MSE News: Low energy users face steepest price hike from Scottish Power

Butti

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Been saying since day 1 when the prices were announced weeks ago - and the evidence was shown then, that low income / low user families are the ones to pay the scottish power price.

and the governments attitude? use your feet and move to another supplier -

how about real regulation of the industry!

The gov't still reckon its a market rather than a cartel. How about move to a supplier that is not one of the big 6. When are we going to see some government action on this?

B

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I'm really not sure where they get their numbers from.
Here are my figures, plucked directly from my SP email.

ELECTRICITY (first 225kwh per quarter) from 15.28p to 20.414p (33.6% increase).
ELECTRICITY (after 225kwh p.q.) from 8.511p to 11.019p (29.5% increase)

GAS (first 670kwh p.q.) from 4.853p to 7.569p (56% increase)
GAS (after 670kwh p.q.) from 2.821p to 3.474p (23.3% increase)

Percentages were done quickly but are pretty close to accurate. I suppose they got the figures of 10% and 19% by including all their customers who are on fixed tariffs who will be getting a 0% increase. Fiddling barstewards. This is the sort of thing I expect from national and local government rather than a private enterprise. As for my own personal percentages, I will be at the sharp end because I'm quite a lowish user. A DD of £48 a month has covered it until now and I'm even slightly in credit.
I don't have an issue about the early units being charged higher. Those early units are in lieu of a standing charge which pays for the maintenance and repair of the networks. However, I do have an issue about them being increased by a larger margin than the rest. As they are already charged at a higher rate (and rightly so), imposing the same percentage increase on all units would have had the effect of increasing them by a greater pence per kwh amount. The 5% VAT doesn't help either.
SP will want me to renew with them around October. As far as I'm concerned they can eff off and die.
Maybe the time is coming when I replace my gas cooker with an electric one. It is nearly 24 years old so I guess I've had my moneys worth out of it (paid about £80 for a repair 3 years ago). Back then electricity was more expensive than gas but I believe that this has reversed over the years (please correct me if I'm wrong somebody).

cw18

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

I'm really not sure where they get their numbers from.
Here are my figures, plucked directly from my SP email.

ELECTRICITY (first 225kwh per quarter) from 15.28p to 20.414p (33.6% increase).
ELECTRICITY (after 225kwh p.q.) from 8.511p to 11.019p (29.5% increase)

GAS (first 670kwh p.q.) from 4.853p to 7.569p (56% increase)
GAS (after 670kwh p.q.) from 2.821p to 3.474p (23.3% increase)

Email? What email? Do you know when you got that?
I've not seen anything come in from them !! Guess I need to go trawl my inbox, but I do scan everything that arrives looking for messages from companies I deal with - so I doubt I've missed it.....

As for my own personal percentages, I will be at the sharp end because I'm quite a lowish user. A DD of £48 a month has covered it until now and I'm even slightly in credit.

I'm slightly in credit, and currently paying £43/month - although they have already tried to increase it to around £60 twice in the last few months (a phone call from me putting paid to that idea once they take onboard my electricity useage since last September has nose-dived due to son - and his PC - moving out )

Maybe the time is coming when I replace my gas cooker with an electric one. It is nearly 24 years old so I guess I've had my moneys worth out of it (paid about £80 for a repair 3 years ago). Back then electricity was more expensive than gas but I believe that this has reversed over the years (please correct me if I'm wrong somebody).

Gas is still a lot cheaper per kWh than electricity (check the figures you quoted above), and I very much doubt that will change


I'm due some money within the next 12 months (maturity of original endowment policy, which is no longer used as security against a mortgage), and have been debating using it to allow me to downsize my home (would cover all the up-front costs you need to find before equity is released by the sale of current home) though I'd still like to stay here if I can see myself affording the running costs for a good few more years.

If I decide to stay then I wasn't sure what to do with the money (only knew it had to be used wisely or invested safely), but looking at these increases I'm swaying towards using it to get solar panels fitted - have a not overlooked south facing back garden, so should be an ideally located property for it I think

JimmyTheWig

cw18 wrote: »

if I use all the more expensive tier 1 units then I effectivley pay the standing charge, but if not then I make a saving. This has always benefited me on the gas side when I'm not using the heating (like now)

Make sure you give them real meter readings to back this up.
Don't let them estimate based on a real reading after a year as they will profile it according to their figures which may well see you using all your expensive units at all times.

cw18

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Make sure you give them real meter readings to back this up.
Don't let them estimate based on a real reading after a year as they will profile it according to their figures which may well see you using all your expensive units at all times.

As a condition of my deal I have to give them actual readings at least every three months. I was doing it every 4 weeks, but have slipped a bit with it recently...... must get back to the 4 weekly readings as it lets me monitor my useage more accurately on a year-to-year basis

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 last week 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 inreased 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 have no complaints about the tariff itself, just the method they have used to calculate the increases.
I will try to keep everyone informed of the results.:mad:


p.s.

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 sent another email to customer services asking the same question, and asked them to pass it on to another department if they were incapable of giving me a satisfactory answer. So far I am deafened by their silence.

