Is your capped tariff ending? Article Discussion

zoelife

I am currently on EON price protection R1 dual fuel after being shunted onto this last year and having been ill I haven't managed to get things straight about switching as am confused despite reading articles , I think this contract should be up sometime this month but not sure how to find out exactly when? ( ok just found a letter which says protecting prices til march 2011 and last price protection which automatically moved off ended Oct 2009)

I am disabled live in a 2bed bungalow(2people) so am in a lot therefore use gas and elec during day time as well as evenings.

can anyone help me work out what is the best shift to make I'm thinking maybe green tariff for electricity but would love to save as much money as pos while getting a decent customer service which is really important to me

Please move me if could be somewhere more appropriate on the board Thank you for any helpful advice and tips :T

Joberob

Hi all,

Im have just currently come to the end of a deal with npower and they are switching me to 'go save s' for both electricity and gas.

When i do the online comparison it seems the rates im receiving with this standard deal are better than the ones quoted yet its reporting incorrectly the comparison info of my current 'go save s' rates.

according to a recently received letter:

electricity prices for go save s customers
daily standing charge 6.500p/6.825p inc vat
unit rate 12.83p/13.47p inc vat

gas prices for go save s customers
daily standaing charge 57.300p/60.165p inc vat
unit rate 2.788p/2.927p inc vat

Ive looked at the three comparison websites but will just post info from one below.

report info on current plan from npower
Gas unit rates: 7.73p per kWh 2.927p per kWh above 4572 kWh p.a
Electricity unit rates: 16.89p per kWh 13.47p per kWh above 728 kWh p.a

cheapest dual fuel deal with scottish power
Gas unit rates: 6.48p per kWh 2.756p per kWh above 2680 kWh p.a
Electricity unit rates: 17.842p per kWh 10.248p per kWh above 900 kWh p.a

These figures dont seem to be comparable with the info provided on the letter which is my main cause for the confusion, do we simply ignore the initial price per kwh before the discounted rate? Should this be analysed for further savings?

Also am i able to switch to the same provider if npower are currently offering the cheapest deal and I am currently with them?

Cap or cheapest? we can risk price hikes as could afford an increase but would listen to the wiser people of the world if capping is more likely to pay off.

thanks in advance to anyone with useful info :T

Matt_EA

I am on Scottish Power's Online Energy Reward (dual fuel) tariff, which is fixed until 31 July 2011 after which I will be put onto their standard tariff.

I am just a bit confused by some of the wording they have used in an email I received from them today. Part of the Online Energy Reward is that you receive an account credit of £105 inc VAT if you stay on the offer. In the original T&Cs, it states that you will receive this "if you stay on this product until 7th June 2011".

However, in today's email, they say in the small print (footnote 1): "The Online Energy Reward discount of £105 (incl. VAT) for Dual Fuel will be credited to your account before 1st August 2011 as long as you have remained continuously on the Online Energy Reward product until that date". This differs from the original T&Cs as they seem to have moved the goalposts - I thought I only had to stay on the tariff until 7th June, see above?

Not only this, but they are being evasive about whether they will charge their £50 penalty (also in the T&Cs) for leaving them before 1st August. I am keen to get onto a better deal elsewhere, but their wording is ambiguous about their cancellation charging policy - from the same email: "If you notify us that you wish to [change supplier] before 1st August 2011 and we receive a request for your supply from another supplier within 15 working days, we will not move you to our standard monthly Direct Debit prices or charge the agreed cancellation fee. If you have an outstanding debt, we may object to your supply leaving us, but we will give you time to pay the debt and leave us without incurring the increased prices".

Obviously it looks like I'll have to ring them up to get answers for this situation. Are they saying that they'll waive the cancellation fees if I get my switch in sharpish? And if so, surely I am entitled to my £105 as I have stayed on the Online Energy Reward tariff until 7th June 2011?

Any thoughts out there? :think:

ian1969uk

I had the same email and am wondering the same thing.

They seem to be saying that to avoid a cancellation charge and their new tariffs, you need to let them know that you will be moving before 1st August. However, to qualify for the £105 you have to stay with them until then.

It looks to me as if they are trying to get out of paying the £105 by encouraging us to switch before 1st August, then saying we didn't stay on the deal until 1st August so we don't qualify.

You're right about the date change as well, it did say 7th June and they now appear to have moved it by several weeks.

Very dodgy practices I have to say, and it will stop me being a SP customer ever again.

kirsteenSK9

I have had the same email.

I tried to ring to discuss it and was told there was a 1 hour 49 minute wait to speak to someone!!!



Has anyone managed to get any further information at all?

basil92

Matt_EA wrote: »

I am on Scottish Power's Online Energy Reward (dual fuel) tariff, which is fixed until 31 July 2011 after which I will be put onto their standard tariff.

I am just a bit confused by some of the wording they have used in an email I received from them today. Part of the Online Energy Reward is that you receive an account credit of £105 inc VAT if you stay on the offer. In the original T&Cs, it states that you will receive this "if you stay on this product until 7th June 2011".

