British Gas- end of 5 year deal

Plushchris

Cardew wrote: »

OVO want "about £150" to change the meter.

To be fair to BG, the house originally had E7 and I applied to go on a normal tariff and BG's solution worked.

Worked for you, now its working for them in you not being able to switch away...

user_death_imminent

moneysupermarket pointed me at OVO. Never heard of them before but the process was very easy. I used my British Gas online account to work out what I roughly use in terms of energy for both gas and electricity and OVO did the rest.

There was no direct link from moneysupermarket so I just went to OVO.

Even better...they do a green energy product where all the electricity I pay for comes from renewable sources and it only costs a few extra quid each month.

smidgey

Plushchris wrote: »

Worked for you, now its working for them in you not being able to switch away...

I'm sorry but what are you rambling on about?

Cardew has a regular E7 meter. E7 isn't cheapest for him and so wants to be billed on a single rate tariff. Other companies cannot support this on their billing system and require the meter to be exchanged for this to happen. With BG no meter exchange is required but simply the configuration of the meter on the system is changed so it is billed on a single rate tariff.

I can appreciate you may not like BG which is your opinion but enough with the conspiracy theories. Cardew is free to switch to whoever he pleases. The issue is when the new supplier doesn't have the ability to charge a single rate tariff on an E7 meter.

Gerrard_8_lfc

I got asked today by BG management who my supplier was rather strange as did all my colleages. I said I might be off to EDF they didn't seem impressed.

I may get free gas and elec yet ! lol

sacbina

I don't even know where to start!

Currently paying £30 per month for electricity and £24 per month for gas. I know I'll be paying more but can't they just make it simple for a doofus like me, "New plan means you'll pay X amount per month"

Good job there's no cancellation fee till end of May as it'll take me that long to trawl through paperwork and comparison sites.....

Unless any kind soul cares to point me in an obvious direction ?

kjsmith7

sacbina wrote: »

I don't even know where to start!

Currently paying £30 per month for electricity and £24 per month for gas. I know I'll be paying more but can't they just make it simple for a doofus like me, "New plan means you'll pay X amount per month"

Good job there's no cancellation fee till end of May as it'll take me that long to trawl through paperwork and comparison sites.....

Unless any kind soul cares to point me in an obvious direction ?

Ring them up - they'll be able to tell you what the difference in price is in £ for you so you can work it out. Best plan of action is to get your kWh usage from your last year's bills and stick them in a comparison site. Decide if you would prefer another fixed price tariff (which will mean your bills jump up now, but will remain fixed, regardless of future price increases/decreases until the fix ends - it worked well on the one you were on!) or would rather have less of an increase right now in your bills, but the possibility they may increase (or decrease) in the next few years.

sacbina

thanks kjsmith7

BG just quoted a jump from £24 to £52 for gas and £30 to £40 for electricity

quick comparison site so far looks like almost any other company will give a better deal!

littleyellowspider

Scottish Power and British Gas are offering £100 and £50 cashback respectively through Topcashback.co.uk/ref/littleyellowspider
which should also be taken into consideration.

I have worked out that British Gas Websaver 7 will be cheaper than the PP April 2012 as long as there is only one 40% price increase in the 2 year period or a max of 1.8% increase per month (if that makes sense!).

kjsmith7

littleyellowspider wrote: »

Scottish Power and British Gas are offering £100 and £50 cashback respectively through Topcashback.co.uk/ref/littleyellowspider
which should also be taken into consideration.

I have worked out that British Gas Websaver 7 will be cheaper than the PP April 2012 as long as there is only one 40% price increase in the 2 year period or a max of 1.8% increase per month (if that makes sense!).

I think a lot of people will be jumping over to the WebSaver7 tariff if they can, it makes the increase in prices from Price Protection 2010 much more palatable.

Plushchris

smidgey wrote: »

I'm sorry but what are you rambling on about?

Cardew has a regular E7 meter. E7 isn't cheapest for him and so wants to be billed on a single rate tariff. Other companies cannot support this on their billing system and require the meter to be exchanged for this to happen. With BG no meter exchange is required but simply the configuration of the meter on the system is changed so it is billed on a single rate tariff.

I can appreciate you may not like BG which is your opinion but enough with the conspiracy theories. Cardew is free to switch to whoever he pleases. The issue is when the new supplier doesn't have the ability to charge a single rate tariff on an E7 meter.

A "regular" E7 meter is just one meter with two readings (night and day) Cardew says he has two meters for his E7 so thats not a regular setup is it?

Ovo do take people on with E7 (those with regular meters that is)

Now he is in the position where he cannot ask BG to change the meter to a normal rate meter and he cannot change to his chosen supplier because they do not support the setup BG has got him on.

If BG had got rid of the two-meter setup and installed a standard meter at the time this wouldnt be a concern but instead they put him on a setup that means he cannot switch to another provider.

Its not that I dont like BG (I like them about as much as any of the other suppliers - ie. not much)