Is your capped tariff ending? Article Discussion

tuggy12

I've just looked at the terms and conditions for SP's current Standard Domestic Gas and Electric prices from Mar 2009.
In the sections on ending the agreements (there is one each for gas and electricity) there is no mention of any penalties on switching tariffs or suppliers.
28 days notice is all that is required to either switch tariffs or suppliers.

square-eyes

tuggy12 wrote: »

I've just looked at the terms and conditions for SP's current Standard Domestic Gas and Electric prices from Mar 2009.
In the sections on ending the agreements (there is one each for gas and electricity) there is no mention of any penalties on switching tariffs or suppliers.
28 days notice is all that is required to either switch tariffs or suppliers.

That is very interesting. It does seem to be a bit arbitrary to give you a 6 week window to change tariff. Here is the relevant section of the email from SP.

Thank you for your email.

I confirm your contract will expire on 31st August 2009. If you cancel the supply contract or change the tariff before the end date of the product then the cancellation charges for Electricity is £30.00 and for Gas is £20.00.

I also confirm you that I have arranged to stop your account not to transfer to Capped Price Energy September 2010 so that you have preference to switch over to any other tariff.

I would also like to inform you that if you change the tariff between 1st September 2009 to 13th October 2009 you will not be charged any cancellation fees. However, if you changes the tariff after that he will be charged a cancellation fees of £50.00.

violetta

Does the Scottish Power representative have any comments to add about the fact that clicking on the button provided in our 'fixed price ends on 31/8' email to opt out of the new capped tariff 2010 has absolutely no effect at all and does not register on the system? Is he/she able to let SP's IT Department know the button does not seem to communicate with their computers, despite confirming at the time that our request has been registered?

gjs1701

I have the Scottish Power capped rate. It is due to end on 31st August. So I switched to EDF on 5th August. I received an email from EDF saying it would take 6-8 weeks to switch.

Today I got a letter saying the switch over date would be 28th August. Which means I will be paying a penalty to Scottish Power.

I will be on the phone to EDF first thing tomorrow.

PS: I printed out the screen that said I had opted out of the new Scottish power capped rate.

unwina

I would like to say that unless you specifically stated to EDF that under no circumstances was the changeover to be carried out before the end of the month you will be taking pot luck.

I had a problem with my changeover to EDF in that it did not seem to puck up the correct initial DD information I entered. I rang them and thought I had mentioned my problem with SP's fees if it transfered quicker. it turns out after EDF reviewed the tape of my conversations that I didn;t. If I had then apparently EDF would have been in error the fact that it states if could take up to 6 weeks means it could be sooner.

I was unlucky in that the electric is switching over early the gas is taking longer. Just glad i did it through Topcashback, at least I got £40 from them.

some cynic elsewhere suggested that SP were specifically running these through as quick as possible to ensure that the fees were activated, I'm not sure about that one however EDF did say to me that its not usually this fast. I have to say it is now.

regards,
Alan

gjs1701

I don't think there is any way to give them a specific date when signing up online.

I phoned them, and they said there was no way they could change the date. It is only the electricity that is early, so that is £30, if Scottish Power charge me.

I will get £60 cash back from Top Cash back, so that will cover it, but it is damned annoying.

timwb

I'm on the SP fixed that expires on 31st of the month. I had an email from SP last week but hadn't got round to doing some comparisons. However I had an email from SP asking for usual meter reading, I went to the cupboard to take a reading and found myself looking at a blank digital display! The damn meter has packed up. I called SP and an engineer is coming to change meter on 12th September. This will obviously cause problems if I want to switch providers, so I did some research into SP tarriffs today. The capped til September 2010 that I will automatically be put on if I do nothing is exactly the same charges as the Fix N Flex August 2010. The main difference being that with the Flex one I can get out with in six months. Hopefully I'll be able to ask SP about switching my tariff sometime during September, when I have to let them know if I want to stay on the capped one. When doing my comparisons I discovered that my electric price will be a few pence extra per unit, but my standing charge will be a whole 10p Cheaper per day!

Sorry for ranting

square-eyes

As I have opted out of the automatic capped rate 2010 tariff, I have just had a new email from Scottish Power offering me Online Energy Saver 6 tariff. This is the tariff I was going to swap to anyway as it should be £100 cheaper than my old deal and £200 cheaper than the new 2010 capped tariff.

tuggy12

square-eyes wrote: »

As I have opted out of the automatic capped rate 2010 tariff, I have just had a new email from Scottish Power offering me Online Energy Saver 6 tariff. This is the tariff I was going to swap to anyway as it should be £100 cheaper than my old deal and £200 cheaper than the new 2010 capped tariff.

Remember Energy saver 6 tariff also ties you to July 2010 and has a penalty clause:

We may apply cancellation charges inclusive of VAT of £30 for electricity and £20 for
gas if you switch to Online Energy Saver 6 but then cancel your supply contract or
switch to another tariff before the 31st July 2010. These charges will not be applied if

the supply contract is cancelled due to a home move.

Dave_save

Checked with EDF tonight and my supplies are being transferred to them from SP during September, so I won't be paying any penalty fee. Just wish I'd gone through a cashback site as well. These fixed rate deals are a con and should be outlawed. They are removing the competitiveness from the market by virtually guaranteeing a fixed income to these suppliers for 12 months. The penalty fees imposed mean it's not financially worhwhile to change to the cheaper tarrifs, as they become available, so I won't be going on one again. I'm quite prepared to change over as many times as necessary to chase the cheaper tarrifs.