Add your feedback on energy supplier Powershop

griffb

I am paid up to almost the end of June, but with only 4 out of 15 allowed future packs for the April-June months, due to the discounts being relatively low around the 12.5% mark.

The packs on offer from 1st March do not look enticing:
Snack Pack - 24% but a tiny pack
Simple Saver - 10% discount
Jumbo - 5.7% discount
July Future Packs - 10.8%, maximum 4 instead of 5 and only £6 packs instead of the usual £10

With regard to the Future Packs, I wonder if they are thinking that my usage will drop significantly over the summer. It won't, as my heating is oil.

At these levels of discount from July onwards Powershop will compare poorly with the next best offering, from Outfoxthemarket.com, at least until the winter discounts kick in again

I'm wondering if it is worth the hassle to switch for a few months from July, or June or even May. A half decent 18 month fix from Outfoxthemarket also caught my eye.

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rob879

I switched to Powershop in May ’17. By buying the appropriate ‘Powerpacks’, they claimed that I would receive a discount of around 18% on their ‘Standard Rate’. If I achieved this discount, it would represent one of the best rates on the market (and still does, I think).

In the first few months I was disappointed - as the discount achieved was around 12% - not the 18% claimed (see my post on 20th August). In response, Powershop did state that discounts were lower in the Summer months.

I have now been with Powershop for 9 months and am happy to say that my cumulative discount is over 21% - so I’ve exceeded my target – and I am not sure I could have found a better deal elsewhere? Powershop were true to their word that powerpack discounts would be significantly higher for winter months.

There is one big caveat, however: in order to achieve this discount I have had to pre-purchase powerpacks for future months – as these have the most generous discounts. This results in my account being significantly in credit - currently I have paid for electricity through to August 18.

griffb

rob879 wrote: »

In the first few months I was disappointed - as the discount achieved was around 12% - not the 18% claimed (see my post on 20th August)..

I'm the other way round - I joined December, so for the first 6 months to May I am well ahead of the next best supplier. Problem is for the following six months (based on the discount levels currently available) I will be well behind. Over the full 12 months I will probably still be ahead, but not by a vast amount.

The more I think about it the more I convince myself that I should jump ship at the end of April or May.
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[Deleted User]

Interesting their max has dropped from 5 to 4. Also rather cheeky they haven't informed customers - I'd view that as a rather significant change to the relationship.

Almost certainly justified within their T&Cs but still not good IMO.

My max is 4 x £1.39.... as my usage has been non-existent this winter (I've been at home about 15 nights out of 80 or 90). I am a full year ahead (at least!), but still. If that discount was 20%, why can't I buy 5 (or 4!) x £10... why it is 4 x £1.39 in line with my usage.

Luckily I'll almost certainly be moving on from my rental property by the time my stack of credit runs out - and as a homeowner, I'll hopefully pass credit scoring for a 'standard' tariff.

I may not get as good a deal elsewhere, or struggle to save as much money, but the manner in which these changes have been implemented are what bugs me - not the changes themselves.

I was unlikely to buy July future pack whether they let me buy 5 x £10 or 7 x £100... but taking it down to 4 x £1.39 is just taking the pee.

Tafrock

4 x 3.82 for me. Mere 10% discount. Even appetiser is renamed snack pack and is down from 28 up 24 percent.

I wasn't intending to buy any packs for a few months anyway to get my over 200 pounds credit down. This month's poor discounts makes that a whole lot easier

fewkeste

The low July Future Pack discount on offer (10.8%) confirms it was important to have maxed out on November, December, January and February Future Packs if funds were available at the time. This month I'll give the Simple Saver (10%) and the Jumbo (5.7%) a miss. I'm surprised the Jumbo discount is so low given how cold things are at present.

I'm guessing that when the August 2018 Future Packs are available they will probably be around the 12.8% level - similar to the May and June Future Packs.

Z0rba-cheeks

PS are giving quotes for a "Pilot" Gas supply now.

