Scottish Power queries

mardatha

On my latest bill from SP it says that we could save £100 a year if we went to a PAYG meter. Surely this is wrong ? I thought the meters were dear? We are on the standard tariff, paying cash when the quarterly bill comes in.
Also I \note the prompt payers discount last time was £11 on a £70 bill, and this one is £4.30!! What is going on with that ? We always pay the bill the same day it comes in or the day after.

greyteam1959

I agree does not sound right to me.
Why don't you go onto an online DD tariff will be quite a lot cheaper.

mardatha

Won't have DDs, hate them. Once you're on that then they've got you, and you read so much on here about people having their payments put up all the time. TY for helping though

zzzLazyDaisy

Actually I have found SP pretty good for DDs. They have mine pretty well worked out, when the bill comes in the amount usually pretty much covers it - and if we have a particularly harsh winter, like last year, they don't expect the shortfall all at once. This time my usage was lower than expected and they reduced my DD without me asking.

British Gas on the other hand....

split_second

we have a s.p prepay, not out of choice it came with the house, its pretty similar to paying cash quarterly, only way to make noticeable savings is with a d.d

eurmalian

Are you on a fixed price tarriff? As there was a point in Winter 2009/Spring 2010 when prices were higher than they currently are (they came down by 10% - 20% and then went back up by 5% - 10%, so they're still not back at that level yet). If you went on a fixed price tarriff then, then anything standard now would still be cheaper. That's about all I can think of that could cause that...

macman

mardatha wrote: »

Won't have DDs, hate them. Once you're on that then they've got you, and you read so much on here about people having their payments put up all the time. TY for helping though

Standard tariff is the most expensive for any supplier, and refusing to use DD's filters out most of the cheaper online tariffs, which will be via fixed monthly DD.
If they want to put your DD's up, they have to advise you first, you have ample time to query it if you think it's incorrect. You alos have the bank's protection under the DD Guarantee Scheme.
The reason most people have trouble with DD's is that they're sold a tariff based on a 'cheaper' DD that doesn't cover actual consumption, and then they don't supply regular readings. Before long they get hit with a big catch-up bill, and a consequent big hike in their DD.
That is not a fault in the DD system.

mardatha

ok many thanks for all input

Scottish_Power

Hi mardatha,

Paying with a pre-payment meter is now the second cheapest option, with Direct Debit being the cheapest. So if Direct Debit is not an option for you look at pre-paymnet meters.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower