coming to end of Fix

violetta · 15 October 2016 at 1:44PM

I am with ExtraEnergy (who to be honest have been fine, which I think is due to only having electricity with them and not trying to leave them so far) Just had an email saying that tariff coming to an end in November and advisory email will be with me in a few days. I am currently on Bright Fixed Price Nov 2016 v2

The two options they offer I can swap to are Fresh Fixed Price Nov 2017 v1 and Clear Fixed Price Nov 2019 v1. However, it proves impossible to find out what they have up their sleeve price-wise for either of these tariffs. I imagine they will not be launched until all us November finishers have to be told the bad news.

Currently on their website, if you do a comparison quote, they name Clear Fixed Price September 2019 v1 as an option. I imagine this will disappear once the end of my Nov 2016 tariff arrives.

My question is, whether it is worth swapping now to the September fix and taking the £25 exit fee hit, as I imagine that the November fix (when made available) will be more than £25 dearer (given the price hikes recently).

Anyone have any thoughts or opinions about this, please? I know this is crystal ball territory lol!!

matelodave · 15 October 2016 at 1:51PM

I'd say my crystal ball is about as accurate as yours, it's a gamble.

Have you looked at what else is about. Once you are in the 42-49 day window you can swap to another supplier without incurring the exit penalty (its in the rules).

You might find that EE will let you swap to another of their tariffs penalty free anyway - ask them. Some suppliers will and others won't but I still think that they can't impose the penalty once you are in the transfer window

violetta · 15 October 2016 at 2:16PM

I have the feeling that once I am in the transfer window, any of the better deals will disappear.

I have quoted it out on Energyhelpline and chosen the option to take into account my current tariff as opposed to what I would save if moved to Extraenergy's standard variable, and I would save £20 with Iresa and £2 with the next option down, SSE.

Iresa don't sound any more customer friendly than EE, and opening up a can of worms by trying to leave EE to save a mere £20 seems like hassle I can do without.

Of course, once they divulge the Nov 2017 or 2019 Fix prices, I may well be able to save a good deal more than £20 (though they do say it is the cheapest 3 year fix on the market). I have not fixed for more than 1 year before but considering 3 this time as prices seem to be moving upwards.

I agree, it is all a gamble. Oh for the days when we had no choice but to use our local electricity board, life was so much simpler

scotty1971 · 15 October 2016 at 2:49PM

violetta wrote: »

I am with ExtraEnergy (who to be honest have been fine, which I think is due to only having electricity with them and not trying to leave them so far) Just had an email saying that tariff coming to an end in November and advisory email will be with me in a few days. I am currently on Bright Fixed Price Nov 2016 v2

The two options they offer I can swap to are Fresh Fixed Price Nov 2017 v1 and Clear Fixed Price Nov 2019 v1. However, it proves impossible to find out what they have up their sleeve price-wise for either of these tariffs. I imagine they will not be launched until all us November finishers have to be told the bad news.

Currently on their website, if you do a comparison quote, they name Clear Fixed Price September 2019 v1 as an option. I imagine this will disappear once the end of my Nov 2016 tariff arrives.

My question is, whether it is worth swapping now to the September fix and taking the £25 exit fee hit, as I imagine that the November fix (when made available) will be more than £25 dearer (given the price hikes recently).

Anyone have any thoughts or opinions about this, please? I know this is crystal ball territory lol!!

I am also on this tariff and had the same e-mail,and not sure what to do either!!

jazzy · 15 October 2016 at 5:03PM

I am in a similar situation my contract with Extra Energy runs out at the end of Nov 2016. I was under the impression that energy suppliers can't charge you an exit fee in the last 42-49 days of your fixed deal.

If this information is correct, why not start the process of a new contract straightaway even if you are remaining with Extra Energy? I also thought that once you have signed up and agreed with a new contract the tariffs cannot then be changed? Is this correct?