You can request to join the pilot through their Facebook page :

In response to this you get an email with an invitation to get a quote for Gas supply.

The basic figures that are quoting are as follows (applies to Yorkshire):

Daily Standing charge: 0.22155 pence per day
Standard Rate: 0.03875p per kWh
Powerpack Rate: 0.03108p per kWh

Very Disappointing!


My current supply is with Daligas who charge me:

Daily Standing charge: 0.21 pence per day and 0.0275p per kWh

So for my annual Gas consumption of 28,000 kWh the totals are:

Daligas

Annual cost = £846.65

Powershop

Shop for Powerpack offers - pay as little as £951.11 (+£104.46)
Easy Saver Promise - pay as much as £1033.43 (+£186.78)
Our standard price £1165.73 (+£319.08)

NOTE: The Bold Red figures are the PS estimates of the increase to my Gas bill if they supply me rather than Daligas!

So I'll not be taking up that offer!

It is also Very Disappointing! to see the sub-10% discounts being offered for the Simple Saver and the Jumbo packs.......
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PS: Where did the appetiser pack for March go? :eek:

fewkeste

Z0rba-cheeks wrote: »

PS: Where did the appetiser pack for March go? :eek:

I think they called it 'Snack Pack' this month. Someone else also pointed out the discount has dropped from 28% to 24%:mad:

Tafrock

I'm with zog for gas and I'm probably staying with them and going onto saturn 24 v1. Annual estimate is 445 for me. With no exit fee and fixed for 24 months. Standing charge with zog 10.5p (market leading i believe). Unit rate
2.973p.

I got a quote from. Powershop for gas and it's disappointing (at least 60 pounds dearer than zog). Standing charge is more than double zogs and that's the main difference

Here's my quote (west Midlands region)

The annual cost figures are based on the estimated usage figure of 13694 per year
Shop for Powerpack offers - pay as little as - £506.48 per year
Easy Saver Promise - pay as much as - £546.74 per year
Our standard price - £611.44
The applicable unit rates are below:
Easy saver rate: 3.108 pence per kWh
Easy Saver Promise rate: 3.402 pence per kWh
Standard rate: 3.875 pence per kWh
Daily standing charge: 22.155 pence per day

However For electricity I'm very happy with powershop I must say.

[Deleted User]

I wonder if you could trick Powershop into giving you a large discount.....

Enter a high reading (not ridiculous, but something dramatically higher than you actually use) - for example my annual is estimated at 1500kWh, and roughly 100kWh per month when I'm here for the whole month and it's not freezing cold!

If I entered say 350kWh for this month, would they calculate my account review and subsequent powerpack amount on that? E.g. my pathetic £1.39 would jump up to £8 or something as it's above their expected usage for me and they then re-calc everything??

Then correct the reading a few days after buying the powerpack....

Not ethical, but I don't think they way they've done these changes is ethical either.... They only send a reader round every 3 months as presumably they have to pay for it?? But they do reserve the right to refuse to accept any reading if they deem it too high or low!

Powershop now aren't the cheapest for me - Scottish Power are by about £5. Only issue I have is I'm sure my bills are cheaper than Uswitch predictions (as I piled in on the 20%+ discounts), and another credit check! Exit fee for Scottish Power too.

With my use it's all going to be similar, everyone is within about £15 of each other. For others, these paltry discounts could make a significant difference to ongoing custom - although I suspect that's what PS secretly want.

They don't want people like me building up a £180 credit balance at 20% discount (even if they are earning interest/investment income on it) - they want people who can't be bothered to do the easysaver, claim the 1st year guarantee and then stay past the first year because PS send them some good promo mails etc!

The advise on here to snap up all the winter discounts and 20%+ packs was certainly good advice. I wonder if it's worth doing ahead of next winter, as hopefully I won't be here for much longer but I know the supply is 'portable' - so that means my ridiculous credit balance will also be portable?? Run that down to near 0 (at whichever property I'm in) and then switch away I feel