Scottish Power capped rate.

wellyella

I signed up yesterday to SP capped rate until Nov 2009.

I live in a 4 bed detached house and I am the only adult here (with 2 children). I had been paying £98 pm for Gas and Electric but they said they can cap it at £60 pm.

They review it every 3 months and if I use more than that, they will change me to the £80 pm capped rate, likewise if I use less, I will go to the £50 capped rate.

They chap was convinced that I shouldn't go over the £60 pm capped rate though.

I am careful, only use washing machine/dishwasher at night and they both go on once roughly every 3 days. And the heating hasn't gone on yet Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Does this sound right to you? For a single person with 2 young children, would you expect £60 a month to be about right?

And any bad experiences of the capped rate as I still have 13 days to pull out

Premier_2

Be careful!

Capped rates relate to the unit charge, not the amount per month they ask you to pay by DD - a quick scan of this forum will show you a number of cases where people have been happily been paying a fixed amount per month only to be suddenly landed with a huge bill - and once you owe the utility company money they won't usually let you leave to another supplier without paying off the debt in full.

Remember, when you pay monthly, all you are doing is making monthly payments towards what you owe. What you owe will be based on what you have consumed. The other thing that paying monthly does is to help spread the cost evenly over the year so that you don't pay more in winter when you use more, but will pay more in summer than you use to compensate.

It's difficult to estimate what your costs might be, but the average for a family is now expected to be about £1200 per year i.e. £100 per month.
Ok, you may be the only adult in the home, but it still costs the same to watch TV, cook the dinner, heat the room, etc, whether it has 1 adult or two in it.

I think if you manage to only consume £60 per month on electricity and gas, you'd be doing very well.

JulieM

wellyella wrote: »

I signed up yesterday to SP capped rate until Nov 2009.

I live in a 4 bed detached house and I am the only adult here (with 2 children). I had been paying £98 pm for Gas and Electric but they said they can cap it at £60 pm.

They review it every 3 months and if I use more than that, they will change me to the £80 pm capped rate, likewise if I use less, I will go to the £50 capped rate.



They chap was convinced that I shouldn't go over the £60 pm capped rate though.

I am careful, only use washing machine/dishwasher at night and they both go on once roughly every 3 days. And the heating hasn't gone on yet Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Does this sound right to you? For a single person with 2 young children, would you expect £60 a month to be about right?

And any bad experiences of the capped rate as I still have 13 days to pull out

We are with Scottish Power, 2 adults in modern well insulated 4 bed house, paying £92 per month which will increase to £106 next month. We could probably bring this down a bit, but not much. £60 a month does not sound enough to me.

notbritishgas

If the £98 per month you were paying was an accurate reflection of your usage then it would be unusual or more likely impossible to switch to a capped tariff and save money. This is because capped tariffs are set at a premium to their normal tariffs.
The £60 per month seems to be a carrot to get you to join them.

Magentasue

Just look back over your bills and work out how many kwh you use in a year. Multiply by the kwh unit cost for the capped deal and divide by 12. Not accurate to a pound but good enough to tell you whether £60 or £90 is more reasonable.

moonrakerz

wellyella wrote: »

I

I live in a 4 bed detached house and I am the only adult here (with 2 children). I had been paying £98 pm for Gas and Electric but they said they can cap it at £60 pm.

I don't wish to sound harsh - but do you really, really, really think another supplier would offer to supply the same amount of energy for £60 a month, when another supplier was charging £98 a month ? Especially when the media has been full of "shock/horror" stories about gas going up 60%, etc, etc.

Premier_2

moonrakerz wrote: »

I don't wish to sound harsh - but do you really, really, really think another supplier would offer to supply the same amount of energy for £60 a month, when another supplier was charging £98 a month ? Especially when the media has been full of "shock/horror" stories about gas going up 60%, etc, etc.

You are not only being harsh, but also quite misleading.

