MSE News: Urgent! Fix now to beat today's 9% energy hikes

peter54

Now I'm even more confused:think:. According to the BBC today, in Northern Ireland, Power NI are reducing electricity prices due to a fall in wholesale gas and coal prices:

< Sorry, can't post link to BBC, as MSE say I am a 'new user'
So remove the space in this: bbc.co.uk/news /uk-northern-ireland-19343459 >

The cost of generation makes up about 65% of the customers bill. What we have seen over the last number of months is an easing in gas prices and also coal prices

olly300

welshee wrote: »

not yet !!!!:mad:

Currently an Ebico customer but deciding whether to switch to EDF. It will cost a few quid a year more but that's more than off-set by any cashback.

Now the decision is can I cope with EDF's cr*p customer service again?

Last time they had issues with my usage varying greatly.

Everytime I rang up their automated service to give my meter readings I was put through to a person even though they couldn't find anything odd when they came to read my meters. They pretended they were doing anything strange but when I had been a customer before in a rented property I shared I simply gave meter readings to the automated service.

SSE via Ebico don't and have never done that. They treat all customers like they are honest even when in my case I hadn't had an external meter reader for two years, and today I was found to be in credit on my gas bill.

ic

dalek wrote: »

They are ALSO adding a £200 a year Standing Charge to bills!! :mad:

http://www.4-traders.com/SSE-PLC-4000881/news/SSE-PLC-Household-energy-prices-from-15-October-2012-14469387/

Customers will pay a standing charge of £100 per year per fuel (inc VAT). This will be shown on a customer's bill as a 27.41p (inc VAT) per day charge covering the period of the bill, so customers will be able to see exactly how it has been calculated.

SSE's £200 (inc VAT) standing charge for a dual fuel customer will be equivalent to the average of that currently levied by the other major UK energy suppliers who have a standing charge7, which range from £130 to £257 (inc VAT).

But they are dropping the two tier rate which existed only to hide the standing charge.

It is clear that many customers find the two tier unit rate approach confusing. So in line with its commitment to create a simpler approach for customers, from the 15 October 2012 SSE will move the vast majority of its customers onto a simple fixed pence per day standing charge (equivalent to a £100 (inc VAT) per year, per fuel) and a single unit rate for the energy consumed.

Will customers lose out because of this change?
SSE already has over four million customers on a standing charge tariff structure. The vast majority of the remaining customers should be better off or see very little difference in their bill as a result of the move to a simple standing charge and single unit rate. For some very low usage customers (approximately 400,000) who are currently on a NSC tariff structure this change could result in a higher bill. In line with its commitment to treat customers fairly, and because this group can include vulnerable customers, SSE will proactively identify and retain these customers on a NSC tariff unless they wish to move to the standing charge option.

Can other customers choose to remain on an NSC tariff?
Yes, they can request this by discussing with a customer service advisor the best option for their circumstances.

So according to this, most people should be OK - but I guess the devil is in the detail. Some people won't be identified as "vulnerable" and may get switched when it won't benefit them. The onus will be on them to stop that move over.

oldskoo1

Lets hope global warming kicks in and we have 10C winter days.

Oh hang on, it's climate change, which means it will be -10c : doh!

Time to turn the thermostat down by 1C and increase my health problems risk.

Richmc

9% NOT SO! in my case SSE are upping my bills by a whopping 30%, how come?
Easy they are abolislishing the no standing charge tarrifs, I have solar PV installed and many other energy saving measures so I'm only paying £40 each for both gas and electricity per month, SSE are going to be adding £100 per year for both gas and electricity as a standing charge (my account is a no standing charge one) so with the 9% energy hike plus £200 extra for the standing charge that amounts to the eye watering 30% hike in my energy bills. This is what you get for trying your best to save energy. You do your best to reduce your bills, SSE profets fall as a result, so they hike up prices to cover their fall in profets. Energy companies have the ethics of a tu*d. Guess what! I've just singed up with EDF Blue. Buy buy SSE.

To ic, I phoned SSE, and as a low energy user thought I would be regarded as one who could keep the no standing charge status, not so, as expected I "didn't meet their criteria" (whatever that may be) to retain no standing charge status, you probably have to be on benifit get itn not a hard working tax paying green aware person who feels a moral duty to help reduce the impact of energy useage to benifit us all.
SSE you are the lowest of the low.

Edit- I'm keeping my FIT with SSE, just so they have to do the paperwork and pay me, hehe.

jimmy_paper

Thank you for your email.

We are aware that our supply partner, SSE plc, has announced that its energy prices will be rising with effect from the 15th October 2012. These increases do not apply to Ebico customers. The wholesale cost of energy has risen over recent months and the costs of, both, using the energy networks and meeting the Government’s social and environmental targets are increasing. However Ebico remains committed to keeping our customers’ energy costs as stable as we can for as long as we can, and we have no plans at present to increase the prices of EquiGas or EquiPower.

I hope this confirms

Kind Regards
Lucy Bishop
Customer Services Supervisor
Use Ebico imeasure to monitor your home energy use, cost and carbon footprint - all for

chris1973

This is one occasion when I actually envy those with oil fired CH. Although they often moan about their price increases and lack of local choice when it comes to suppliers, at least they have the opportunity to buy 1000 - 2000 litres of oil to fill their tanks during the summer when the price is cheap, and store it in order to get them through the worst parts of Winter, and avoid the inevitable price increases as Autumn approaches.

Something which you can't do when heating by Electricity or Gas!

I do find these types of threads completely pointless though.If you search, you'll find hundreds of them, all dating back several years, proof enough that we did nothing about it then, no more than we are going to do anything about it now, so whats the point of whinging?.

There is only one unique factor in this equation, and that is the fact that they increase their prices because UK consumers are spineless and just let them, it really is that simple, in short the utility companies keep our collective testicles in little ceramic jars, and fit them to pylons as insulators!

Consumerist

Something about this SSE rise stinks.

Economies all over the place are contracting. Commodity prices generally are coming down, with the possible exception of food. Why are energy wholesale prices increasing?

I think it was back in May that BG said that wholesale prices, anyway, are only about 10% of energy bills. So, if energy prices have increased steadily by 12% since January, the average idiot could have bought contracts at an average price increase of 6% over the period (similar to drip-feeding investment buys). So if the average price of contracts has been 6% higher over the past year and that affects only 10% of energy bills then why are bills going to increase by 9% instead of 0.6%?

This suggests to me that either the energy companies are idiots with our money or the government and the networks are making a killing.

tunnel

SSE rang me yesterday morning to ask if i'd reconsider my move to scottish power,i started my swap over 3 weeks ago and they were sorry i was leaving,tried allsorts of tactics to change my mind. Glad i stood firm,that afternoon is when the news broke of their price hikes,they never mentioned that in their begging phone call. They did actually admit though that SP's nov13 fix is becoming a very big thorn in their side. Serves them right,done everything i can to more than half my 7.5k kwh yearly usage to 3.5k and thats the thanks i get. Good riddance i say.

bob_bank_spanker

tunnel wrote: »

SSE rang me yesterday morning to ask if i'd reconsider my move to scottish power,i started my swap over 3 weeks ago and they were sorry i was leaving,tried allsorts of tactics to change my mind. Glad i stood firm,that afternoon is when the news broke of their price hikes,they never mentioned that in their begging phone call. They did actually admit though that SP's nov13 fix is becoming a very big thorn in their side. Serves them right,done everything i can to more than half my 7.5k kwh yearly usage to 3.5k and thats the thanks i get. Good riddance i say.

The agent that called you wouldn't have known prices were going up at the time.