Ebico Customers

DeeLondon_2

Hi,

Just wanting to hear from people that have made the switch to Ebico.

My father is in his late 60's and is with Powergen and looking at his statments they OWE him £700 and the maount goes up every month as he uses less Gas and Electric then they take each month by fixed standing order.

So looked into this and then just by chance came across Ebico and was stuck by 2 things

1. They are cheaper for both Gas and Electricty

2. Their tarriffs are sooo much easier to understand then mst other companies, for instance their gas tarriff is a straight forward 2.55p per unit - Powergen have 2 different rates.

3. We have Economy 7 and under Ebicon there's two rates,a day rate and a night rate - again simple - but Powergen give us 2 day time rates and one night time rate.

I'm not looking to save him every single penny I can - I want a mix of value for money with easy to understand billing and good customer service.

Ebico seem to fit the bill.

Also I rung both Ebico and PowerGen and their nighttime rates start at different times.

Powergen's start at midnight in the summer and Ebico's at 11pm

so I dare say there's an extra saving to be made there as well. In winter the time change to 1am and midnight respectively and stay at the cheaper rate until 7 hours later.

However one thing I'm not sure of is our meter is well old. And I have no idea how it know whether it's winter, or summer, or whatever.

I happened to look at the meter and at 10:15pm it switch infront of my eyes from day time rate to night rate - so it seems to be switching early - which I aint complaining about but if we do switch companies what will happen, do they come around and adjust the meters to start and stop peak and off peak rates?

So what do people think of Ebico?

I saw one person that said they got charged VAT twice, which worried me slightly, aparty from that nothing bad so far ..

sammyjammy

Im only just now making the switch from Powergen so cannot comment on their customer service, don't know what happens with the meter either but Iwould imagine you can get someone from Powergen to come out now if there are problems with the meter timings, what you do need to do is get the standing order changed straight away and get them to send your Dad a cheque for the excess, its ridiculous that htey are holding onto his money like this.

Sam

Ken68

Hi, Dee,....am well pleased with EBICO having moved from Powergen's Age Concern tariff.
The invoices will come from Southern Energy, and are simple, tho they do charge a fraction more to cancel out direct debit discounts.
EBICO also charge three rates when you are on E7.
4.03p per kwh for E7, 10.99p for Day rate when on E7, and 9.32p Day rate when not on E7.
They also have a senior citizens Careline service, similar to Age Concern (Powergen).
My E7 times are written on the meter, and switched over automatically when clocks change.
Switching over at 10.15pmay not be so good if your dad gets up early. A lot of essential electric uage can be done early morning.
Not sure about meter moving etc.

Cardew

Ken68 wrote:

EBICO also charge three rates when you are on E7.
4.03p per kwh for E7, 10.99p for Day rate when on E7, and 9.32p Day rate when not on E7.

That only applies if the OP's father lives in the same part of the UK as you, does it not? Gas is the same across the UK.

If he has gas, why is he on Economy 7? You have to use a highish percentage of electricty in the 7 night hours to make it worthwhile. Also the EBICO standard(non-E7) tariff is even simpler - just one rate.

The older mechanical E7 meter's clock could run fast or slow and the changeover be well out of 'sync'.

DeeLondon_2

OK I checked the Meter, there's a sticker on it that indicates it was last checked or serviced in 1992 by the Eastern Elec Board.

The meter switched over to Night Time Rate at 10:15pm and then Back to Day Time Rate at 8:05am

So this is more then 7 hours - so I aint complaining.

Our heating is Gas and our Cooker and Oven is also Gas. So there's not that much that consumes huge amount of electrcity at night anyway such as an electric storage heater.

My mother does tend to use the Washing machine later at night to save on the bill.

So if we switch to Ebico or any other company I assume they won't really bother to inspect the timer and just leaves things as they are? I can't imagine they'd save enough money to warrant the wages of a guy to come and set out clock back 3 hours? It's an old mechanical device - our Gas meter was upgraded when we did the kitchen and is now outside and all digital.

I didn't want to hint to Powergen we might be swtching, first f all I want to make sure they £700 they owe my dad is gonna come back to him.

So how does billing work anyway on Ebico?

I can understand a telephone bill because every single call is computerise and they know almost instantly how much you've used.

But with Gas and Electric meter readings get taken at various times of the year. Ideally it would be nice if this was all automated.

I've heard some people read their meters onthe 1st of te month and phone in a reading? Anyone do that? How des it work in practice?

Also once you switch to Ebico, what are you tied into?

Is there a 12 month contract or something like that?

Because any company could change it's price and you could find yourself worse off in 3 months time.

BTW looking at our consumption figures about 40% of our electricty usage falls into the night time rate, with TV's and Sky Boxes on, etc - I believe we come under London Region for electricty. So we really want to have a Economy 7 type charge (even though it looks like we get almost 10 hours on e7)

Ken68

A bit more guff here, Dee. That 40% is worth keeping.

http://www.ebico.co.uk/en/open/pages/faqen.php

alared

I`m changing from Pgen to Ebico tomorrow.
Pgen off peak hours are 1am to 8am (east mids area)
I`ve spoke to Southern (who run it for Ebico inmy area)and from what I gather,the off peak hours are 12-30am to 7-30am BST
Then in winter GMT 11-30pm to 6-30am.

Having said that,I`ll check my meter this Wednesday and see what time it changes over.
My meter has a radio signal button but the older types are mechanical, and as pointed out,can vary.

Cardew

With 40% of consumption on E7 it will pay to stay on that tariff and hope your extra 3 hours are not picked up by a meter reader or during a check.

Even if it is 'discovered' you can switch to normal tariff if required.

You are not tied to 12 months contract. As you say, with the constant changes of tariff, you might find yourself worse off soon after you change but that is something you cannot guard against, and EBICO have a pretty good track record.

In theory meters should be read every quarter by a meter reader - most companies employ agencies to read them. In practice this often doesn't happen and you get estimated bills. If this estimate is inaccurate you can phone in the correct readings, or you can pre-empt this by phoning in your readings.

DeeLondon_2

Yeah for sure, the E7 Tarriff would be best.

Only wish EBico had more of an online presence, i.e. being able to view and manage bills online for example.

very handy feature I think for telecoms and probaby even more so for gas and electric.

shammyjack

DeeLondon wrote:

Yeah for sure, the E7 Tarriff would be best.

Only wish EBico had more of an online presence, i.e. being able to view and manage bills online for example.

very handy feature I think for telecoms and probaby even more so for gas and electric.

Souther Electric do all the billing etc for Ebico and you can register with them to view and admin your Ebico accounts online !

shammy

shepwood

Its the local distribution companies which generally read (or have contractors read ) the meters, it makes no differance who you buy your electric from. The local owner of the wires business also sets the timing for the E7 rate, again it does not have a clue who your signed up with. The old mechanical E7 switches can be absolutely hours out and the meter reader often just takes the reading without checking. My gran has had a large chunk of daytime electric at night rate for years, being an honest old dear she even pointed it out to the meter reader but they didnt do anything. Obviously the newer signal (electronic) E7 meters are more precise.