. 
Has anyone else found themselves in this position and has anyone had any success in their dealings with BG as a result?
I will be changing supplier as soon as we clear our arrears.....


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## shweeney (20 Feb 2017)

double check all your bills and make sure they were charging you the correct rates with the correct discounts.  I was with BGE for a year up until last December, and they never got the billing right even once.


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## Pugmister (20 Feb 2017)

I was in a similar position whereby I was underpaying gas and over paying electricity with Bord Gais. I ended up transferring the credit balance over to the gas account to reduce the arrears slightly. I then converted my tesco clubcard vouchers to Bord Gais vouchers which essentially doubles their value to reduce the arrears even further. I have now cleared all arrears and am waiting for my contract to end to switch back to airtricity.

Are you using gas for cooking and heating ? Have you the heating programmed to come on for multiple hours at a time or are you making use of a thermostat to keep the temperature at a selected level ? €1000 seems quite a large amount of arrears to run up.


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## postman pat (20 Feb 2017)

redwellies said:


> I was one of the unfortunate customers who was consistently undercharged for a long period of time for gas on the level pay scheme. I signed up for Level Pay specifically to avoid high bills.
> In October of last year I was informed I was €1000 in arrears and my new monthly bills would increase to >€200 per month.
> I have been paying this increased rate since then. I lodged a complaint with Bord Gais but heard nothing in response.
> Has anyone else found themselves in this position and has anyone had any success in their dealings with BG as a result?
> I will be changing supplier as soon as we clear our arrears.....



That is one of the reasons that I would not consider signing up with Bord Gais,I dont like the idea of overpaying or even worse underpaying as happened yourself.
I have told Bord Gais this several times when they tried to get me to go with them,but they just shrugged and said thats just the way it is,Its seems that they dont want the hassle of reading metres etc.

Pat


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## Leo (20 Feb 2017)

postman pat said:


> Its seems that they dont want the hassle of reading metres etc.



Whether you're on level-pay or the more standard plans has no bearing on how often the meters are read. Meters are read by Gas Networks Ireland.


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## jpd (20 Feb 2017)

It is very easy to read your meter and send them the info or at least know whether their estimates are under or over your actual usage.


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## redwellies (21 Feb 2017)

jpd said:


> It is very easy to read your meter and send them the info or at least know whether their estimates are under or over your actual usage.



Well I've learned my lesson in this regard...... the frustrating thing is that they had read my meter a number of times in the course of the year. Apparently the issue was not with the reading of the meter but the calculations of the monthly cost after reading the meter.


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## Leo (21 Feb 2017)

There must have been a significant increase in usage since you signed-up for level-pay in order to accrue €1000 in arrears as the monthly amount they use is based on usage over the previous 12 months. Any chance the perceived lower bills (or lack of fear of the massive bill) made you less conscious of usage?


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## redwellies (21 Feb 2017)

I had a baby in late 2015 adding to heating costs but the meter was read in February and April and staff agreed they should have increased the monthly amount on seeing those readings but didn't. The units used in Feb was surely an indicator of an underpayment. We rarely turn the heating on from march / April onwards


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## Leo (21 Feb 2017)

I believe they generally just review the levels once a year, after all, when you sign-up they tell you what the monthly rate will be for the year. If you were aware you were going to be using more, you should have contacted them.


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## Nordkapp (21 Feb 2017)

Surprised BGE let you get that far undercharged. I had the pleasure of dealing with them twice in regard to Level pay. First time i had it maintained at the required rate agreed, second time we argued about the same issue whereby BGE raised the level pay to a level of 20% more than agreed. BGE like you prepay a full bills amount so decided to take no risk that i would make the 3 level pay amounts and decided to hedge ahead. I declined that and went back to paper billing, now moved to Energia where the unit rate is 12.91 cent as opposed to 15.8 I was paying.

If you don't like their billing then vote with your feet.


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## redwellies (22 Feb 2017)

I'll be moving as soon as my arrears are cleared. There's was an article in the paper in relation to the undercharging of a number of customers on level pay, resulting in subsequent large monthly bills. BG did not state how many customers were affected.


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## POC (22 Feb 2017)

I change providers regularly. I was with them recently for electricity for a year. About half way through the year, they increased my monthly payment by about 10℅. When I left, they refunded me an overpayment of about 60℅ of a monthly payment. 
I have no gripe with them. (If my electricity usage had been more even, they probably wouldn't have needed to change the payment, but I used more at the beginning of my contract because it was winter)


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## Ceist Beag (22 Feb 2017)

Can't you see your balance when you view your account online? Wouldn't it be obvious from looking at that, that your monthly payments were never clearing the total usage?


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