Sorry new customers only

rickstones

It's a bit like the adverts you see on television I used the price comparison facility of saveonyourbills the results show that my existing supplier (npower) was nearly the cheapest but cheaper than my present tariff was an on-line version supplied by npower I rang them and asked if I could swap to the on-line function they said " sorry new customers only"
so there you go!!

sunflower_2

i love that advert - so funny !

but agree that its a very annoying situation to be in.

sometimes its down to regulations though
e.g. electricity suppliers are not allowed to reduce their prices below a certain amount in their distribution area (the area they supplied prior to the days of being able to choose our supplier)

djohn2002uk

sunflower wrote:

e.g. electricity suppliers are not allowed to reduce their prices below a certain amount in their distribution area (the area they supplied prior to the days of being able to choose our supplier)

I was told by Southern Electric, 3 months ago, that regulation has now lapsed.

humbug_4

Why not sign up with a different supplier for a few days and then sign up with npower online (being a 'new' customer)? We're always being told how easy it should be so doing it twice shouldn't be a problem.

lisyloo

humbug wrote:

Why not sign up with a different supplier for a few days and then sign up with npower online (being a 'new' customer)? We're always being told how easy it should be so doing it twice shouldn't be a problem.

Two reasons.
Firstly it take more that a few days to switch. Usually there is a 28 notice period. You have to therefore look atthe costs involved (paying higher prices in the interim).
Seondly, some companies have a more stringent definition of new customer to avoid people doing this, so for example sometimes the definition would be - no account with them for 6 months.

sunflower_2

djohn2002uk wrote:

I was told by Southern Electric, 3 months ago, that regulation has now lapsed.

dont believe a word southern electric tell u - they are very economical with the truth IME

Xbigman

SWEB are the same. New customers only onto online tarif. But I then found out they are owned by EDF and they have two other companies that are also offering the exact same tarif who will accept me as an online customer.
Regards



X

jrawle

I was in the same situation with Sweb, but was able to get round it by switching from Sweb to London Energy via uSwitch (same company really, and same prices). However, last week I notice uSwitch now no longer allow customers to switch between the different EDF Energy brands like that...

sunflower_2

jrawle wrote:

I was in the same situation with Sweb, but was able to get round it by switching from Sweb to London Energy via uSwitch (same company really, and same prices). However, last week I notice uSwitch now no longer allow customers to switch between the different EDF Energy brands like that...

to get round this just say u r with another company e.g british gas

then u can go ahead n sign up

(obviously after getting ur quote and making a note of the savings, u would need to go in and do it all again but saying u with another supplier)