EDF Gas & Electricity NECTAR points query

codger

We switched to EDF (used to be London Energy) earlier this year and notice from our bills that we're racking up something called "Nectar Points" each quarter; apparently, it's a loyalty bonus of 150 points per quarter. According to our latest bills, we now have 400 points per account, 800 in total, accumulated.

According to EDF, discounts for customers are:

"Pay by monthly Direct Debit for gas and electricity and you could enjoy a further annual saving of £16.80 (inc. VAT) for gas and £8.40 (inc. VAT) for electricity per year.

"If you take both gas and electricity from EDF Energy, you get a Dual Fuel discount of £8.40 (inc. VAT) a year if you pay by cash, cheque or prepayment. If you pay monthly Direct Debit, you will get a larger Dual Fuel discount of £25.20 (inc. VAT) in addition to your monthly Direct Debit discount for each fuel."

We are dual fuel customers and pay by monthly Direct Debit. So *presumably we benefit from an annual discount of £16.80 for gas and £8.40 for electricity, a total of £25.20, because we pay by monthly Direct Debit. And because we do indeed take both gas and electricity from EDF, there's a further bonus of £25.20 a year. So our annual discount totals £50.40p.

(*Presumably, because there's no indication on any of the bills received so far as to the scale of the discount).

EDF has now written to say "you can collect a further 200 Nectar points each quarter if you choose to exchange your Direct Debit discount for points."

On which basis, we assume that we will "lose" the £25.20 discount for paying by Direct Debit, but keep the £25.20 discount for being dual fuel customers.

At the moment we receive 150 points per quarter per account, so the annual total is 600 points for gas and 600 points for electricity: 1,200 points.

If we give up the Direct Debit discount, the Nectar points will rise to 350 points per account per quarter, making an annual total of 1,400 for gas and 1,400 for electricity: 2,800 Nectar points per year.

What we cannot work out is if this represents wise money saving!

Would you give up an annual discount of £25.20 in order to earn an extra 1,600 Nectar points??????

Help!

jem16

Are you on an online tariff or standard tariff?

The reason I ask is that the online tariff does not give a discount for dual fuel as it is incorporated into the lower price of this tariff in comparison to the standard tariff.

I have an online tariff with EDF(also former London Energy) and I receive the Nectar points for loyalty and meter readings.

codger

Hi Jem -- wonderful, another EDF customer! Thanks for getting back so quickly. Yes, we're online. Our tariff, according to latest bills received is:

Electricity: "first 10, 9.910p; next 410, 6.500p"

Gas: "first 1445, 2.456p; next 2570, 1.816p".

Both gas and electric bills feature the phrase "meter xxxxxx on Internet".

jem16

OK as far as I know you can't swap your DD discount for Necta points as you don't get the discount.

You will get Nectar points for loyalty and if you sign up for the Read, Reduce scheme.

Do you access your account online too?

codger

Yup: online access (to submit 'actual' meter readings when we receive estimated readings) and we also receive the bills through the post.

jem16

I have never had an estimated reading. I always submit my reading before a bill is due - if you sign up to the Read, Reduce, Reward scheme they will send you an email (or letter) to remind you to enter your meter reading about a week before a bill is due. This gives you Nectar points too.