Switching to First:Utility...

ShaneyBoy1988

Evening All


I'm a little confused at the moment, so your opinions would be most helpful.

I'm currently with E-ON with their god awful prepayment meters, the meters were already installed when I moved into my property 3 years ago, so I have stuck it out a long time with them, and they have continually put the prices up, and introduced high standing charge prices in January, so I was at the end of my tether, did a bit of a comparison and looking around...


I found First:Utility, my parents have just signed with them, and use them for their businesses, their prices are much much lower compared to my EON tariff, (eon charge 35p a day electric SC where as FU are only charging 1.6p)


So I phoned them up yesterday, explained that I was on prepayment meters, and would like to transfer to FU on credit meters, the lady on the phone said this would be fine as long as I would be happy to pay by monthly fixed DD, which is OK, we went through all the details, gave them my usage for the past year, I'm a very low user, so my DD is £47 a month (compared to £60+ I'm spending on those awful prepay cards!) the lady on the phone gave me an order number at the end, said the process would take around 4 weeks (plus another two weeks for the gas) and said welcome to FU...


so my question, since I've never swapped before, is it really that easy? I was expecting a credit check, of which I have a pretty bad score (I had a DRO last year due to circumstances beyond my control) she said they checked my score (put me on hold for a minute or so, and proceeded with the order so I assume everything is going ahead?


Sorry for rambling

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

First Utility have a pretty woeful reputation, their customer service is often ranked with Spark Energy as the worst of the smaller suppliers. That said, there seem to be fewer complaints about them on this forum of late, but I may be wrong.

Most suppliers are quite cautious about switching from PPM to credit meters for obvious reasons, I'm surprised FU have agreed to it so easily. They have their own PPM's, so ensure when the meter exchange they are actually installing a credit meter.

Finally, it's worth pointing out that the standard advice is if you have your consumption figures (which you clearly do) that you should go to a comparison site to see who the cheapest supplier actually is.

jobdone1

I though it was your current supplier that has to remove the pre- pay meters to standard meters. Because when switching you would be switching with the current meters that would need key/card to top up or you would end up without supply. How can she set up a direct debit if you have a pre-pay meter and no date to remove and replace if you get my though process ??.