Go Direct 5

Susan1942

I changed from Atlantic to Go Direct 5 last December. I was about to leave Atlantic when they advised of Go Direct which had a much lower per Kw cost.
I have now been informed that on 31st December I will no longer be on this tariffe and offering me a standard economy7 with Southern Electric.
When I made the move I did so as Atlantic were going to raise my monthly payment from £82 to £104
At that time I owed Atlantic £156 which I was able to carry over to the go direct 5.
Since that time I have paid off all of that and at the moment am £187 in credit.
Some of this I know was due to the fact that I was away for 8 weeks end Nov-19th Jan and this was when the weather was at its worst.
Yes I did miss all that snow. I had left my heating on as I always do in winter but my neighbour turned my storage heaters up considerably. No doubt had I been here I might have needed some extra adjustments. I do not have a fire and the only extra way of heating is by one Econ 7 heater which has a fan boost incorporated in it. This is charged at daytime rate. I am now considering whether I should accept the option they are giving me or to change my supplier. I left Staywarm about 5 years ago when they wanted to increase my payments from £62 to £100 I went to Atlantic and paid £62 for that year and around £70+ when they were again increasing my tariffe. One of the crazy things they did was to credit me to my bank rather than using this money to off set the underpaid figure.
Would be happy for any light or advice you can give me.

Sue

jalexa

Susan1942 wrote: »

... I am now considering whether I should accept the option they are giving me or to change my supplier...

At lot to digest there - but not a single meter reading:(.

That said my advice it straightforward. Go with the transfer to "standard" and then consider your options. AFAIAA, Go Direct 5 has an early termination charge and while it is possible to avoid that in certain circumstances, given the timeframe I doubt it is worth the hassle.

Meanwhile work out or ask your supplier what is your annual consumption in kWhrs (not £££s) and the split between day and night units. Using a Consumer Focus accredited comparison website investigate what other suppliers would charge. After 31 December you are free to switch without any worry about charges.

Beware "deferred discount":eek: tariffs if you do not understand the circumstances you would forfeit the deferred discount.

Susan1942

Thanks you for your response. My current contract runs until 31st Dec. so I have time to look at other options out there. I knew I always had a fee to pay should I wish to leave Go Direct 5 and chose to stay there even when I looked at Scottish Power who at that time had a lower rate. When I took in consideration that fee plus what I lowed them it made no sense to change. Whatever happen and I may well stay with their Standard rate I do start off with a £187 in credit.
With Go Direct I can read my meter at any time put the readings online and it immediately recalulates my account and this is excellent for me.
I will spend a bit of time looking at what others out there have to offer. Did Go Direct 5 set out to take in some customers and then make it just a year when they would be back to a less favourable?? I did not know that I would have to leave that scheme when 12 months were up?
Any advice is appreciated.

Sue

jalexa

Susan1942 wrote: »

Did Go Direct 5 set out to take in some customers and then make it just a year when they would be back to a less favourable?? I did not know that I would have to leave that scheme when 12 months were up?

Hmm... *Probably* if you had switched to Go Direct via a website it would have been clear that the "guaranteed discount" had a "fixed-term". That is quite a normal tariff feature. Looking at your earlier post I think you were offered the tariff as a "retention". Maybe they omitted to inform you? Regarding the transfer to "standard" at maturity, that is at least one thing Atlantic are clear up-front about. Now you know you can make your plans. A "standard" tariff is unlikely to be the most competitive but as I warned in my last post beware the "artificial competitiveness" of "deferred discount":eek: tariffs.

The thing to do is to research the marketplace and then like last time see if Atlantic have a better offer.

Susan1942

Thanks you so much for that. It is really what I needed to know as a way forward. I did the switch myself on line but I obviously failed to note that it was for a limited time. I was happy with Atlantic and would happily return to them should there be a better option out there. At least I have all the Kw usage to hand which means I am comparing like with like rather than £ per Month. I am also helping a friend who has been with Staywarm for a year paying £79.60 per year and they now want to increase this to £100 40 Her neighbour in exactly the same size of flat is paying something like just over £40.
I am very grateful to for taking the time to respond to my query.

Sue

mirfield81

I myself received the letter regarding Go Direct 5 end of deal. You may know that Southern Electric do not offer you their best deal, even though Go Direct was their current best deal. I was offered Standard Energy online tariff by letter. When I called the phone number on the letter and asked for the best deal, I was offered Fixed discount 2014 tariff.
There are better deals on the market than this and there is no doubt that the Go Direct tariff was cheaper.
The phone number on the letter was 0800 980 8422.

Susan1942

Thanks for that information. I will follow up on that as you say it pays to shop or just do a check or whatever before agreeing to commit to anything

Sue

property.advert

I have also received the SE letter re Go Direct 5.

On my spreadsheet, their proposed "offering" would cost me over £200 ! For my region, Southern, I believe the best prices come from Scottish Power which seems to be £300 better than the proposed offering from Southern.

I guess it is a call on Monday to ask Southern to match Scottish or adios amigos.

Airmike23

sse cannot match scot pow. best tariff in sse (atlantic/southern/scottish hydro/swalec) range is fixed discount jan 2014, variable unit rate tariff with an additional 2% discount off the sse standard rate until 1-1-14 this tariff has an £80 canx charge if transfer bill from sse before 1-11-12 and a £60 can chgre if transfer bill fromm see between 2-11-12 to 1-1-14, aswell as the normall 6% mdd discount. this tariff is their cheapest and about the 29th result dual fuel, may be a tad higher elec only.

property.advert

Airmike23 wrote: »

sse cannot match scot pow....

Well of course they can but I doubt they will. In truth they should but lock the customer into a term. If they don't then they are simply relying on inertia and that is eroding faster with every passing day.

Susan1942

Thanks for that information. As I have said my choice is to go to SSE standard rate. The other option I have is to change and the costs are coming out best with Scottish Power but if I do a check on standard of service SSE Atlantic and M&S have the best records. No matter who I change to I am going to be paying more that on Go Direct 5 as this I now note has a huge discount of 13% as well as the reduction for DD and having bills on line. The other thing I have to remember was that I was away for 8 weeks late Nov/until 19th Jan. I had the heating turned up by neighbours even though I had left it on low. I would obviously have used a lot more elec had I been here. Again I was away for the 1st 3 weeks in April and put the heatint off I think or maybe left a couple of storage on The weather here during that time was fantastic. I was away for 2 weeks late August and again other than the usual frid/freezer all heaters and water were off. Dont know how much I should build into allowing for that.
My worry as that I have had very good service from Atlantic and Southern Electric and they appear to have good service records as opposed to others. Scottish Power is coming in as the best price for me. My friend is with Staywarm and that is EON and because they want to inc her payments to £100.40 from £79 . I definately think that she should change and EON have offered her a £75 per month fee but frightened her Reading on these boards EON seem to have something new in that you have to clear your balance outstanding of any excess use rather than spread the cost using the summer months to balance things out. I have until end Dec to make up my mind but her contract with Staywarm ends on the 28th November so time is not on her side. Any view would be appreciated

Sue