Is changing supplier such a good idea!

lstar337

Cornucopia wrote: »

Given this situation, I think that Government ought to do more to extend the best rates to all customers, instead of allowing them to be limited to customers who can tolerate an overpayment of £££s per month. And perhaps for very vulnerable households, they should be underwriting energy costs in some way.

Indeed. I chose to be with EDF (who were not the cheapest for me), but with them I am able to submit a monthly meter read (which results in a fresh new bill), and after a few reads I was able to change my DD (through my smartphone) which they had set at £50, to just £20. All a smooth process with no hitches.

I am still currently battling with Bristol/Wessex Water as they have set my DD at £58/month! We are a tiny family with very little water usage (I have checked the meter), but they say because we are new customers they cannot change the DD until they have at least 6 months worth of usage history. They won't except a reading from me until a bill is issued and they only do that every 6 months. In the meantime I'm sure they are happy to collect interest on the money they are taking from me.

I wish we had some choice over water companies like we do electric and gas!

Cornucopia wrote: »

One tip for easing the stress is always to call them on a free number, if you can find one.

And if you have a land line. Most low budget households forgo an expensive land-line in favour of mobile devices. Great until you realise that almost no companies have mobile free-phone numbers.

Cornucopia

All the companies have 0800 numbers - these are free from public phones, and it would be a pretty hard-hearted neighbour who would not let you use their landline for a free call. If your particular mobile tariff doesn't give free/bundled 0800 calls, you can convert them to geographical minutes by using a portal.

nPower 0800 0733000
Scottish Power 0800 0270072
EDF Energy 0800 365000

http://www.saynoto0870.com/

simster69

Hi first please understand that I'm posting here because i cannot figure out how to start a new post? but anyhow can someone please help my daughter is on state benefits she has a baby and the council have housed her recently into her first property, now rather than ask for help/advise etc. she wanted to be independent anyhow its now a good few months and she finds herself in debt with British gas and wanting to change supplier what options does she have? at present both gas and electric are supplied on a pay monthly basis the gas is a little over £200 and the electric a little over £100. the problem is that she has an authority involved that need proof that she is dealing with her debt in a constructive manner please help thanks.

JJ_Egan

Log in .
This board top left blue tab NEW THREAD .

Suggest as she owes money that Citizens Advice Bureau is best .
I would expect BG to want the debt settled first .

Chris_Preston

Thank you to all who contributed to this post. My mother contacted the CAB and British Gas eventually settled for half the original amount. In the time this took, she was with Scottish Power and when I checked her account, found she was in credit by £650 with an annual estimated usage of £770! I requested a refund and she's just received it.

I also switched in last October's Collective switch and found I was £240 in credit with my old supplier, First Utility, who had not told me and had no intention of telling me. When I asked why they don't just credit outstanding balances on closure, I got the very lame excuse that they no longer have access to customers' bank accounts. I wonder how many elderly and not-so-savvy customers are defrauded in this way. I really think this needs legislation to force them to refund all that is due. I bet if there were an enquiry, there will be millions of pounds of customers' money being stolen in this way. Isn't this a campaign worthy of Martin's attention?

imho

Same as me when SP sorts out this 18 months mess with not taking payments i will be looking for another provider and i am not going for the cheapest but going for the one that has good customer service which looks like it will be a smaller company.
But going through the Ombudsman to sort my bill with SP i have been offered a excellent pay off but they still cant work out my bill.But i wont stay with them if my bill ever gets sorted.

cklass

Chris_Preston wrote: »

I bet if there were an enquiry, there will be millions of pounds of customers' money being stolen in this way. Isn't this a campaign worthy of Martin's attention?

It came up last year:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/utilities/2014/09/switched-energy-firm-in-the-past-six-years-you-may-be-due-a-share-of-153m

gezkc

I agree with the OP in that switching supplier makes sense in theory, but in practice, it's nothing but a headache. I switched both my tariff and my mum's from British Gas to EDF and then to Scottish Power based on the advice heard here, and found each switch to be an utter disaster. Scottish Power were ignoring the meter readings we were providing them with and just estimating bills, with the result that they put my mum's monthly payments up to £1000 per month at one stage (thankfully I spotted this before any money was actually taken, but it scared the life out of her!).
Additionally, I found with both EDF and Scottish Power that their customer service was utterly useless. If you could get through to them at all, they were absolutely no help.
I've now moved both accounts back to British Gas, despite them being more expensive, simply because I've found them to be the only company that has handled our accounts properly and not mis-billed us.

Petra_70

Never swapped in my life. And judging by what I read on here, and what I see on the internet, I think I will stay put.

brewerdave

Petra_70 wrote: »

Never swapped in my life. And judging by what I read on here, and what I see on the internet, I think I will stay put.

.....but if I was still on my local supplier's "standard" tariffs here in S.Wales, I'd be nearly £400pa worse off:eek: ...multiply that by the number of years that I've been switching and I'm looking at £1000s that are still in my pocket -not the Utility cos.:)