ofgem

jobdone1

Had an on-line chat with edf regards the removal of dual fuel discount and direct debit discount. They claim ofgem demand this be done under new rules in force from 22 October 2013, however i see company's such as British gas and Scottish power still give discounts.
This is very confusing my blue tariff expires end of April this is when a new contract will be agreed for a new product and the removal of the direct debit discount, my dual fuel discount has already been removed. It seems to me that their is no loyalty to allow energy companies to have access to your account with the direct debit and having both fuels with them. As said i am confused because other suppliers appear to offer discounts that according to edf is against ofgems demands. Any advice?

Bark01

Dual fuel is allowed, under RMR. EDF chose to get rid of it to simplify their tariffs. Whoever you spoke to is wrong. Dual fuel is only allowed to be a flat £'s per year value, applied daily and it must be split equally between fuels.

If you are an EDF customer you no longer get any stand alone discounts. If you pay by DD you will receive a lower unit rate but that's it. Discounts may seem nice but you should only be concerned with the overall annual bill.

jobdone1

Bark01 wrote: »

Dual fuel is allowed, under RMR. EDF chose to get rid of it to simplify their tariffs. Whoever you spoke to is wrong. Dual fuel is only allowed to be a flat £'s per year value, applied daily and it must be split equally between fuels.

If you are an EDF customer you no longer get any stand alone discounts. If you pay by DD you will receive a lower unit rate but that's it. Discounts may seem nice but you should only be concerned with the overall annual bill.

What a shock an energy company mis representing. I though it was very strange hence the question. One thing i will add i update my readings every month and my bill is produced within 24 hours, on yesterdays bill it showed my dd discount of 6% just under £10. So in a nut shell it is clear that edf who has changed the blue plan as well as massively increased its daily standing charge for both fuels and the removal of all discounts has made some tidy profits. They may claim only a 3.9% increase but the back door charges change that some what.

Nada666

Discounts have not been removed - they have been relabelled and disguised. Total discounts should be almost the same. Ofgem in its idiocy has decided that discounts have to be disguised in unit prices.

As far as I know there is no significant change to the size of discounts (although they transferred them from a dual fuel to direct debit discount.) A reduction of dual fuel discount to a trivial sum is only to be welcomed - it makes it easier to find a deal involving single fuels with separate suppliers.

The increase in standing charge (or rebalancing) is another move by Ofgem - they want them to be more equally distributed across all tariffs of a supplier so you are now less likely to find a bargain.

This is not a case of misrepresentation by an energy company (even if actual words used were questionable) - it is mostly Ofgem's doing.