Help & Advice?

mjc1976

Hi all.

I am (annoyingly) a long-term unemployed single fella, living on my own. I am hoping to switch suppliers for G&E, or even reduce what I'm paying now.

I didn't look into things at all when I moved into this flat some 3 years ago, and just stuck with who was already here. I was unemployed at the time. I told them my situation too.

Anyway, I am on, for both gas AND electricity a standard user tariff. I pay a fixed amount every month, for both. I use very very little gas (overall), and use probably on the money for electric, maybe a little more than they say. Most years, I end in debit on electric, and largely in credit on gas. Recently they put the lowest I can pay for gas up to £10 per month (and I would finish in credit on the previous £5 per month!).

Anyway, I'm paying around £90 per month in total at the minute. fixed amount. I have asked for a reduced tariff, (before it started to be phased out by companies). I have asked for the credit I accrued to offset the debit, and they havent.

So, in short, I'm not happy with the company at all. They have neither been understanding , nor helpful over the years. Can I move? Do you think I'm paying too much, circumstances being taken into account or otherwise?

Thanks in advance

pooch

mjc1976 wrote: »

Hi all.

I am (annoyingly) a long-term unemployed single fella, living on my own. I am hoping to switch suppliers for G&E, or even reduce what I'm paying now.

I didn't look into things at all when I moved into this flat some 3 years ago, and just stuck with who was already here. I was unemployed at the time. I told them my situation too.

Anyway, I am on, for both gas AND electricity a standard user tariff. I pay a fixed amount every month, for both. I use very very little gas (overall), and use probably on the money for electric, maybe a little more than they say. Most years, I end in debit on electric, and largely in credit on gas. Recently they put the lowest I can pay for gas up to £10 per month (and I would finish in credit on the previous £5 per month!).

Anyway, I'm paying around £90 per month in total at the minute. fixed amount. I have asked for a reduced tariff, (before it started to be phased out by companies). I have asked for the credit I accrued to offset the debit, and they havent.

So, in short, I'm not happy with the company at all. They have neither been understanding , nor helpful over the years. Can I move? Do you think I'm paying too much, circumstances being taken into account or otherwise?

Thanks in advance

How much accrued credit do you currently have?

At this time of year, you should be in credit to pay for the costly winter period, but if you are massively in credit, you could ask for some back.
(If you have already asked and are not satisfied with their response, consider making a formal complaint following the suppliers complaint procedure)

Or better still use a comparison site. I'm sure you can do much better than a suppliers standard tariff.
If you switch supplier, you will get a final bill from the current supplier and any accrued credit will be refunded to you.

It might be wise to put at least some of this accrued credit aside as you will be entering the expensive winter period with a new supplier with no accrued credit, so in 6 months time you will probably be in debt to them and they will want to raise your DD - if you pay off that accrued debt, then they may agree to hold the agreed monthly DD.

A.Penny.Saved

Your not on a very good tariff because those types of tariff do tend to be expensive. Your paying a lot more than I am ATM too, a 1/3 more in fact. I have been looking at a new deal as mine is about to expire and all the longer term price fixes want around £17 to £20 more per month than I am currently paying. That is a very big increase and not something that is easy to find the extra money to cover.

Use direct debit to lower your payments, that should be available to anyone with a basic bank account. Get a collection of your statements and work out what your yearly usage is and then input that to a energy comparison site to find the most suitable deals.