Scottish Power Tariffs

Soundman_3

I must change my dual fuel supplier away from Southern ASAP (Projected cost £1600 p/a).
Scottish Power have been phoning offering a capped tariff (which would cost me about £1400 p/a). It seems probable to me that I'm likely to spend less over the next two years by simply going for the cheapest online tariff I can find.

All of the comparison sites come up with
Scottish Power Online Saver 12 as the cheapest. (About £1220)
What worries me is that it comes out nearly £100 per year less than the next option from e.on! Is this tariff about to rise in price? How can I find out? I can't even find any information about the unit prices on their website. They say 'prices are guaranteed to remain a minimum of 2% below ScottishPower's standard monthly Direct Debit gas and electricity prices until 29th February 2012' But what are those prices? 2% sounds like a very small amount!

And why on earth are they also offering:
Online Discounted Energy March 2012 which ALSO claims 'prices are guaranteed to remain 2% below ScottishPower’s standard monthly Direct Debit gas and electricity prices until 29th February 2012'?
What's the difference, apart from their estimate that it would cost me £250 p/a more!? Obviously I won't take that option, but who would?! It makes me worry that there's some kind of catch that I'm missing on the other one...

G

Annual usage:
19000 kWh Gas
5800 kWh Day Elec
1700 kWhNight Elec

dogshome

Hi Soundman - Don't worry about prices going up soon after you Switch.
The price uplift is a change in the contract which you have the right to reject by notifying the supplier within 20 days of the date you recieved the price increase notice, that you intend to Switch and whilst the Switch in in process the supplier must apply the original prices

You are however on an ECO7 Electric meter with Gas heating, which probably not the best combination as the price of your Day units is higher than those through a 'Standard' meter
Your year figures show you are using 4.65Kw a day on the cheap Night rate, but are paying a Premium price on the Day use 15.9Kw.

Check your costs by punching your combined yearly 7500Kw Elec use into the Switch sites, having selected the 'No' answer to the "Do you have ECO7" option - If it comes up cheaper tell the supplier you have ECO7, but want 'Standard' meter billing

Soundman_3

I don't think I'll be able to reject the change of contract after a price increase because all of the best deals incorporate a cancellation fee. Has this been covered in the forum before?

Scottish power are top of my list, but I'm still concerned that Scottish Power Online Saver 12 comes out with such a low projected cost, despite only being 'guaranteed to remain a minimum of 2% below standard'.
E.ON - SaveOnline 4 (Dual Fuel) claims 'a minimum 6% discount against E.ON's standard tariff' yet the cost appears similar.
Any thoughts on this anyone?

Thanks Dogshome for reminding me to check single rate electricity. As it happens, the costs come out very similar with our useage. I think maybe I should stick with Eco7 and try harder not to run the Tumble Dryer in the daytime! Would be good not to have to worry about things like that on the other hand..

Another question. Should I go through EnergyHelpline or TopCashBack if the cashback is similar?

Thanks!
G

Premier_2

More disparaching comments about E7 for those without storage heaters, dogshome?

Have you done any research yourself into this or are you intent on continually misleading users on this site.

The very best the OP could achieve over the Scottish Power dual fuel E7 tariff appears to be about a £20 saving per year (based on an approx £1240 per year cost) by moving to dual fuel with Eon.

As the OP has understood, that is such a small difference, and one that could easily fall the other way a very slight change in the percentage usage of low rate electricity, or indeed a slight increase in gas usage over what appears to going to be a very cold winter this year. (The tier 2 price of gas with Eon is much higher than the SP offering)

Premier_2

Soundman wrote: »

I don't think I'll be able to reject the change of contract after a price increase because all of the best deals incorporate a cancellation fee. Has this been covered in the forum before?

...
Yes I believe your understanding is correct based on the comments elsewhere in this forum

[

Soundman wrote: »

...
Another question. Should I go through EnergyHelpline or TopCashBack if the cashback is similar?

Thanks!
G

Check out all the cashback deals available. I see energyhelpline are offing an additional £60 cashback for switches to SP ... but don't bank on any cashback until it's in your account.
My understanding is that the £60 on offer from energyhelpline.com is in addition to £15 you would get for going via the MSE affiliate link.
Even if it proves I'm incorrect, you are only talking of losing a couple of quid.

isushi

Hello,

I have just checked quidco and you get £14 cashback if you use Energy Help Online to switch.

Then by using Energy Help Online to switch to Scottish Power you get £60 cashback.

So in total that is £74 cash back.

Soundman_3

OK. I'll start the SP switch.

Premier wrote: »

...
My understanding is that the £60 on offer from energyhelpline.com is in addition to £15 you would get for going via the MSE affiliate link.

The affiliate link? By following the link to energyhelpline from this site do you mean? How do I end up with the £15?

isushi wrote: »

I have just checked quidco and you get £14 cashback if you use Energy Help Online to switch.
Then by using Energy Help Online to switch to Scottish Power you get £60 cashback.
So in total that is £74 cash back.

Thanks for that idea, I'd have missed the extra step.. I've set up an account at Quidco, but I've never used it.

So which way should I go?!

G

isushi

Just to let you know that if it is your first time setting up a Quidco account they take the first £5 of your cashback.

For a one off it might be better to use Top Cash Back (had a direct link but they would not let me use it)

As they are also doing the £14 cashback and do not take any of it.

Also the £60 cashback from Energy Help Online is only vaild till midnight of 16/12/2010.

Soundman_3

In the end, I took the link from MSE to Quidco to energyhelpline to SP (& deleted cookies just in case).

isushi wrote: »

Just to let you know that if it is your first time setting up a Quidco account they take the first £5 of your cashback.

Yes, I was aware of that. Never mind, it's not much. Strangely, Quidco confirmation email says expected amount is £20; we'll see..

isushi wrote: »

Also the £60 cashback from Energy Help Online is only vaild till midnight of 16/12/2010.

I was also aware of that, so I made sure I got in before the deadline.

If this all works out, I'll be saving up to £400 next year on the utilities, and hopefully at least £70 cashback. Excellent...
Thanks to all.
G