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Umiamz

This is exactly what I was thinking yesterday when I bought the March ones. From what I remember, I could only buy one each of the February ones. I can buy two each of the March and April ones, but May and June look to be only one each. I decided to buy the March ones just to give me a bit of a buffer. 5% is better than nothing, assuming they get used.

My billing period ends today and I'm 3 days behind, despite buying all the packs available for the period, although I missed out on the January future packs due to joining at the beginning of December. There should be a "Dry January" powerpack next week which I'm hoping will just about cover the outstanding balance.

Another question - how many days do they give you to buy powerpacks to cover anything owing on your monthly review? Reason I ask is that I can buy all the monthly powerpacks again this coming Friday and I'm wondering whether they will cover what I've missed this month...

EddyM

Ah thanks, that's ok then (just annoying that they're only letting us buy more of the ones with the smallest discount).

I can't say exactly how the timing of the billing works as I got a bit confused with it, but I think you will be ok at that rate. My billing date is the 10th of each month, and when it got to that point there was a message saying I'd be charged any outstanding amount on around the 20th I think it was, and the powerpacks I bought before that actual payment date did seem to count towards it.

EddyM

Actually no, scrap that - I've just had a closer look at the "Transactions" page in my account and it seems what I just said might be wrong.

My billing period seems to be from the 10th of each month to the 9th of the next. So the first period ended on the 9th of December, and then there was an "Account Review" on the 13th of December, where £26 of Baseline Energy was "auto-purchased", but not actually taken from my payment card, apparently leaving my account £26 overdrawn. This was then taken from my card on the 20th (which was the date mentioned in the message I saw). But crucially, between those two dates, I bought the "Red nose special pack" when it became available on the 17th, and it seems this didn't make any difference - even the invoice for that shows my balance as still being £26.00 OD after payment for that pack, and the full £26 was still taken from my card on the 20th.

So it seems like the cut-off point is whenever your "account review" happens, and it seems like that varies - my second billing period ended on the 9th of January, but the account review happened on the 16th (with no auto purchase this time, I'm guessing because I had enough packs purchased to cover up to that point).

I'm also now worried that I've lost out as there weren't enough packs available for me to purchase in the first month, and I ended up paying £26.00 at the baseline rate - it seems others were allowed to purchase packs they missed, or were compensated for it, or had their first month's bill calculated specially at the Top Shopper rate?

DocFrog

I was not able to purchase powerpacks until early December and initial early reviews of my usage were remarkably low, After three weeks of daily meter readings I called and asked for a reassessment.
At this stage my February packs were changed both in size and in quantity, I could now buy 4, and the same is true of March, April, May and June packs,
When the first period (December) was complete I still had had to buy baseline energy. I calculated what my Top Shopper rates would have been and called PS. I had made sure during a previous call that they made on my account details that I was to be guaranteed TS rates for my first month. They agreed with my calculations (1p difference in £300+) and made an immediate credit to my account.
Hope that is of some assistance to you, EddyM.

Umiamz

Ah, OK. Well, hopefully the account review won't happen until after the Dry January pack becomes available (customer services said around 28th) so that will reduce it a bit. It's only £10, anyway.

As for making up missing packs, I missed out on the first 2 or 3 special packs in December, but they then made two Xmas Special packs available on the 21st December, which covered the missed ones.

dave_dph

Tafrock wrote: »

18 months I stayed on my original tariff. They will contact you and advise you.

Thanks Tafrock.

Sorry to go back to this one but, can I ask; the tariff they moved you onto, was it the Top Shopper tariff that was available to new customers at that time?

I'm currently doing comparisons as my tariff expires on 13th April and CS have told me that details of my new tariff will be available a few weeks beforehand. I can currently jump onto a collective two year fix with EDF (which is only available through NHS Discounts), and which beats the Top Shopper rates offered to new customers as of today by £25 per year. I am guessing that Top Shopper rates come April will be higher than those offered today. As no other supplier / tariff comes anywhere near it looks like I will be jumping ship.

I will check with PS CS as to whether I will be moved onto the Top Shopper rates available at 13th April before I do anything, but just wondered what they did with you - even though it was 18 months after you joined? Note, as I joined PS last April my Easy Saver rate was fixed for 12 months - this is confirmed in my tariff.

Many thanks.

Umiamz

Yesterday was the last day of my billing period with today the circled one (27th). Like last month, today the circled date has moved on to the 28th. I'm not going to do anything about it, though - I have a feeling it will sort itself out when the Account Review email gets sent.

In fact, it would be nice if they kept moving it on until the 1st Feb, then the monthly regular powerpacks should cover my shortfall

Tafrock

Hi dave_dph
I was moved onto baseline tariff 2018 version 1 or by buying powerpacks topshopper 2018 version 1

This was not the tariff available to new clients at the time. This was in October so that tariff would have been something like baseline tariff October 2018

They send you details well in advance and also the tariff information under your tariff accessible on the website alters to show your current tariff and your future tariff

Hope that helps

Umiamz

Umiamz wrote: »

Yesterday was the last day of my billing period with today the circled one (27th). Like last month, today the circled date has moved on to the 28th. I'm not going to do anything about it, though - I have a feeling it will sort itself out when the Account Review email gets sent.

So, I have an official explanation why the circled date starts moving on each day at the end of the billing period. It is, apparently, that because powerpacks can only apply to the current period or future ones, moving the start of your next billing period on each day allows you to cover any shortfall with available powerpacks until your Account Review is generated. When the review is generated, the circled date jumps back to the 'official' start of your new billing period and you can't purchase any more powerpacks for the previous one.

This is exactly what happened with mine this time and it allowed me to cover last period's shortfall with the two Bottoms Up packs that came out yesterday.

neilsedaka

I was only offered one Bottoms Up pack.