Coop and a phantom £50 discount

mad_rich

I'm in the process of switching my gas supply to the Co-op. There's £50 cashback (in the form of a credit on your first bill).

It's just occurred to me that, with a fixed monthly direct debit, I might never see this £50 in the flesh. My monthly DD will just go out as normal and after a year I'll still be £50 in credit, with the £50 staying tantalisingly on paper.

Of course I'd get the money eventually. But I'm firmly of the belief that it's better in my pocket where I know where it is, rather than existing on paper in the minds of the accounting department.

For anyone who is switching to the Co-op, it might be worth underestimating your annual usage by 1567kWh (@3.19p per kWh that's £50) so that they calculate your DD to take into account of the £50 cashback.

If you stay with them in year 2, then your underestimate will be be automatically adjusted when it's caught by your annual review.

ian1969uk

I see what you are saying but this is no different to most other reward schemes eg Scottish Power online reward.

The Co-op state that their mission is to make you feel that you never have to switch again, so they probably fully expect you to be with them after a year, when the £50 credit will be taken into account within the account review.

It's still £50, and you'll still get it, so the offer is a valid one.

Fire_Fox

Not if you ask for your DD amount to be reassessed when you take a meter reading - often this re-assessment is done automatically, and takes into consideration whether your account is in credit or debit.

mad_rich

Oh yes - I wouldn't say it's not valid. Just that if you actually want to benefit from the discount this side of the Olympics you might need to think laterally!

I probably will stay with the Co-op longer than a normal company, as long as the prices remain reasonable, so I'm sure it would get eaten up by price increases or DD adjustments. But I still think the £50 is better where I can see it. One less thing to remember about in a year's time.

I had a bit of a discussion with them over the phone. Her argument was 'We don't know how much you're going to use, there might be a cold winter. It's just an estimate, so we won't adjust the DD'. Mine was 'Sure, it's just an estimate, but it's a good estimate. Since we don't know whether it's an under- or over-estimate, lets assume it was correct, and let's work the £50 into it.'

She won, but didn't endear me to the [STRIKE]company[/STRIKE] co-operative.