CH & SB: Comparison service for utility bills

baldelectrician

Snap their hand off.
We are in the final period of cheap leccy and gas.

I have fixed my house electricity until 2011. Wholesale gas / electricity have gone up by 40% - it doesn't take a genuis to work out if the sellers costs have went up by 40% the buyers costs will follow

I am paying 7% more than the cheapest deal around, but I reckon I will be lauging in 18 months time.

Savvy_Sue

I will add this into that sticky ...

baldelectrician

Two companies put up their prices by around 30% in the past week or so.

Shop around fot fixed deals. It's not too late:D

suzialwaysbroke

Has anyone had dealings with TBU Solutions for comparisons for S/B Utilities? They did some cold calling in our shop 7 I thought they looked useful, but would appreciate any feed back if anyone else has had dealings?

Many thanks,

suzi

PS, Ever heard of Titan Telecom either?

Cheers,
S xxx

Psimms

It's worth noting that sales activity within the energy industry is unregulated.

We've had a couple of bad experiences with sales agencies promising to make our energy bills cheaper. We were advised to switch to E4B last year (which went belly up) only to find later that E4B were paying these agencies commissions of around 20% of customer net annual energy spend!

If you are thinking about using a business energy broker or business energy comparison website definitely check them out on the Utilities Intermediaries (UIA )website. This is a trade association and code of practice for energy brokers looking to restore customer confidence

djmatticus

I had a mad arguement with some cocky !!!! with regards to British Gas renewing my contract on the highest rate for two years (without at least telling me the contract was up for renewal!). My only other way was to give 90 days notice near the end of the two year contract. I rand back and told them that the property was residential (true) and that the company was dissolved a long time ago (true). No checks were made and in 40 days I will be on the residential rate (no contract) and then I will change to e.on.

This whole system is a blatant scam. We must fight it as it is killing small businesses.

Robboseven

Most commercial gas contracts have two potential stings in the tail.

The first one is widely known but still catches thousands of companies out - the contract roll-over. You get to the end of your contract and forget to terminate it within the suppliers 'renewal window' and they roll the contract over for another 12 or 24 months at 'deemed rates' i.e. much higher rates than if you had negotiated with them.

The other one is less well known but in the current difficult trading conditions is becoming more common and that is the 'take or pay' clause. Commercial gas contracts usually stipulate a minimum and maximum quantity of gas that you will consume based on your gas meters' consumption during the previous 12 months, as held on the National Grid (formerly Transco) database. Not only can this number be wildly inaccurate but should your consumption reduce (either due to a slowdown in business or through energy saving measures) they can invoice you for any unused gas. No they can - really.

I work as a commercial energy consultant and I know personally of instances where companies have been billed between £5k and £30k. I'm not touting for business, just making you aware that if you run a small business and you have an energy contract, make sure you know what you are signing.

I personally feel that energy suppliers are getting away using dubious and underhand methods in many areas. Ofgem appear to be a bunch of self serving, toothless, jobsworths who like nothing more than putting together another 250 page report and talking about issues rather than actually doing something about them.

Rant over, just be careful.

Robboseven

Unfortunately BG aren't the only supplier doing this and it's not the only pitfall for businesses either. See: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2012671

bailey59

We have been caught out by this on the contract roll-over. We were not aware of this and now we want to switch suppliers but N Power say we cant because we have a contract with them again even though we didnt sign up. We are really struggling financially and are desparate to get out of the contract. Can we do this?? Is there a way out? We have sent them a letter (backdated of course!!) saying we want to cancel the contract but they're not having any of it.

Ypaymore

Useful sticky on this subject here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=49333