Moving into new house, want new supplier, but T&C's seem to say must use old supplier

Cardew

t0rt0ise wrote: »

Are there any left? Any cheaper tariff seems to have an exit fee now. I do sympathise with the OP because I had to do the same and it is annoying to see your hard earned cash being whisked away through no fault of your own. But still, that's the system and they can by and large do what they like.

OK

Why not try and devise a better system.

Obviously you will have to cut out the cooling off period. - a minor change in the law but will upset all the consumer associations.

Should the company be prepared to set up accounts in advance of the new occupant moving in?

If it is a new owner, is it reasonable to ask for proof from both solicitors, that the sale is definate and can't fall through?

Ditto if a tenant, letters from the letting agent? 'I intend to rent 10 Downing Street;)'

What is the incoming owner/tenant contacts several Utility companies as a form of insurance, with the intent of choosing the best on the day?

I suggest that gas and electricity are cut off(just like the good old days) when the occupant leaves and the new occupant can set up accounts(pay a deposit) in advance and wait until the company send round someone to re-connect - shouldn't take more than a couple of day(not weekends of course!)

Thatchapdean

Cardew wrote: »

OK

Why not try and devise a better system.

Obviously you will have to cut out the cooling off period. - a minor change in the law but will upset all the consumer associations.

Should the company be prepared to set up accounts in advance of the new occupant moving in?

If it is a new owner, is it reasonable to ask for proof from both solicitors, that the sale is definate and can't fall through?

Ditto if a tenant, letters from the letting agent? 'I intend to rent 10 Downing Street;)'

What is the incoming owner/tenant contacts several Utility companies as a form of insurance, with the intent of choosing the best on the day?

I suggest that gas and electricity are cut off(just like the good old days) when the occupant leaves and the new occupant can set up accounts(pay a deposit) in advance and wait until the company send round someone to re-connect - shouldn't take more than a couple of day(not weekends of course!)

Having worked in the Industry for 10 years your suggestions can't and don't work. Too long winded to go into on here but having dealt with tenancy changes and COS (Change of Suppliers) I can assure you anything that deviates outside the current system would create all sorts of problems.

The old 'disconnection/reconnection' process is costly and result in more cost being passed on to the customer.

In an ideal world it would be nice if all tenants/owners/landlords etc contacted the Suppliers to arrange change of account ownership but alas they don't.

Cardew

Thatchapdean wrote: »

Having worked in the Industry for 10 years your suggestions can't and don't work. Too long winded to go into on here but having dealt with tenancy changes and COS (Change of Suppliers) I can assure you anything that deviates outside the current system would create all sorts of problems.

The old 'disconnection/reconnection' process is costly and result in more cost being passed on to the customer.

In an ideal world it would be nice if all tenants/owners/landlords etc contacted the Suppliers to arrange change of account ownership but alas they don't.

I thought in the context of this thread – particularly given the earlier posts – you might have appreciated that my ‘suggestions’ were intended to be ironic!!!

On the other hand I might want to rent 10 Downing Street;).

LittleMissAspie

If you are switching to Scottish Power, you might want to make sure that the electricity meter is a single rate one.

We bought a house with gas central heating and immediately switched to Scottish Power. It has a dual rate meter but we both thought nothing of it (boyfriend assumed they would add up the readings while I had some funny idea about what Economy 7 is and assumed the night meter would be disabled).

It turns out that most companies won't charge a dual rate meter on a single rate price plan so we are stuck with Economy 7 when we use most of our electricity in the day/evening.

To get a normal price plan the meter needs to be changed, and guess who is the ONLY electricity company that charges to change a meter? Scottish Power.

If we had known this we would have stayed with nPower long enough to get the meter changed before switching to Scottish Power. It will cost £60 to change the meter, which is the amount we got in cashback through Quidco so not an actual loss to us but very annoying anyway.

Edit: Oh yeah and a few weeks after we switched, the Quidco cashback went up to £120! So technically we are down £120 but it was never ours in the first place, so meh.

Premier_2

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

...To get a normal price plan the meter needs to be changed, and guess who is the ONLY electricity company that charges to change a meter? Scottish Power.

If we had known this we would have stayed with nPower long enough to get the meter changed before switching to Scottish Power. ...

Sadly, it's not quite that simple.

Whilst you are correct that only Scottish Power are the company that won't supply a single rate tariff on and will charge you to change the meters, there are other companies that wont change the meter - they simply charge you a single rate tariff on a dual rate meter.
I think nPower is just such a company (although different people have suggested differing outcomes - maybe they depend on area)

BG is a company that will always allow a single rate tariff on a daul rate meter ... but will charge to change the meter if you insist its changed.

You can't have it both ways. If you want the lowest prices (which is presumably why you opted for Scottish Power) you can't expect the supplier to provide these when they are subsidising the cost of dual rate meters that are only being charged single rate tariffs.


Edit: I'd also suggest checking carefully whether you would be better off on a single rate
I also have gas central heating but save 4.7% on my electricity costs by remaining on E7 with just 25% low rate usage ... not a high ratio when you consider 7/24 is almost 30%
(based on Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 12 tariff - but it will vary by supply area)

Thatchapdean

Cardew wrote: »

I thought in the context of this thread – particularly given the earlier posts – you might have appreciated that my ‘suggestions’ were intended to be ironic!!!

On the other hand I might want to rent 10 Downing Street;).

My apologies, was eating lunch and scanning the thread at the same time.

LittleMissAspie

Premier wrote: »

Sadly, it's not quite that simple.

Whilst you are correct that only Scottish Power are the company that won't supply a single rate tariff on and will charge you to change the meters, there are other companies that wont change the meter - they simply charge you a single rate tariff on a dual rate meter.
I think nPower is just such a company (although different people have suggested differing outcomes - maybe they depend on area)

BG is a company that will always allow a single rate tariff on a daul rate meter ... but will charge to change the meter if you insist its changed.

You can't have it both ways. If you want the lowest prices (which is presumably why you opted for Scottish Power) you can't expect the supplier to provide these when they are subsidising the cost of dual rate meters that are only being charged single rate tariffs.


Edit: I'd also suggest checking carefully whether you would be better off on a single rate
I also have gas central heating but save 4.7% on my electricity costs by remaining on E7 with just 25% low rate usage ... not a high ratio when you consider 7/24 is almost 30%
(based on Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 12 tariff - but it will vary by supply area)

How is it having it both ways? We've always had normal meters before. Does a dual rate meter cost more for the company to run? I honestly thought they could disable the night time bit, I'd no idea how it all works. We've always had normal ones before and it didn't cross my mind it might have a funny meter because there is gas central heating (didn't realise it wasn't built with GCH).

I've done the figures and it costs us about £5 a month extra to be on E7. We use about 10-15% of our electricity overnight. So we'll get our money back in a year but I'm annoyed that Scottish Power just happen to be the only company that charges for it. I wish we'd known before and got nPower to do it. We were too hasty to switch.

Premier_2

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

How is it having it both ways?...Does a dual rate meter cost more for the company to run? ...

Yes.

The energy suppliers rent the meters. A dual rate meter costs more to produce and so the rental of it is higher.

Edit: You don't mention your usage or actual tariff, but I just checked for the Online Energy Saver 12 tariff (being the cheapest SP tariff for electricity based on this following scenario) using say 3000kWh per year at 10% low rate usage it would only cost £7 per year more on E7 than the equivilent single rate.
(assumes you are still in Cambridge/Eastern supply area)
You could however probably have saved almost £50p.a. staying with nPower over the Scottish Power prices for a single rate electricity supply using this assumed criteria.