Electric suppliers

pugzy

Situation: Live in a 2 bed coach house with just electric since July 2009, supplied by Scottish Power on Economy 7.

Bill History: Started on estimated bills of £30 for 3 months, then up to £60, then after 6 months, I changed tariff to an online deal and entered in Actual readings...the disbelief I got from that was a £700+ bill which the estimate hadn't covered. Our own fault though really as never changed the heat settings when we moved in, coupled with the hard winter we had.

Been with them for a year and completely paid off the debt, currently in credit.

Now weighing up the options of moving to another supplier though, as when I rang to request to go onto a Monthly tariff where I wish to pay the actual figure each month, they say I can't. We currently use an average of £90 per month, but that's taking into consideration the first 6 months of tenancy where we f*cked over the figures and were oblivious. With this in mind, they won't reduce our monthly direct debit to lower than £98 (previously was £177 and £155 to pay off the debt).

Are there any suppliers which we can change to which will actually be a bit fairer with us so we can just pay what we use, now that we're aware of our mistakes earlier on in the year?

Not very knowledgable on electric, have been reading up on the savings sites but it don't make too much sense to me!

pugzy

Any ideas at all guys?

Gotta say, having looked through some of the other threads, there is a massive amount of knowledgable people on here, very impressive

Joyful

I work for British Gas who will let you have an online account and pay monthly. You can also get an energy monitor for free with it.

dogshome

Hi pugzy -I'm afraid ECO7 heating is just about the most costly system there is and £1200 a year is about average.
I can understand your search for absolute monthly billing - Cheap in Summer/Expensive in Winter - But no matter how and when you you pay the bills, the bottom line is the cost of the tariff.

With the figures you have for a years use on the Day & Night rates, visit the Switch sites and try to run your W/machine, Tumbledryer & Dishwasher overnight

Scottish_Power

Hi pugzy

I appreciate your concern and I understand that you want to pay for what you are using. The cheapest tariffs that we offer are on a monthly Direct Debit payment plan which allows you to spread your payments more evenly throughout the year.

Trying to lower your Direct Debit just before we come into the winter months is not a good idea unless you have sufficient credit build up on your account. I would recommend contacting us to see the best tariff prices that we can offer you which you can then use to compare against other suppliers. If you are happy to stay on a tariff with ScottishPower then I would recommend reviewing your monthly payments after this winter (around April), as we should then have a more accurate picture of what you will now use (if you do indeed lower your consumption this year).

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Let

Premier_2

pugzy wrote: »

... when I rang to request to go onto a Monthly tariff where I wish to pay the actual figure each month, they say I can't. ...

Unfortunately, most suppliers will not allow you to decide how much to pay.

You have to pay what you owe, and that is decided by what your meter records as you consume. (or is 1/12 of your anticipated annual usage in the case of monthly direct debits - DDs are always variable)


What I suggest you do is keep a close eye on your usage, perhaps using imeasure.org.uk to help.
Then set up regular savings account for the amount you want to pay every month. Interest on regualr savings accounts tends to be a little higher, and any interest earned is better in your hands than in the suppliers. Use those funds in that savings account to pay the bills as they arrive from the supplier (which if you've done your sums right will always be sufficient).

davidgmmafan

"Unfortunately, most suppliers will not allow you to decide how much to pay."

On the whole this is true, but if you shall we say doctor a comparison they will accept whatever Uswitch or similar say. I would not recommend this unless you are CERTAIN of your figures. If there is a solid reason why cons will be lowers going forward (EG new boilder, less people there, etc etc) then it might be ok. If the lower usage is just due to the time of year then you'll end up in a similar situation next year.

I have wondered for sometime if the company can insist on a payment amount. It is the customers bank account at the end of the day, but on the other hand the utility company has a duty to set the payment accurately.

It is a bit of a non-sense if, for the sake of argument, you have bought one of thier brand new energy efficient boiler systems. You know there's going to be a saving you just don't know how much. Most companies will say no sir we have to wait until your readings show a credit then we can lower it. Usually if you go higher they will agree to some sort of compromise.

So my advice to the OP is this:-

If having complained they refuse to budge on the payment amount change supplier using some modified figures. Only do this if you are confident as per details above.

pugzy

Bringing this thread back up from the dead...

Have now got through a year of cutting back on the electric usage massively and not seeing any improvement in what we are paying through our DD each month - currently around £140 per month since Feb 2011 and have next month to pay that once more before it will be reviewed by SP. Have been putting in my actual usage figures online every 4 weeks so it's accurate, but the debit is bad...is this mainly though because all electric suppliers have hiked up their rates recently or are we just on a bad tariff?

Should we consider changing the E7 boiler if that's possible?

I really want one of those electric usage meters so that we can visually keep on it like a hawk...any free and decent ones out there?

I really dislike Scottish Power but appreciate they're all the same.

I just want our electric bill to be like other peoples who have theirs hover around the £40-£50 mark every month

spiro

pugzy wrote: »

I just want our electric bill to be like other peoples who have theirs hover around the £40-£50 mark every month

That figure is for people who have gas and use that for heating and hot water. As was previously posted you can expect to pay around £1200 pa. When you say coach house I assume this is an old building possible with poor insulation.

pugzy

No, it's 5 years old.

Just has 4 garages underneath it with only 1 of them ever having a car in for more than 12 hours at a time lol.

pugzy

Would you suggest that I look for cheaper deals or just invest in one of those energy monitors and minimise the current as much as possible (even though I don't believe we could cut much more now than we do)?