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.