What Are British Gas Bonds?
British Gas Bond are Issued by the British Gas Company to people who buy their products (which include electricity and gas) as a customer reward. The idea is that for each gas or electricity purchase or bill payment, you get one British Gas Bond. In the case of British Gas electricity users, the bond is sent alongside the bill in the mail (for those who still use paper bills) or via e-mail (for those who have opted for paperless billing.)
What Are British Gas Bonds Used For?
The bonds, which can be seen as raffle entries, are then entered into a series of draws where every bond holder stands a chance to win a prize (with some prizes running into the hundreds of thousands of pounds in worth). Interestingly, all the prizes are energy efficient prizes, including hybrid cars and energy saving bulbs. The draw is automated (to reduce cries of foul play) and conducted by Grass Roots Solutions, the company contracted by British Gas Company to run the scheme. As with all raffle schemes, the British Gas customer with the most bonds---meaning the British Gas customer who spends more---has a better chance of winning a bigger prize, at least statistically speaking.
A Good--But Questionable--Business Move
This would seem to be a well thought out strategy on the part of British Gas, but a reward scheme by an energy company does raise eyebrows in some quarters, with questions being raised as to whether it amounts to rewarding people for spending more energy in a world where people are working to reduce energy consumption. A question might also be raised as to whether a more direct reward scheme---like a scheme where someone is assured of a real reward---wouldn't be more appealing, rather than a scheme where all one gets is a raffle entry. However, looking at the numbers of prizes in the British Gas Bonds scheme, almost everyone who gets a bond with the electricity bill has a very high chance of winning something in one of the draws--- even if that happens to be something as simple as an energy saving bulb.