If you look at any of the comparison sites listed above in the resource bar, you'll find it's quite easy for there to be differences of 40% or more in cost between suppliers (depending on usage)

With regards the "shock/horror" stories in the media a few months back suggesting 60% increases in the price of gas (I think they even reported as high as 70%), well that's just what they were - scare stories. In the recent round of price increases, the major six increased their price of gas on average between 22% and 35%
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity#indicator2

whatatwit

Hi Wellyella, are you an economy 7 tarrif.....I note that you only use washing machine and dishwasher at night....this is only beneficial if you get the cheap rate economy 7 tarrif...but your daytime rate is often higher than a single 24hour tarrif.

It does sound like smoke and mirrors to me.

1carminestocky

Premier wrote: »

You are not only being harsh, but also quite misleading.

If you look at any of the comparison sites listed above in the resource bar, you'll find it's quite easy for there to be differences of 40% or more in cost between suppliers (depending on usage)

With regards the "shock/horror" stories in the media a few months back suggesting 60% increases in the price of gas (I think they even reported as high as 70%), well that's just what they were - scare stories. In the recent round of price increases, the major six increased their price of gas on average between 22% and 35%
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity#indicator2

To be fair to the press (I can't believe I just wrote that :eek: ) I think it only right and proper to stress that the press were just reporting on what the energy comepnies were saying (the same energy companies who seem to have gone capped-deal crazy just lately. Co-incidence? :rolleyes: ).

Woodgnome_2

wellyella wrote: »

I signed up yesterday to SP capped rate until Nov 2009.

I live in a 4 bed detached house and I am the only adult here (with 2 children). I had been paying £98 pm for Gas and Electric but they said they can cap it at £60 pm.

They review it every 3 months and if I use more than that, they will change me to the £80 pm capped rate, likewise if I use less, I will go to the £50 capped rate.

They chap was convinced that I shouldn't go over the £60 pm capped rate though.

I am careful, only use washing machine/dishwasher at night and they both go on once roughly every 3 days. And the heating hasn't gone on yet Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Does this sound right to you? For a single person with 2 young children, would you expect £60 a month to be about right?

And any bad experiences of the capped rate as I still have 13 days to pull out

Did the chap also tell you , you had won a lottery that you have never entered? :rolleyes:

Don't believe what a company troll tells you, compare the unit prices on offer with your current ones and find out how many Kwh you use, work in the discounts and voila you will know which company is cheapest. Or use energyhelpline.com and it should do it for you.

paulonline123

Premier wrote: »

You are not only being harsh, but also quite misleading.

If you look at any of the comparison sites listed above in the resource bar, you'll find it's quite easy for there to be differences of 40% or more in cost between suppliers (depending on usage)

With regards the "shock/horror" stories in the media a few months back suggesting 60% increases in the price of gas (I think they even reported as high as 70%), well that's just what they were - scare stories. In the recent round of price increases, the major six increased their price of gas on average between 22% and 35%
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity#indicator2

He's not misleading at all he's correct. The only way you save 40% is by changing the way you operate, if for instance you have gas and elec separate and don't have an internet tariff and dont pay by direct debit and you get both energy's together and pay by direct debit and have an internet tariff then you will see the 40%. As you can see this is clearly not the case.

Aside from that scotish power put their prices up by the most on equal terms with BG - 35% for gas and 9% for electric and even if you were with the most expensive supplier based on your direct debits previous the MAXIMUM you would save is around 20 - 30 pounds a year.

To the best of my knowledge nobody caps direct debit prices as a way of paying your bills without requiring you to settle any difference at the end of the twelve month scheme which is no good for anyone. This will leave you in debt and tbh you should take it up with them and raise a sales complaint and erronious transfer to your original supplier.

In relation to your shock horrer story you can bet that it will happen. gas has gone up on average 30% over the main suppliers and come january it will be going up again. Its no coincidence that the major suppliers who were offering price protection at standard rates now only offer it at a premium - they know what will happen.