Scottish Power

Paggio

Last September 2012, we left E.ON Energy supplier to join Scottish Power as we could fix our energy bills, gas & electricity until March 2014.
We did this because it was too good to be true on Martin Lewis's site.

As quoted on MSE 'Should you fix?
A fix is like insurance against rate hikes. Therefore, millions can lock in and save with no risk of price hikes. Should anything change, they can leave penalty-free with some providers'.

Scottish Power Online stated 'Your product: Online Fixed Price Energy March 2014 Offer'


Our bill came out at £86.92, which we thought was great considering we were paying around £95 with E.ON.

Now after & months of being with them they are saying we are £318.05 in debit and they want to put our payments up to £128 as from June 2013.

How can this be when its suppose to be fixed until 2014 with NO PRICE HIKES ! If we leave we will have to pay what we owe so changing provider hasn't helped us one bit.

Where do we stand?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

A fixed price tariff is not like an 'all you can eat for £5' meal.

There will be no increase in charges, but you are using more gas/electricity.

Perhaps you thought it was like the old 'staywarm' tariff?

dogshome

As Cardew has posted, it's the price per Kwh of Gas/Elec that is fixed, not the size of your bill as that depends on how much you use

'Fixed' tariffs have a price - It's a fair bet that it's cost per Kwh when you signed up, was dearer than the Eon tariff you were leaving

What in effect you have done is made a 'bet' with Scot Power that Energy prices will rise so much over the period Sept 2012 - March 2014, that the 'Premium' price you were paying when you signed up, will be overtaken by energy price rises that you won't have to pay.

There are no Guarantees, but I've made this self same bet on my EDF account

macman

The unit kWh price is fixed, not the total bill.
And you were naive to believe that an (initially) lower DD meant 'lower bills'. It does not. You have simply built debt, which now has to be repaid.
The only saving grace is that you've had this come to light at the start of the summer, when your consumption will drop greatly-so your DD increase is relatively low for the amount of debt.