Spark Energy ... Are they any good ?

WLM21

I have just gone through two comparison websites, to transfer my gas and electric and both show the best option being the Spark Energy Advance option.

I must admit, I had never heard of this company.

I found a thread here, but the last comment was in 2008.

Are there any users here who can give me their honest opinion.

I want both gas and electricity supplied and we have a 'night time' meter, which we use for the washing machine. I think it's called an Economy7 meter.

thank you for any input given.:D

victor2

Just search this forum for spark and you'll find hundreds of matches, many of them very recent.
Why do you only "think" you have Economy 7? It will be clear on your bill what you are being charged for. Did you state you have Economy 7 on the comparison sites and enter your annual kWh usage for gas and electricity, with day and night usage for electricity?
Those figures should be available from your bills and/or present supplier, don't rely on entering your current monthly costs.
Spark may still come top or high up the list, but read other people's experiences with them before making a decision.

Jake07

WLM21 wrote: »

I have just gone through two comparison websites, to transfer my gas and electric and both show the best option being the Spark Energy Advance option.

I must admit, I had never heard of this company.

I found a thread here, but the last comment was in 2008.

Are there any users here who can give me their honest opinion.

I want both gas and electricity supplied and we have a 'night time' meter, which we use for the washing machine. I think it's called an Economy7 meter.

thank you for any input given.:D

I would not recommend it to my enemy. They are disorganized, greedy, unresponsive, unfair, sneaky and often very wrong. Unknown to me, they became my gas supplier and did not bill me for an entire year. This was a rented property, and after I moved out, I suddenly received a chaser from a debt-recovery agency that I suddenly owed over a grand to Spark. Just me, yet there were four tenants in the house. I'm not sure why Spark decided I would be responsible for everyone else and I do not know why they did not send us quarterly bills during that year. Now I have a pending complaint with them regarding this.

WLM21

victor2 wrote: »

Why do you only "think" you have Economy 7? It will be clear on your bill what you are being charged for. Did you state you have Economy 7 on the comparison sites and enter your annual kWh usage for gas and electricity, with day and night usage for electricity?.

We moved into a new house, which we know had the Economy 7meter and joined NPower. We did mark down that there was E7.We got a monthly rate, which we thought was too low and asked for a change.

Nothing happened and we ended up with over £1000 underpayment.

There doesn't look like there is any mention of E7 on the bill.

I have used their 'yearly totals' in the comparison sites and have opted for the 'average % figure' for the night and day useage.

victor2

You can have an E7 meter, but be billed as if you had a regular meter - suppliers just add the day and night usage figures together for that.
To have such a huge underpayment, do you have electric heating? That doesn't make sense though, as you mention gas and electric in your 1st post.

E7 only usually makes sense if you have storage heaters and use at least 30% of your electricity during the cheaper rate hours. It can be a benefit without storage heaters, but you would really have to have as much as possible running at the cheap rate.

WLM21

Update ... Will go for the Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 21

There's £60 cashback too, via Quidco and a fraction more via TopCashback

victor2 wrote: »

You can have an E7 meter, but be billed as if you had a regular meter - suppliers just add the day and night usage figures together for that.
To have such a huge underpayment, do you have electric heating? That doesn't make sense though, as you mention gas and electric in your 1st post.

E7 only usually makes sense if you have storage heaters and use at least 30% of your electricity during the cheaper rate hours. It can be a benefit without storage heaters, but you would really have to have as much as possible running at the cheap rate.

Thanks Victor ... We use the washing machine overnight, which is why we wanted the E7 tariff last time ... we never checked the paperwork, looks as if it wasn't done by Npower.

We are going to pay off the debt and move on

Even when I phoned in a couple of times and give bot electric meter readings, nothing was said ... you would have thought ...they would ask me why I was giving two readings.

macman

WLM21 wrote: »

We moved into a new house, which we know had the Economy 7meter and joined NPower. We did mark down that there was E7.We got a monthly rate, which we thought was too low and asked for a change.

Nothing happened and we ended up with over £1000 underpayment.

There doesn't look like there is any mention of E7 on the bill.

I have used their 'yearly totals' in the comparison sites and have opted for the 'average % figure' for the night and day useage.

But if you are on E7, then you are being billed on a dual rate tariff-so what does your bill say in the section which gives your kWh consumption on each register?
You will not make E7 pay just by doing your washing during the cheap rate hours, you need to have night storage heaters and an immersion heater generally, which (with gas) you presumably do not have. You are consequently paying a premium rate for all your consumption other than between about midnight and 7am.

victor2

This really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Are nPower charging you for E7? If so, your bills will show day and night (or similar terms) usage with different rates for each.
If not, are they adding together the figures from two readings and charging at a single (or two tier) rate?
If you have used the "average % figure" for your day/night split on the comparison sites, you will have got it dramatically wrong since you say you only really use the washing machine at night. As macman says, that will not make E7 pay.

Before diving into a new contract, make sure you understand how you are have been billed and that the information nPower have is an accurate reflection of your actual usage. If you have an E7 meter, but are being billed at a single rate, make sure the new supplier will accept that.
While I agree with your desire to pay the bill and move on, you don't want to jump from the proverbial frying pan into the fire.

WLM21

Thank you Macman & Victor

My current bill does not show two rates. I thought we had a new meter fitted a few years ago (the house used to belong to my parents). Maybe I am mixd up ... In our previous house, we got a new white meter (I think it was called) several years ago.

The meter here still shows dials, so maybe I am wrong.

I should therefore cancel the order I placed today, with Scottish Power.

Our recent summary from Npower shows our expected totals for next year as :-

6174 kW (electricity) and 27520 (gas)

We have an old back boiler, which isn't too efficient, but we'll be getting that changed within the next few weeks. We have a hot tank, so are still not certain whether we'll get a combi and remove the tank, or just a non combi type boiler and retain the airing cupboard.

Oven is electric, hob is gas

One gas fire in the lounge, but when the boiler is replaced, this might come out and stay out .... ie not replaced, as that will give us more space in the lounge.

We live in North Tyneside (NE26 postcode)