Scottish Power - Have Prices Doubled in just over 12 Months

jalexa

JWhite wrote: »

We have fixed our price on the Online Fixed Price to Jan. 13 and I am wondering now if I have made a bad decision. Is this just Scottish Power or are they all charging double the price?

I think you are missing something about energy prices and switching. When you switched to Online Fixed Price 2013 I assume you did a comparison. At that moment it was your choice and FWIW I think you made quite a good choice. Fixed price is partly about "peace of mind" and you have that over part of next winter, though personally I advocate fixed price over the whole of the next winter.

You ask if everybody has doubled their prices. The answer is complicated but a quick check of 2 regions shows that your tariff remains competitive to about 1% difference to the leading prices.

So if you have a cost doubling problem it can't be solved by switching and wouldn't have been avoided by originally selecting a different tariff.

macman

No, costs have not doubled, though they have increased sharply. Have you changed tariff in ths period? Clearly your consumption has increased, or there is another issue. Go through your bills and work out your actual comparative kWh usage, which is what matters. Quoting £'s does not tell us anything, as others have said.
Pointlessswitching into the 'meter must be faulty' mode without a comparison on usage.
How can £'s per day be a valid comparison if kWh's are not also? Kwh's don't change-unit costs do.

st999

As I have tried to explain it is difficult comparing the old house with the new bungalow in Kwh for gas and electricity

It's difficult for you and you have the figures in kWhs, just think what it is like for us.

GIVE US THE FIGURES IN kWhs.

No kWhs, no help.

Leodogger

st999 wrote: »

It's difficult for you and you have the figures in kWhs, just think what it is like for us.

GIVE US THE FIGURES IN kWhs.

No kWhs, no help.

I have just been into my account online and there is no history there now for my previous property and I don't have all the bills printed off so I have requested Scottish Power post these to me, I only have my final one which was for just over a month and this is what I used to work out my daily usage which to my way of thinking is the most obvious way to work out what I am using. KwH cost is all very well but if I am using no heating and in a much smaller property I would expect to get much smaller bills and this doesn't appear to be the case.

jalexa

JWhite wrote: »

KwH cost is all very well but if I am using no heating

This is not to "trip you up" but to bring experience to bear to focus on "the problem". In an earlier post you said you weren't using the heating "half as much", now you say "no heating".

Whenever there is a perceived consumption issue you need to get a handle on the consumption by taking daily readings for several days at a time in different weather conditions. If you posted the results of that you would get more meaningful help.

macman

JWhite wrote: »

I have just been into my account online and there is no history there now for my previous property and I don't have all the bills printed off so I have requested Scottish Power post these to me, I only have my final one which was for just over a month and this is what I used to work out my daily usage which to my way of thinking is the most obvious way to work out what I am using. KwH cost is all very well but if I am using no heating and in a much smaller property I would expect to get much smaller bills and this doesn't appear to be the case.

Your previous property will be a different account, you wouldn't expect it to show up in your new account, as they don't transfer over.-there's no connection.
Unless we have your kWh data it's impossible to do any analysis. Without it we have no idea why your bills have not fallen. It's what you use that matters, not what you pay.

jalexa

macman wrote: »

Your previous property will be a different account, you wouldn't expect it to show up in your new account, as they don't transfer over.-there's no connection

Don't disagree with your post but want to make a different point.

Scottish Power has a really annoying feature that even before the final bills are done and dusted, account access is blocked and new limited single fuel access is created.

Scottish Power company rep comment pls?

macman

I seem to recall the I had the same issue with BG when I left for EDF.

Leodogger

macman wrote: »

Your previous property will be a different account, you wouldn't expect it to show up in your new account, as they don't transfer over.-there's no connection.
Unless we have your kWh data it's impossible to do any analysis. Without it we have no idea why your bills have not fallen. It's what you use that matters, not what you pay.

I take your comments on board and it is "what you use" which is the basis I have used. Obviously if you are living in a 3 bed semi having to use your central heating for 7-8 hours per day there (which I had to during the last winter of 2010-11, which was one of the worst winters on record), and the fact that I am now moved to a 2 bed bungalow where we used the heating from 13/10/11 for approx. a couple of months due to the fact that we had serious damp in the bedroom and we were trying to dry it out but still only used the heating for 6 hrs per day then and once the damp had gone, for the last 3 months we have not used the heating at all virtually and only use the water heating as we have a non-vented boiler for approx. 2-3 hrs and then we turn it off once the boiler is hot, nevertheless our bill is £250 for elec and gas for 83 days. We obviously do use the gas fire in the evening but not all day, only occasionally during the day when it turns cold as it has the last few days. So taking all this into account we would not expect to get a bill which is not much less than we received from our last property. The most surprising thing was that the gas was the most expensive bill of the two for the last 3 months at £131 although as I say the gas is for heating, water and gas fire, the most expensive of these being the heating which we have hardly used for the last 3 months but the gas still cost
the most.

Leodogger

What I want to see is an energy company that comes along and makes what you are using and paying more transparent.

I don't want "primary" and "secodary" units which are used to confuse the understanding of what is being used and charged for to confuse the user, I want a comparison supplied which shows you want you used for the last quarter of the previous year compared against what you have used for the same quarter this year plus what the units cost then and now !!

Have we got an energy company with the guts to do that - NO !!

I wonder why :rotfl:

Perhaps it is because people would really see how these companies are profiteering from the ordinary people and the little old aged pensioner who has to decide whether to heat or eat !