It's That Time Of Year Again.

Our Power supply company send in their statements of what we have used and forecast what we will use in the future year and adjust our Direct Debit accordingly.

I received my statement yesterday for Gas and Electric, my Gas was £40 in Debit.
The Direct Debit was increased by £3 a month which I told them 'I could live with that' ,but the Electricity Debit had increased 100% per month.
To make matters worse I was £78 in credit on the Electricity account.

Needless to say, I was like a Bear With A Sore Head ,on the Phone..

They immediately changed the Direct Debit for the Electric back to the original amount.
This happens almost every year, it's getting a regular occurrence ,they did apologise profusely and said,"It Was A Computer Error ", 'The Old Story.'

Have You Had Any Problems With Your Supplier ?.

 

@music , why don't you change suppliers . Its very easy . Just go on a comparison site and they will guide you through the change to probably a cheaper supplier.

 

@music I agree with @HarryS you need to change your supplier, I change my supplier every year & always save a bit of money . I use compare the meerkat.com (I've collected all the meerkats now, I'm hopeful as I have the whole set one day they might be worth a few pennies! Or you could opt for free cinema tickets! It's a win win either way, if you decide to change let us know how you get on )

 

just changed to brit Gas via uswitch. A very good deal nearly as cheap as the cheapest minnow,gb energy. Saving me 25%.

 

Yes! I generally switch each year going through the compare thing and have had a lot of problems.

Unlike others I have found on the whole the process takes a lot of time and energy and talking to people who have no idea what they are doing or how to provide decent customer service.

My worst experiences in the last few years have been with nPower (utterly incompetent took 6 months to switch), Co-Op (again utterly incompetent, and tried to throw up all kinds of barriers to stop me from moving which I eventually did after 3 months of calls, letter writing, meter reading etc). I also had a bad experience with Scottish Power (total cowboys).

Don't want to think how much time I have spent trying to switch/get things straight over the last 5 years. By officially complaining by letter and threatening the Ombundsman I have got two cheques for 'inconvenience', but that's not the point.

As far as 'saving money' I have found in general it was only the first time I switched after staying with BGas for several years that there was a significant reduction in annual costs. Each time i have switched the last 6 years has been around £50-£100 saving per year - for that amount (and the expected hassle in switching) I would have stayed with the current supplier, but I just wanted to get 3 suppliers out of my life at the same as they were incompetent and had dismal customer service (clueless staff, looooong waiting times to get through to anyone, constant mistakes in billing etc etc).

I have had a good experience with EDF and my current supplier Ovo seem very on the ball and pleasant to deal with.

I do think switching thing that is talked up so much by politicians as 'big savings' and the constant mantra of 'choice' is a bit of a con considering the hassle and the fact you are actually dealing with a cartel. And for those who just don't have the energy, worried about the complexities or for some other reason do not switch frequently they probably paying over the odds, sometimes significantly which seems so unfair (I know quite a few older people who just find it too daunting a thought to go through).

I hate wasting time on this kind of thing, there are a thousand things I'd rather be doing. i just wish the government would introduce increase/profit caps on suppliers as other countries do. I don't want to keep switching and swapping so ensure I'm not overpaying!!

Sorry turned into a bit of a rant

GG

 

I pay direct debit, but in arrears.
They aint using me as their lending bank.

I changed three years ago and the hassle was so bad I daren't change again.
I ended up paying two suppliers for three months, took me ages to sort the sods out, and at the end of it it was impossible to work out if I was out of pocket.

All energy companies are crooks, that's the way I look at it.
You just need to find the crook that is taking the piss out of you the least.

 

As GG I moved from nPower to OVO 2 years ago , not the slightest problem with the move. I am now moving from OVO to Sainsbury's Energy who are currently offering very good rates . If all goes to plan , I will have saved approx 30% on my energy costs from nPowers "cheapest" 2014 rate .

 

Ahh but is it actually possible to work out if it will be cheaper or not, I still struggle to get my head around all those confusing prices for this and that.

There should be a set price for a single unit of electricity and gas, full stop, from each supplier.
None of this, so many units at so and so price, and others at another price
It designed so that you cant make a fair comparison.
So then we get comparison sites that tell us which is the cheapest for us.
And that is mostly based on the one who is giving them the highest rake off.

 

It is very easy to compare the prices @pete . All figures are now shown clearly on the websites.For example
Sainsbury
Electricity
Standing Charge 26.01 / day
Unit rate 8.27 / kwh
Gas
Standing Charge 26.01 / day
Unit rate 2.41 / kwh
OVO
Electricity
Standing Charge 27.4 / day
Unit rate 10.74 / kwh
Gas
Standing Charge 27.4 / day
Unit rate 2.40 / kwh

So the daily standing charge and gas price are about the same . Electricity is 2.47pence per unit cheaper x usage 12000 kwh = £296 saving . Your bill will show your usage in Kwh . My monthly payment is now reduced by £20 a month.

 

Ok @HarryS , must admit I've not delved into a bill for a couple of years.

But just looked and I'm paying a standing charge 24.77p a day
3.69 a kwh for gas and 17.06 and 5.69 KWH for electricity.

If that is easy to compare then I must be really dense, .......dont answer that

And some very useful info on the end of the bill, "one of the best ways to reduce your bill, is to use less energy", now why didn't I think of that

They're having a laugh.

 

@pete you're energy provider must love you paying them rates I would think you can make a really good saving by changing. Now if you don't trust the comparison sites , and some providers do have very poor ratings by getting you're billing in a mess. Then try OVO , a few of us sing it's praises on here . It's quite cheap and very efficient . They will quote you online with just a few questions
https://www.ovoenergy.com/

 

@HarryS , I just went there, first thing they asked was my postcode?
So does that mean they decide if they can rip you off judging by your postcode?
I know I'm being sceptical

Next they ask what kind of house, apart from a couple of other questions, then come up with £70 a month, now is that in summer or winter??
Then they say if I want 100% renewable energy it would be £76
So how do they make sure that my cable only gets the stuff from wind farms?
And if I plumped for that option, does it mean my lights go out if the wind stops blowing?

But thanks for the info, I will look into it further.

 

Anyone had one of these 'smart meters' yet? It think they're being 'rolled out' now.

We had one that attached to the mains cable and told us how much energy we were using. A bit of a novelty at first - and then it got a good stiff ignoring.

The same with a water meter - we don't waste water - I've a couple of water butts - but it doesn't stop us putting on that extra load of washing.

'Smart meters' are really there to get rid of meter readers - not sure how they read the 'smart meters' but we use mobile - there is no fixed line to plug into.

Waste of money IMHO.

 

We had smart meters fitted last year as you say they get very boring after the initial play with them .The main use is to do automatic meter readings . So there should be no more estimates.