Ofgem's Retail Market Review - Have Your Say

Cardew

Red_sky wrote: »

Cardew, thanks for your reply. I did. They were second cheapest to N Power who I would never use because of past experience and their very poor service. But yes, you're right, I am a low user so they may not be competitve for higher users because they only have one tier which is one of the cheapest for the first tier.

I just checked for my area - Midlands - using the UK average consumption paying by Direct Debit and Ebico were in 69th place out of 79 tariffs listed and 29.1% more expensive than the cheapest tariff - BG

Paying quarterly on receipt of bill Ebico were 14% more expensive than the cheapest -EDF

Even at 50% of average UK consumption Ebico are still 12.6% more expensive paying by DD

KimYeovil

Cardew wrote: »

Even at 50% of average UK consumption Ebico are still 12.6% more expensive paying by DD

I thought Red Sky was replying about your unused annex. That is, you were hoping to use less than £105 of tier 1 units per year to make a profit. So Ebico would be appropriate for such a scenario.

Cardew

KimYeovil wrote: »

I thought Red Sky was replying about your unused annex. That is, you were hoping to use less than £105 of tier 1 units per year to make a profit. So Ebico would be appropriate for such a scenario.

Don't think so - see post #32.

How would Ebico be appropriate for me making a profit?

I use say £80 of gas/electricity and Npower offer £100 bonus after 12 months for dual fuel customers, I make a profit of £20 - perhaps!

Don't tell quentin but on that consumption his favoured firm are quite competitive;)

blanik

Ape_tWiN_on_Prim8 wrote: »

I think it's scandalous that existing Customers aren't auto-switched to the cheapest tariff :mad:

Even worse - existing customers are switched from the cheap tariff they signed up to - to a more expensive standard tariff at the end of their tie in period.

Companies are happy to switch you back to the cheapest tariff AS LONG AS YOU REQUEST IT.

blanik

kelloggs36 wrote: »

why does it cost a different amount depending on where you live?

I suspect this is a hangover from the original Electricity company prices. London Electricity charged Xp/unit to all customers in their area, Eastern Electricity charged Yp/unit. The new national entrants set their prices below the standard prices in each area, so this propgated the regional differences. (The regional differences may originally have been due to the original transmission costs as suggested elsewhere ).

blanik

One of the reasons we have a tier1/tier2 charge is because they tried to mis-lead consumers with the promise of no standing charge.

Far fairer to be charged like a telephone line, you pay rental to someone to provide the connection, then pay someone else to provide the electricity down the line.

Total transparaency.

Cardew

blanik wrote: »

One of the reasons we have a tier1/tier2 charge is because they tried to mis-lead consumers with the promise of no standing charge.

Far fairer to be charged like a telephone line, you pay rental to someone to provide the connection, then pay someone else to provide the electricity down the line.

Total transparaency.

Not sure I agree with you on this.

Whilst a daily standing charge may be marginally easier for some to understand, the 2 tier system has benefits for some people and no financial penalty for anyone.

If, as the majority of us do, you use all the tier 1 units in a billing period you pay the 'standing charge' in full.

However there are a sizeable minority who use little gas in the summer months - some even shut off gas for the summer months and use an electric shower. These people, those with holiday cottages, those who spend long periods abroad etc, all gain as they don't use all,or any, of their tier 1 units and thus pay a lower 'standing charge'.

jammy_dodger_2

As I understand it Ofgem changed the rules to allow companies to apply penalties for leaving to another supplier.
This means I can join a good priced tariff, the company can then apply any increase they like, backdated by three months and if I don’t like it have to pay a penalty to switch.
I would suggest.

1. Price increases should not be allowed to be backdated. This makes a mockery of the whole system.
2. If the supplier increases the prices then the consumer should be allowed to accept the increase or be given 30 days to switch supplier without any penalty being applied.
3. Alternatively penalty clause should only apply to fixed price tariffs.

Red_sky

blanik wrote: »

Even worse - existing customers are switched from the cheap tariff they signed up to - to a more expensive standard tariff at the end of their tie in period.

Companies are happy to switch you back to the cheapest tariff AS LONG AS YOU REQUEST IT.

Don't think they're happy at all, it's just a case of they have to if you request it. I think they would be much happier if you were on their most expensive tariff. When my EDF online tariff came to it's 12 month end, they tried to change me to their standard tariff of which the unit rate for electricity was 75% more than I had been paying on their online tariff and then they couldn't understand why I'd decided to switch to Ebico where the unit price for gas was 50% cheaper than I had been previously paying.

THERAPHOSA

Totaly agree with other people that an exit fee is a ripoff in particular when one has a contract with variable price.