Any experiences with Atlantic Direct?

covickovic

Hiya,

I am thinking of switching from British Gas to Atlantic Direct. Lower price is important but so is the customer service and quality.
I live in south-west London. Has anybody got any experience with them?

Thanks

oddjob_3

Could this be Atlantic Electric & Gas?

They are part of the Southern Energy Group and bills are sent from Cardiff.

If so, I have just switched from them to Scottish Power.
I originally switched to AE&G from npower about 2 years ago on the advise of "this is money". I was expecting to get a cheaper supply but it actually worked out more expensive. I paid a monthly charge on DD and had afinal invoice for £600 from which I am still smarting.

As an added negative rider, I also replaced my GCH boiler during that period and the gas bills increased by 40%.

The other reason for switching to SP is that they are capping the charges for 18 months and seemingly are cheaper than AE&G anyway? This has yet to be verified.

djohn2002uk

I just changed from Powergen. Compared Atlantic with Scottish Power and there was virtually no difference on price but signed with Scottish due to prices being capped untill December 31st next year.

MATH

Changed gas to atlantic recently and had no probs, very helpful on the phone. Now in the process of changing leccy to them also.

loon_2

atlantic are part of SSE who have announced price rise in jan.

scottish power capped good choice, but why not powergen capped. powergen have had less price increase than its competitors over the past year and their prices are capped until 31/07/06.

i myself choose powergen capped (i luckily got old rates just before price rise), but even if i were not, i would probably choose them as they have the greatest period of capped time.

when doing comparisons, this tariff may seem a bit more expensive but if you forecast for the capped period, this will work out cheaper. And as powergen usually do, they will probably extend the capped period.

i feel that when people are compairing prices, they only look a the option that is currentky cheapest and do not plan for the future.

oddjob_3

The reason I switched to SP was beacuase a salesman knocked on the door and sold me the hold prices for two years scheme. At the time I was vulnerable because I was being hit with big bills from Atlantic.Also, I had not yet been introduced to MoneySaving Expert, so did not have you guys to help.

I have already told my sob story in another thread, but at the risk of repetition my Electric bills are around £120/month (plus £66 for gas) and I need desperately to reduce these numbers.

I repeat that there could be a huge market for a gismo to shut down the power supply to the likes of the satelite receiver box when the TV is switched off. I have asked the Energy Efficiency team at SP to pst me a review guide, but if this does not help it will be the Samaritans next.

loon_2

you should try calling the powergen energy efficiency team, as powergen usually set the industry guide lines with regards to such matters... they gave me some advise... such as radiator reflectors.

chubbybrown4real

Im with Atlantic,
I went with them after Amerada gave up the Ghost..

anyway life been great until they wanted to increase my D.D by a third as I owed so much,shame it was static for the last 2-3 years.

obviously Electric prices have risen,but by a third ??

I've cleared the excess and will be looking for a better deal in the spring.

chubbers

hollie.weimeraner

I was initially with Amerada who were one of the cheapest suppliers of power approx 3 years ago. Amerada were subsequently taken over by Atlantic who themselves still provided competitively priced power. Unfortunately Atlantic themselves have recently been swallowed up by Southern electric and I was then faced with increases in elctric and gas prices (with the gas increase being in the region of 20%!!!). This encouraged me to jump ship & I am now with Scottish Power.

Whilst I was with Atlantic though, I didn't have any major problems with the Online billing or anything else for that matter.

loon_2

amerada became part of powergen. if you were signed by atlantic, you were conned.

Rhino666

I'm based in coventry and despite the 18% price hike earlier this year Atlantic direct are still cheapest for me.