Which company to switch to, they all sound awful!!

Greenst

Aaaarrgggghhh, someone help me please!

Like a lot of other people on here my utilities bills have been going up and up. I have been with eon for a few years and however much I try to save on my gas and electric the bills just don't go down.
I am amazed that they are up 25% on last year even though I now work full time and am not in the house all day long, you'd think that with the price rises that the bills would at least stay the same as last year?

So it's time to change, I called eon and the best they could do for me would save me £55 pa. I have been on the comparison sites and the best deal I can find is with Scottish Power which can save me a whopping £298 pa! the next best is First Utility at £199 then nPower at £180.

I have 2 questions

1. The lady on the customer services at eon said I need to check that these deals don't have a 'standing charge', what's that?

2. I have looked on the review sites for the above companies and they all come out as horrendous with customer service, messing up switching, co*king up peoples bills and direct debits big time, so who do I go for?

Is is out of the fat into the fire? they all have worse reviews than eon, I must admit other than paying a lot I have never had a problem with eon. But a saving of £200ish per year is a hell of a lot.

If anyone has any experience of the above companies or any I should steer well clear of please let me know before I take the plunge!!

Thanks!

Terrylw1

Standing charge is a fixed fee per month, its something that's been around a long time. It became unpopular since you pay it even if your consumption is zero, so suppliers just created tier 1 & 2 rates instead to make you pay it a different way but at least only against your kwh used.

bargepole

There are two main types of tariff:

Standing Charge - You pay a fixed sum for the meter, x pence per day, regardless of whether you use any gas or electricity, and then you pay a fixed rate per Kwh for what you use.

Standard Tariff - You pay a higher rate for the first few units you use (Tier 1), then a lower rate for all the rest (Tier 2). This is what the majority of customers have.

Be careful when comparing providers. Some will look at your bills, see that you are paying say £60 per month, and tell you that they can do it for £50.

All that really means is that they will set your Direct Debit for £50, but if you are actually using £60 worth, you will be building up a debt, and in a few months' time they will whack a big hike on to your DD to cover the debt.

The only meaningful comparison is to look at the actual pence per Kwh on Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Plushchris

Greenst wrote: »

I have 2 questions

1. The lady on the customer services at eon said I need to check that these deals don't have a 'standing charge', what's that?

Its the lady on the phone trying to confuse you into staying put with E-on, others have explained what a standing charge is above, in the vast majority of cases it makes little or no difference whatsoever if you have a standing charge or a two tier tariff, put your annual usage into a comparison site, if it comes up that SP will save you X amount, that will include the standing charge if there is one.

Greenst wrote: »

2. I have looked on the review sites for the above companies and they all come out as horrendous with customer service, messing up switching, co*king up peoples bills and direct debits big time, so who do I go for?

Is is out of the fat into the fire? they all have worse reviews than eon, I must admit other than paying a lot I have never had a problem with eon. But a saving of £200ish per year is a hell of a lot.

If anyone has any experience of the above companies or any I should steer well clear of please let me know before I take the plunge!!

Thanks!

The thing with review sites is people generally only post bad reviews, as your thread title says, they all sound awful, so why not go with the cheapest?

Personally I've been with all of the big six suppliers (and one of the little ones) and just switch to whoever is cheapest, keep on top of things (providing readings, checking bills etc.) and you shouldnt have too many problems.

Plushchris

bargepole wrote: »

There are two main types of tariff:

Standing Charge -

Standard Tariff -

Little misleading there, tariffs and pricing structures are two different things, I've been on a standard tariff before thats had a standing charge. Scottish Power used to offer almost all of their tariffs with a choice of both pricing structures.

Rupert_Bear

I left Scottish Power for OVO but was very happy to switch back. You know how good a company is when you have left them.

The customer service people at OVO were all over friendly and helpful and did their best. However it was their IT systems that let them down.

I just find SP so very professional and would have to be a really great deal to leave them again.

macman

If SP can save you £298pa, then what are you waiting for-you are clearly on a very uncompetitive tariff at present (Standard by any chance)? But make sure your comparison is based on annual kWh figures and not on your monthly DD level-the latter does not give accurate results.
Customer service is much of a muchness with all of the Big 6, if you want better CS then go for a smaller supplier such as Ovo, who are still high up on the comp site results-but you may pay more. Only you can decide.
Sign up for an SP dual fuel tariff via Quidco at present and you can add a £42 cashback to your savings. So that's £340 saved for 15 minutes work.

j2011

SP can save you £298pa,

But can they?

It depends on what you put for your present tariff.

My tariff with Eon is warm assist but I cannot find that on any comparison sites so I have made a spreadsheet with my yearly consumption and I just use Eon's standard tariff to find the cheapest supplier then substitute their figures for Eon's warm assist figures.

I have yet to find a supplier with a cheaper tariff than what I am on.

macman

I was merely quoting the figure provided by the OP...
If Warm Assist is a social tarif then of course it will not be on the comp sites, as it's not available to the majorty of consumers.

mistyrose

Is it really okay to keep switching to a different supplier when they offer a cheaper rate. I'm a pensioner living on my own, I pay by monthly direct debit and eon take roughly £120 pm for electric and gas. I'm on their Age UK plan but it doesn't seem to do me any favours. First Utility offer quite a saving but having never switched before, I'm worried about doing it without contacting eon first. Is it safe to just 'switch'?

macman

You contact the new supplier, they contact the old. Yes, it's not just safe, it's essential money-saving! Of course, you need to check that your current tariff does not have a lock in period.
However I'd think twice about going to First Utility-do a forum search first.
Find the best tariff using a comp site armed with your annual kWh consumption figures (not your monthly DD amounts), then switch via a cashback site.