Economy 7 - help with switching

scotslad1983

Hi all,

I've had a quick look for advice regarding the above sort of meters, but to no avail, so I thought I would post.

I own a two bedroom flat with my girlfriend and our son. Its a reasonably new-build (1999) and quite small comparatively (no high ceilings etc). It appears we consume 6653 kWh per year through Scottish Power, of which approximately 50% is on my off-peak meter.

I used energyhelpline and confused to compare energy, as recommended. The winner was Atlantic Electric and Gas. I switched to them, thought everything would be sorted - however, they wrote to me a few weeks later saying Scottish Power had raised an objection, due to not having correct supply numbers... I sorted this and phoned back.

One month later, nothing has happened, so I phoned to enquire, and when I did, the lady at Atlantic told me it would not be beneficial for me to join them, and that it would cost me more because of my Economy 7 meter!

Back to square one. Scottish Power are offering me a 3% discount (3%!!) if I sign up for another twelve months. Not happy about doing that.

Any advice? Anybody else have Economy 7 heating on a particularly good plan? It annoys me that even though I have this ugly storage heating, it seems to be costing me more than average, rather than less!

Owain_Moneysaver

There are fewer E7 tariffs available, and the local supplier is often fairly competitive as they can control the load using a teleswitch to even out their demand better.

If you're spending about £650 a year on Scottish Power standard tariffs, tescoenergy suggests NPower Signonline v18 at £524 as cheapest, followed by Atlantic Online Fixed Price.

scotslad1983

Thanks Owain..

My major gripe being that I went to Atlantic, but the girl in their call centre told me it would cost me MORE if I switched to them! :think: Even though they compared better on EnergyHelpline.

Plushchris

scotslad1983 wrote: »

Thanks Owain..

My major gripe being that I went to Atlantic, but the girl in their call centre told me it would cost me MORE if I switched to them! :think: Even though they compared better on EnergyHelpline.

Did you remember to put in your E7 usage when you did the comparison?

scotslad1983

Yeah and quoted 55% as my night usage also!

Haarlem

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

There are fewer E7 tariffs available, and the local supplier is often fairly competitive as they can control the load using a teleswitch to even out their demand better.
.

This statement is wrong. It's your Distribution Company that controls the teleswiching, not Your Supplier.

Premier_2

scotslad1983 wrote: »

...One month later, nothing has happened, so I phoned to enquire, and when I did, the lady at Atlantic told me it would not be beneficial for me to join them, ...

Let me get this right.

You applied to switch your energy supplier to Atlantic Energy, but the supplier refused to accept you as a customer because they said you could buy the same energy from a competitor cheaper??? :eek:

Well that's a first. And whilst some may feel this may be the start of a welcome trend in customer service, I rather suspect it will probably an early bath for this Atlantic employee if this is what she really told you.

I wonder if the next time I go to Tesco, the cashier will only allow me to buy half the items I want becuse the others can be bought more cheaply from their competitor down the road? :rotfl:

scotslad1983

Well, my thoughts are that something was messed up with the way they had transferred my account, and she told me to stick with Scottish Power to cover their balls-up.

Call my cynical......

Premier_2

scotslad1983 wrote: »

Well, my thoughts are that something was messed up with the way they had transferred my account, and she told me to stick with Scottish Power to cover their balls-up.

Call my cynical......

You are cynical.

I very much doubt the customer service employee you spoke to was personally responsible for any mess up. At worst, she should have said she would re-start the transfer request rather than suggest you go and give your custom to their competitor.

Owain_Moneysaver

Haarlem wrote: »

This statement is wrong. It's your Distribution Company that controls the teleswiching, not Your Supplier.

In Scotland the 'local supplier' is the distribution company

Wickedkitten

Which Scottish Power tariff are you on now and how much do you pay per month?

We are on their Pricesure online premier plus plan, and they have sent us a letter saying that our costs for the next 12 months will be 539.69 and they are keeping our direct debit at 49 quid. We also used about 1400 more kWh than you did.