However, in today's email, they say in the small print (footnote 1): "The Online Energy Reward discount of £105 (incl. VAT) for Dual Fuel will be credited to your account before 1st August 2011 as long as you have remained continuously on the Online Energy Reward product until that date". This differs from the original T&Cs as they seem to have moved the goalposts - I thought I only had to stay on the tariff until 7th June, see above?

Not only this, but they are being evasive about whether they will charge their £50 penalty (also in the T&Cs) for leaving them before 1st August. I am keen to get onto a better deal elsewhere, but their wording is ambiguous about their cancellation charging policy - from the same email: "If you notify us that you wish to [change supplier] before 1st August 2011 and we receive a request for your supply from another supplier within 15 working days, we will not move you to our standard monthly Direct Debit prices or charge the agreed cancellation fee. If you have an outstanding debt, we may object to your supply leaving us, but we will give you time to pay the debt and leave us without incurring the increased prices".

Obviously it looks like I'll have to ring them up to get answers for this situation. Are they saying that they'll waive the cancellation fees if I get my switch in sharpish? And if so, surely I am entitled to my £105 as I have stayed on the Online Energy Reward tariff until 7th June 2011?

Any thoughts out there? :think:

Thank you for that post Matt..you have asked all the questions I need answering:o

I'm very confused by the email and am unsure what to do for the best! I don't want to miss out the £105 *reward* but If between now and 1st August I decide to switch..how soon I should do so in order to get my *reward* but switch asap after the 1st so as to not go onto SP standard tariff:eek:

Maybe a new thread about this might get some response from the SP Rep:think:

Becky85

We are moving house at the end of August. If I agree to a fixed rate tarrif now, will I be able to transfer it to my new address or will I have to start again meaning I will have paid a higher rate for two months without actually avoiding the hikes???

maxmiler

Just got back from a few weeks away and have finally worked my way through loads of emails. I got one on 23 July about the end of my SP capped tariff (31 Aug). I have done some calculations and I think that they are taking the mick.
The standing charge goes up by 75% (from £80 to £140), the day rate goes up by 24% and the night rate goes up by 20.5%. Overall, with my usage pattern, my increase is 26.94%. That is not at all good. Also, the "new" prices shown in the email do not include vat, which makes them look better (less bad!) than they really are. Add 5% and then it is easier to compare with other suppliers. A tiny bit sneaky methinks. And I also think that the email is designed to be a bit vague on detail to confuse people.

This is a bit about switching supplier "If you tell us before 1st September 2011 and we receive a request for your supply from another supplier within 15 working days, we will not move you to our new capped offer."
But why do SP make it so hard to find the contact details to tell them?? After logging in to your account you need to go to a tiny grey "help" at the bottom of the screen, where "Katie" appears again, ignore her, and click on some not very prominent text to send an email.

But how about the 15 working days? Looking at the posts above mentioning dirty tricks by SP, I reckon that they will say that the new supplier hasn't contacted them within 15 days. So I'll end up on the "new" tariff from 01 Sep. Or will I end up on this "new" tariff anyway? The email is so vague.

As you can tell, I'm a bit disappointed with more than one aspect of SP. Make things clear and easy and have realistic increases and maybe then SP will keep customers. I expect that their customer base will decrease this year.
I'm just thankful that it is so easy to switch, although WE all end up paying for the commission that the switching services get!

theflyingscotswoman

I so agree with everything you have just said about the email from SP regarding the new capped rate offer...its daylight robbery what they are offering us. I called them today and advised them that I was in the region of £200 better off if I switch to npower Go fix 7...the response was that it is only fixed for a period of up to Dec 12 and I would get stung in 2012. They recommend I stay with them and take the Fixed 2015 offer which will give me long term stability!!! Please help as I dont know what to do now...do I sign up with Npower until Dec 2012 and risk what prices will be then or do I take a longer term fixed with Scottish Power until 2015?? Its a minefield out there and I would love some unbiased advice from someone. Pleeeeaase!!

maxmiler

Last week I notified SP that I would be moving to a different provider (before 1 Sep as they advised) but when I received the reply............:

"I have updated the meter readings you have provided, and you will be able to view your bill online in the next 2 to 3 working days. We have not received any notification regarding transfer of supply however, once we receive the notification and final readings we will proceed with transfer and finalise the account."

..........it is (almost) clear from this that you MUST switch well within the 15 days of informing them that you are going to change. SNEAKY again. Can't change too soon before the cap finishes because of the penalty, so I am going to tell them again on 31 August that I am going to switch to get another 15 days, or will their sneaky tactics deny me from telling them twice? Don't trust them at all now!

As for leccy prices, they state that a capped tariff won't go up, but might go down. Don't know of ANY time that this reduction has ever happened. But I do stand to be corrected if I am wrong about this.
If I hadn't capped, I would have been better off so from now on, I'm going to take my chances without capping or fixing so that I have free will at any time to swap without all this palaver which is trying to trick people into staying with the same provider. They have purposely made it difficult to swap easily.

But once again, I ask why do businesses get sneaky? it only loses customers in the long term, and as we all know, bad news and bad reputation travels (especially now with all the communication avenues open to us).

I have now added SP to the growing list of companies that I will never deal with again.