MrAnalogy · 16 October 2016 at 10:02AM

I was also on the November tariff.

Having checked on the comparison sight I saw that there were much better offers available elsewhere, and bearing in mind the awful problems reported when trying to leave ExtraEnergy I decided to take the £25 hit.

Having changed to a new supplier on the 24th September I was supplied by what I assumed to be a "final" bill from Extra on the 23rd (somewhat confusingly called "First" bill, and asking for a DD increase!). Also this bill only covered usage up to May this year!

I registered a complaint with them (and stopped my DD) about three weeks ago (I calculated my bill and fortunately I was about on target with my payments/balance), but have had no response since, although I send weekly follow-up emails and just get the auto-response mail back.

If you read elsewhere in this Forum you will discover that a large majority of customers have an absolute nightmare try to resolve their leaving issues with ExtraEnergy, with seeming a significant proportion of them having recourse to refer the problem to the Ombudsman for resolution.

Of course any choice is up to you, and like you I had no real issues with them whilst a customer - however, I would say, trying to get them to respond to any issue you might have would appear to be virtually impossible!

Good Luck!

violetta · 16 October 2016 at 10:21AM

MrAnalogy wrote: »

I was also on the November tariff.

Having checked on the comparison sight I saw that there were much better offers available elsewhere, and bearing in mind the awful problems reported when trying to leave ExtraEnergy I decided to take the £25 hit.

Having changed to a new supplier on the 24th September I was supplied by what I assumed to be a "final" bill from Extra on the 23rd (somewhat confusingly called "First" bill, and asking for a DD increase!). Also this bill only covered usage up to May this year!

I registered a complaint with them (and stopped my DD) about three weeks ago (I calculated my bill and fortunately I was about on target with my payments/balance), but have had no response since, although I send weekly follow-up emails and just get the auto-response mail back.

If you read elsewhere in this Forum you will discover that a large majority of customers have an absolute nightmare try to resolve their leaving issues with ExtraEnergy, with seeming a significant proportion of them having recourse to refer the problem to the Ombudsman for resolution.

Of course any choice is up to you, and like you I had no real issues with them whilst a customer - however, I would say, trying to get them to respond to any issue you might have would appear to be virtually impossible!

Good Luck!

I wasn't planning to leave them for this very reason (and also that I have had no trouble with them so far).

I was just wondering whether to change to the September 2017 (1 year fix) or September 2019 (3 year fix) ahead of when the November 2017/2019 fixes come out and take the £25 hit for doing so (unless I happily turn out to be in the 42 - 49 day transfer window) because I suspect the November fixes will be more expensive than the September fixes. I think I am going to have to decide pretty quickly

molerat · 16 October 2016 at 4:42PM

49 days from 30 Nov is Oct 12 so now inside the switching window.

molerat · 18 October 2016 at 10:09AM

Nov 2017 fix now available, fairly competitive electric only (still an increase though) but dual fuel is not so. Looks like my daughter will have to go dual fuel with E.ON as that is the only way to save money overall, extortionate electric (64p SC ! but reasonable unit rate) but cheap gas and bag the £30 switching bonus.

violetta · 18 October 2016 at 12:53PM

Yes, I had my end of current tariff letter late yesterday evening, and went with the Nov 17 one year fix, which is just £19 per annum (using the last 12 months usage) more than my current tariff. On the new tariff, the SC has reduced quite a bit from the last tariff but the electricity is around 1p per unit more expensive. The October 17 tariff would have cost me a further £35 per annum, and maybe £25 early termination fee if they felt awkward, so I am glad I waited to see what happened!

The 3 year fix was hugely more expensive and I would have been volunteering to pay around £138 a year more than I do now to be assured of no further price rise for 3 years - I thought I would take my chances on that rather than volunteer an extra £400 over three years.

scotty1971 · 19 October 2016 at 12:33PM

Just switched over to EON hopefully it goes smoothly

coming to end of Fix

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