Scottish Power Fresh Start

ibcinnes

I am currently on the Scottish Power Fresh Start tariff for the over 60's who are on certain state benefits.
Scottish Power recently announced price hikes of 19% & 10% for gas and electric, and yesterday I received an email from them giving my new prices.
When I compare the old and new tariffs for my yearly spend I have calculated that my electric bill will increase by in excess of 21%.
This is due to the fact that the company have not increased the unit rate for each kW of electricity I use, but instead have increased the "daily service charge" by 81%!!! Now I will be paying £84 instead of £46 for this alone!
I have contacted Scottish Power and queeried this, and told them that I feel that I am being victimised because I am a low user of electric (under 2000kWh per year).
I will try to keep everyone informed of the results.:mad:
p.s. when I try many of the price comparrison websites I have found that none of the other energy companies can beat the prices from Scottish Power, and that is before they get round to their price hikes.

saintscouple

As you are on a social tariff, which these comparrison sites exclude, perhaps it would be wise to phone other energy suppliers and equire about their social tariffs directly.
I know British Gas name theirs as the Essentials Tariff, there are some details on their website, but you'll have to phone for prices. When BG last increased their prices the Essentials tariff was excluded.
It's worth a look.

ibcinnes

Update

Received a reply from Scottish Power. Basically they re-hashed their press statement about the price hikes, and told me about all their other wonderful (and expensive ) products on offer. Nowhere in the reply did they attempt to answer my question about my 21% electricity price increase.
I wrote customer sevices another email asking the same question, and asked them to pass it on to another department if they were incapable of giving me a satisfactory answer.

Just for info these are the rates for Fresh Start effective from 1st August:

Electricity:

Daily service charge = 22.92p ; unit rate = 7.776p/kWh

Gas:

Daily service charge = 15.17p ; unit rate = 3.241p/kWh

All prices excluding VAT

ibcinnes

Further Update

Set another email to SP on 21/06/11 to enquire about their NSC tariff for Fresh Start:

Account number:***********
Do you have a Fresh Start Tariff with NSC, and if so could you advise me of it?

(my name).

The same day I received a reply:

Dear Mr *****,

Thank you for your email.

I have arranged for your account to be set up on Fresh Start offer with No Standing Charge tariff. It will take 5 working days to get it updated on your account.

If you have any further questions then you may wish to use our online help facility 24 hours a day available at (web address)
Kind regards etc,etc


Pathetic really that no one at SP can comprehend a simple question.

Sent another email back to SP:

I'm sorry, but I do not want my account changing to NSC. I was merely asking for details to enable me to make a comparrison of prices.
Please ensure that my account reverts to the service charge format.

Yours sincerely,

*** *****

Will update again when SP reply.

robj4y

hi does anyone know the current rates for "fresh start"
since the last update things have risen sharply
thanks

Airmike23

Better off almost certainly with their online energy saver 16 manage account online the nsc are no difference in cost instead of a daily standing charge, set numer of units of gas and elect each 90 days billing cycle charged at a higher rate, before majority charged at secondary and lower unit rate priuce.

rjbristow

I think that there must be thousands of vulnerable people, resting on these old social tariffs, believing them to be unbeatable and guarding their interests.
Please can the MSE website undertake an urgent review and shame the companies with a public airing if their malpractice.
My grandmother has been on SP Fresh Start Online for a very long time now - I had no idea that this might not be the cheapest tariff!
Any advice appreciated on this!
Thanks
Robert