Add your feedback on energy supplier Powershop

[Deleted User]

Quentin wrote: »

No - their very clever business model gives them massive savings in overdraft interest - all their customers many advance payments mean lots of interest free cash for them!

Yea but in this environment, is it really worth holding onto all that cash?

Saving overdraft interest is one thing, but having bundles of unused cash isn't going to earn you much.

Anyone know how many customers they actually have? 2017 accounts say they "acquired just over 20k customers" - is that 20k total or 20k extra?

Made a heck of a loss too.

Latest accounts show £1k interest received... £201k interest paid :eek: (altough only to other group companies)

£3 million in the bank on that statement too, quite a bit to be hoarding!

fewkeste

Somerset_La_La_La wrote: »

Latest accounts show £1k interest received... £201k interest paid :eek: (altough only to other group companies)

Interest paid can be offset against tax on profits (and carried forward to future financial years) can't it?

i.e. make a loss this year, carry the loss and any interest paid forward to future years and offset them against future taxes due. :cool:

[Deleted User]

Yep, likely the plan given it's being paid to group companies too.

If we say roughly £3m cash from customers.... divided by 20k customers = £150 each. Bang on what they have for me!

Will be interesting to see how the leaving process works in practice - service when leaving could affect whether customers return in future (new property, special offers etc).

I've already had one automated email saying sorry you're leaving etc, plus an update online telling me my leaving date. How quickly I get my credit balance back will be interesting.

I can't see them needing to hold onto such a relatively small amount, but some companies are a nightmare and purposely delay even small payments.

Tafrock

My final day with powershop. Ironically I bought my final powerpack today too and it was a superb st George's day special. £3.81 for £5.66 electricity that's a discount of 32.6%. Shame they weren't all that good.

I'll let everyone know how quickly I get my 66 pounds credit back

My final 14 days electricity will have cost me 11.48p per kWh so not bad at all

However with the rising standing charges and kWh powershop are putting in place later this year (October for me) the discounts aren't enough to make me stay

fewkeste

Tafrock wrote: »

My final day with powershop.

Same here - and I also bought the Special Pack as it allows me to 'displace' lesser discounted Simple Saver credit to be refunded on account closure.

You asked me for my feedback to include with your email. Here it is;

I was very pleased that the Powershop way of doing things with the Powershop pro version which encourages customers to be more aware of their power consumption and its variation throughout the year was launched in the UK.

To gain the best benefit from the Powerpack purchase version of a Powershop account, customers by necessity need to be more involved with their account which can only benefit them in the long run.

Their customer service (both on the phone and by email) has always been of the highest standard – I applaud them for that.

I was disappointed to realise that the discount for Future Packs had been dramatically reduced and, in conjunction with quite a hefty price rise in October 2018, it became harder and harder to achieve the discounts needed to achieve the relevant Top Shopper rate.

This, coupled with a very uneven discount profile throughout the year that serves to obfuscate what annualised discount to date has actually been achieved, along with very poor Future Pack discounts for at least the next five months, has meant that I have reluctantly decided to move on.

Should they become competitive again, I would have no doubts about returning to them.

---

End of Feedback

---

I plan to read my meter at 0001hrs tomorrow morning and pass my readings to Yorkshire Energy. Although not required, I'll also send the readings to Powershop so that hopefully when the independant verification company confirm the readings are OK, Powershop will be ready to issue the final bill and refund.

Umiamz

End of current review period today so I decided to do a full calculation of what I've used each month using the Top Shopper rates for kWh and daily standing charge. I've actually beaten Top Shopper rates every month so far, so I'm going to wait a few more months to see what happens over summer.

Tafrock

Keep posting the discounts umiamz if it's not too much trouble

Umiamz

Tafrock wrote: »

Keep posting the discounts umiamz if it's not too much trouble

Will do

MrChips

On the assumption that each month they continue to release special packs for broadly half my monthly usage at an average discount in the high 20 to low 30 percent range, then I think I'll be able to justify staying for a few months yet. I still have a big bank of Simple Savers at 19% discount, and I need to hit 22-23% discount each month to beat the nearest competition.

Fingers crossed I can make it through to when the higher discounts return as I'd be disappointed to leave. Monitoring my electricity usage has never been so fun!

Tafrock

It's what I'm missing already