Tied in

fenella1987

Hello All,

First post - so sorry if this has been queried before, I did have a look.

Basically, we're with Good Energy for Gas and Electric but recently have found their price increase to be overly expensive on top of their standing charge. We pay a fixed price every month but it isn't covering the bill hence we now owe over £300 with them. We obviously know we need to pay this off and we're trying but its slow and by the time we're nearly paid off a new bill comes in and we're back in the red.

My problem however is that they're not allowing us to change providers until we've cleared what we owe. Soo, we're not able to move to a cheaper more affordable provider and we're constantly owing them money - is there any way around this? i've called them a few times and begged them to allow us to leave and of course we'd clear our debt with them with an agreed amount a month. It doesn't seem very ethical from a 'Good' company to keep someone tied to a product they can't afford.

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Hannah

victor2

Unfortunately you will have to clear or at least significantly reduce what you owe them before you can switch away.
The good news is that with milder (so tradition says ) weather coming, your usage for heating should fall noticeably, so you'll be able to reduce the debt easier.
Have you looked at ways to generally reduce your usage of gas and electricity as well? That might help.

fenella1987

Hi Victor,

Yes, thought this may be the case. GE seemed to suggest it was practice across the board. Yer, I think its just been quite a cold one this year so our bills soared a little. we'll just have to keep chipping away at it and yes, try and reduce our usage to pay it off quicker - guess its all we can do.

Thanks again!

Hannah

Wywth

fenella1987 wrote: »

Hello All,

First post - so sorry if this has been queried before, I did have a look.

Basically, we're with Good Energy for Gas and Electric but recently have found their price increase to be overly expensive on top of their standing charge. We pay a fixed price every month but it isn't covering the bill hence we now owe over £300 with them. We obviously know we need to pay this off and we're trying but its slow and by the time we're nearly paid off a new bill comes in and we're back in the red.

My problem however is that they're not allowing us to change providers until we've cleared what we owe. Soo, we're not able to move to a cheaper more affordable provider and we're constantly owing them money - is there any way around this? i've called them a few times and begged them to allow us to leave and of course we'd clear our debt with them with an agreed amount a month. It doesn't seem very ethical from a 'Good' company to keep someone tied to a product they can't afford.

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Hannah

Sorry, but I'm not clear by your post of the exact situation.

You say you pay monthly, presumably by Direct Debit.

You also say you now owe the supplier £300 as a result of a price increase. Normally the supplier will adjust your DD to ensure your monthly payments cover 1/12th of the anticipated annual cost.

Are you saying the supplier has also billed you for £300 which you have failed to pay? Unless they have, they can't stop you switching supplier.

Note that communications every quarter (or however frequently) following a meter reading (estimated or actual) when paying monthly by DD are not usually bills, but statements

But be aware, any supplier will issue a final bill after switching and expect that final bill to be paid promptly (although you may be able to negotiate a payment plan if the amount is large)

ffghugsf

In addition to what Wywth has posted, I'm also confused as you say you have a £300 as a result of recent price rises :huh:

Good Energy increased the price of the Electricity, on average, by 9.0% effective 5th Dec 2012
(Prior to that the previous change in electricity price was a reduction of 7.5% average effective 1sr Apr 2009)
The last gas price change was effective 6th Sep 2011 and was 9.4% average

So I'm not sure how a recent price change alone has resulted in a £300 debt :cool:

I used to love listening to Bernard Cribbins when I got home from school. Maybe there's a calling for you there - that'll soon get the £300 paid off

fenella1987

Just to clarify - we pay every month a set amount by cash/cheque not by direct debit due to our work schedule we tend to pay as and when money comes in.

Good Energy raised their prices, we're with them for both E and G, but we failed to raise the amount we paid so have been left with a sum that needs paying. As this has also come at a cold period in the year I'm sure our usage has also increased. I'm not for one minute claiming that it's GE's fault we owe money. Just thought they would allow us to leave them as a provider in order to avoid us getting in to more debt.

I think, unfortunately, ethical energy is a luxury economically and it seems we can't afford it at this minute. It seems like an ethical thing would be to allow somebody who cannot afford a product - if there has been no contract in place - to let them leave and allow them to pay the amount off.

I have no idea who Bernard Cribbins is so that unfortunately flies right over my head!! I'm only 25, perhaps i'm too young.

Fire_Fox

What do you mean no contract in place? I suspect you will find this is in the terms and conditions. Unfortunately it's your job to read the meters regularly and adjust your usage to your budget.

How low do you have to get the debt to leave? Could you have a month or two of being crazy frugal: do loads of MSE challenges including Weezl74's £100 a month for food (family of four!), no heating, strip wash or just turn the shower on to literally wet and rinse, never take any cash out of the house, walk or cycle wherever you can, sell some bits on eBay, do some matched betting (not gambling, see relevant board)?