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 & Discounts.

p.s. when I try many of the price comparison websites I have found that none of the other energy companies can beat the prices of Scottish Power Fresh Start , and that is before the other companies get round to their price hikes.

uptomyeyeballs

My email from Scottish Power was timed at 13:37 Today

Dear Mr XX
You may have seen in the news recently that rising prices have been making the headlines. Prices for many things, from food to petrol, have gone up. Wholesale energy prices have been rising dramatically too, and although we’ve been doing what we can to absorb these costs for as long as possible, we now have to increase our prices.
Your new prices
The new prices will come into effect from 1st August 2011. Please see below to see what they mean for you. But remember, you’ll continue to benefit from a minimum 2% discount on our standard monthly Direct Debit prices^ until the end of your current Online Energy Saver Offer.

[B]Tariff: [/B]WWW Domestic Single Rate Premier Plus (No Standing Charge)
[B]Electricity prices                   [/B][B]Current†                       [/B][B]New†[/B]
First 225kWh used each quarter       17.176p                    22.492p
All/Day remaining kWh                 7.795p                     10.216p [COLOR=#ffffff][B]Gas[/B][/COLOR]
 
[B]Tariff: [/B]WWW Premier Plus (No Standing Charge)
[B]Gas prices                            [/B][B]Current†                       [/B][B]New†[/B]
First 670kWh used each quarter        4.970p                      7.541p
All/Day remaining kWh                 2.379p                      3.457p
 
[LEFT][COLOR=#444444][FONT=Arial]†All prices shown in the table exclude VAT. Note that VAT at the applicable rate (currently 5%) is applied to [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#444444][FONT=Arial]domestic energy bills in Great Britain.[/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT]

john-306

uptomyeyeballs wrote: »

My email from Scottish Power was timed at 13:37 Today

Dear Mr XX
You may have seen in the news recently that rising prices have been making the headlines. Prices for many things, from food to petrol, have gone up. Wholesale energy prices have been rising dramatically too, and although we’ve been doing what we can to absorb these costs for as long as possible, we now have to increase our prices.
Your new prices
The new prices will come into effect from 1st August 2011. Please see below to see what they mean for you. But remember, you’ll continue to benefit from a minimum 2% discount on our standard monthly Direct Debit prices^ until the end of your current Online Energy Saver Offer.

[B]Tariff: [/B]WWW Domestic Single Rate Premier Plus (No Standing Charge)
[B]Electricity prices                   [/B][B]Current†                       [/B][B]New†[/B]
First 225kWh used each quarter       17.176p                    22.492p
All/Day remaining kWh                 7.795p                     10.216p [COLOR=#ffffff][B]Gas[/B][/COLOR]
 
[B]Tariff: [/B]WWW Premier Plus (No Standing Charge)
[B]Gas prices                            [/B][B]Current†                       [/B][B]New†[/B]
First 670kWh used each quarter        4.970p                      7.541p
All/Day remaining kWh                 2.379p                      3.457p
 
[LEFT][COLOR=#444444][FONT=Arial]†All prices shown in the table exclude VAT. Note that VAT at the applicable rate (currently 5%) is applied to [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#444444][FONT=Arial]domestic energy bills in Great Britain.[/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT]

I'm on the same as you, signed up a couple of months ago and now massive increases. Time to look elsewhere with cashback.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

cw18 wrote: »

Email? What email? Do you know when you got that?
I've not seen anything come in from them !! Guess I need to go trawl my inbox, but I do scan everything that arrives looking for messages from companies I deal with - so I doubt I've missed it.....


I'm slightly in credit, and currently paying £43/month - although they have already tried to increase it to around £60 twice in the last few months (a phone call from me putting paid to that idea once they take onboard my electricity useage since last September has nose-dived due to son - and his PC - moving out )


Gas is still a lot cheaper per kWh than electricity (check the figures you quoted above), and I very much doubt that will change


I'm due some money within the next 12 months (maturity of original endowment policy, which is no longer used as security against a mortgage), and have been debating using it to allow me to downsize my home (would cover all the up-front costs you need to find before equity is released by the sale of current home) though I'd still like to stay here if I can see myself affording the running costs for a good few more years.

If I decide to stay then I wasn't sure what to do with the money (only knew it had to be used wisely or invested safely), but looking at these increases I'm swaying towards using it to get solar panels fitted - have a not overlooked south facing back garden, so should be an ideally located property for it I think

The email arrived on the morning of 17th June. My friend around the corner is also with SP and he got his a few days before I got mine. So there doesn't seem to be an obvious pattern to it. I imagine you will get your's soon. The increase is from August 1st so I think they have to inform you before July 1st.

Do any of the energy companies have a standing charge tariff these days?

cw18

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Do any of the energy companies have a standing charge tariff these days?

yep - even SP do. They managed to revert me onto one a couple of months ago...

Claimed emails to me had bounced, so took me off my NSC online 'tracker' deal and put me onto their 'standard' charges which includes standing charges - took three phone calls to get back onto the right thing with it back-dated to when they cancelled it on me (but got the impression with each phone call that they thought what they'd done would have sorted it, so don't see it as a major issue now it's all sorted )