Energy Club with Sainsburys deal gone awry

woodelfy

Hello

I'm currently with Co-Op on Pioneer contract and used MSE's energy club to find a better deal.

With my actual usage to hand of 1065 kWh electricity and 140 kWh gas per year MSE found a pretty amazing deal with Sainsburys Energy Price Freeze until January 2016. At £195.61 a year I was easily going to save £150 a year if not more looking back over previous Co-Op bills and shenanigans.

Excitedly signed up. But then a week later had two letters come through, both identical except for a number. Both said I'd had a credit check and that I needed to pay a security deposit, but one said £90 and one said £125. Without these deposits I could not proceed. I was pretty upset about having a credit check when I didn't realise I would be. I know my rating is not amazing because I tend to save up year and pay for car insurance and things outright. I don't have many DDs. I read the T&C's around this deposit and I wouldn't get it back for a year (until the contract ends), it was at their discretion if there was a delay in returning it, and if there was even a slight glitch or I was late on a payment it was all theirs. Nasty stuff.

So I rang up and asked to speak to someone about it. The £90 was for gas and the £125 was for electric. I said that comes to £215 and that's more than I'm actually expected to pay for a year, so that's not a 'deposit' at all. I explained I didn't mind paying a deposit, just not more than I actually would be paying them for energy use. I also mentioned that if security was an issue I would pay for the full year upfront. The chap I spoke to was lovely and I could tell he was trying really hard to sort it for me, to remove the need for a deposit entirely.

After being put on hold several times, getting a call back from him and being put on hold a few times more, he said it couldn't be done without compromising 'the rules of the compliance team' that it was a 'grey area with third parties' hence the delay sorting it for me. BUT if I'd come to them directly originally I wouldn't of been credit checked and wouldn't have to pay a security deposit. There was no way to reduce the deposit or my direct debits if I paid it, but I definitely felt like he was trying to tell me not to pay it. He basically told me to start the process again without using a third party.

At that I asked if I would be credit checked again if I went straight to Sainsbry's energy via their site, because 2 in such a short space of time is going to damage to it that I can't easily repair. There was a distinct awkward pause before he said he just couldn't guarantee anything, and 'the rules change all the time' - it might be different now I've already applied. I asked it it would be clear on the site whether I would be credit checked again (I'm dyslexic and really struggle with this stuff) and he didn't know.

I've read through the T&C's and almost gone through the full process of applying directly to see what comes up or if it will credit check me but I can't see anything. But I'm a bit scared and don't know what to do. Has this happened to anyone else with Sainsburys? Or is it a normal thing to get credit checked with energy? Is 2 credit checks in 2 weeks really bad? I'm a relatively recent homeowner and probably just being naive but any pointers greatly received.

Thank you

Nada666

1. Are you sure you only use 140 kWh of gas per year (rather than 140 meter units) ? 140 metric meter units is approx 140 x 11.2 or 1568 kWh (which is realistic for hot water and cooking only) and 140 imperial meter units is approx 140 x 32 or 4,500 kWh (still a low usage but very possible for a small, insulated property). 140 kWh of gas is not a realistic figure.

2. Security deposits. Yes, with thousands of pounds of interest free credit available to you on tap that (practically) cannot be turned off nowadays and that is likely to be only repayable at less than £4 per week if you default then suppliers have started to credit check applicants.

I would just pay the deposit (if they accept your usage of 140 kWh you will be underpaying any way). You should also run a comparison with a more realistic gas usage and check what your real cost will be.

woodelfy

Hi Nada666 thanks for replying. Ah yes I was using the wrong one, thank you for pointing that out. I've checked and you're right it's 1562ish, it is a small insulated house. This makes it only £50 more on that tariff so still a good saving.

The second point I don't understand. The deposit is on top of the normal monthly direct debits, and can't be used towards payment. So I'm not really asking for credit just applying for a utility? I would pay the whole thing upfront if I could then cover any outstanding at the end. But paying twice with no guarantee of getting that deposit back is too harsh.

Also the major thing is that this forces me to go direct rather than use the Energy club, and I think they do this so they don't have to pay 3rd parties. I don't think the energy club should include them if they're going to do that, especially if you get a credit check you don't really need.