have i / am i being ripped off by scottish power

jakebullet64

Hi there, im new to the forum. just wondering if you could clarify for me a few things re my bill?
i have been with scottish power, duel fuel, online for just over 18 months now, for the first year we were paying £78 ish per month for both. 6 months ago our DD was hiked up to £194 ish per month??? i called them and they said that due to our winter use, we now owed them £800ish?? (we live in a 3 bed semi, DG all round, combi boiler, loft double insulated, walls insulated). and the increase was to clear this?
ive tracked our useage and bar a short period mid year, our gas & lectric use is lower than before.

we're definitly going to switch as our current balance today is £12 in credit??

any help advice is greatly appreciated
jake

alwaysonthego_2

are the readings on your bill estimates? or do they tally with your meter readings?

A_Nice_Englishman

It sounds like they may have quoted an unrealistically low monthly payment to get your business. It's a common sales tactic among energy suppliers.

barnaby-bear

jakebullet64 wrote: »

Hi there, im new to the forum. just wondering if you could clarify for me a few things re my bill?
i have been with scottish power, duel fuel, online for just over 18 months now, for the first year we were paying £78 ish per month for both. 6 months ago our DD was hiked up to £194 ish per month??? i called them and they said that due to our winter use, we now owed them £800ish?? (we live in a 3 bed semi, DG all round, combi boiler, loft double insulated, walls insulated). and the increase was to clear this?
ive tracked our useage and bar a short period mid year, our gas & lectric use is lower than before.

we're definitly going to switch as our current balance today is £12 in credit??

any help advice is greatly appreciated
jake

Duel fuel with SP on a 3-bed 1960s detached with DG, old wall insulation and old loft insulation (survey says 6inch rahter than recommended current) and we are hitting £60 on average - summer was coming in at £40. We have a dishwasher, tumble dryer. Boiler is a 15 year old back boiler. Electric shower and a tank of hot water for baths a day.

jakebullet64

thank you for your replies.
ive spent some time this morning looking through our previous bills, readings and payments. ive copied the tables and data from the site.

is it appropriate for me to put this info in this thread?

before we were with Sp, we were with BG. paymants were around the £75 mark, no online discounts etc and we were never in debt with them.

some of the readings were estimates, some were inputted by me onto the website. 1 was an actual read.


thanks you

jake

SwanJon

How long ago were you with BG? If you've been paying the same for a couple of years, you've not kept up with some of the price rises, so this would explain the balance, although it if your last bills havn't been estimated they should have spotted it sooner.
Ask them to spread it over as long as it took to build up - it may take longer, but you'll be paying less each month (hopefully)

oramgepekoe

Scottish Power introduced a new tariff in about May this year, Online Energy Saver 4. If you're not on it then look at the details on the website and if you want to switch send them an email.

I enter my Scottish Power readings online on the first of every month so I can see exactly where I am and can compare to the same month the previous year.

Horace

One thing I have noticed with Scottish Power - they love their estimated readings! I have provided readings to them yet what bemuses me is that their start reading will still be estimated call me thick but I would have thought that the readings would follow on i.e. what was the last reading would be come the start reading for the next month?

At least their power is cheaper than NPower who charge 11p per kwh as opposed to 8p. They are also helping me with a problem of NPower's making whereby all the meters in my block of flats were incorrectly allocated.

jackieb

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

It sounds like they may have quoted an unrealistically low monthly payment to get your business. It's a common sales tactic among energy suppliers.

Unfortunately, I find this to be true. When I started with the Hydro-Electric I had to pay £30 a month for electric and £27 for gas. I always thought it wasn't enough. The gas went up to £56 a month and the electric went up to £75 a month. Just a month or two ago my electric payments have went up to £101 a month and they wanted to put my gas up by £1 to £57, despite being £133 in credit with them. I phoned to ask why and they graciously dropped it back to £56 a month for the gas. :rolleyes:

I've paid by direct debits for over 10 years with various companies and I always seem to get stung when I shift. I never miss a direct debit either. I'm staying put for a while to see if I can regulate the payments a bit. The new companies always promise you lower payments but forget to mention that you'll end up paying more to catch up. :mad:

Terrylw1

Hi Horace,

Could it be because you have submitted a reading half way through your quarter? If so, Ofgem have advised Suppliers before that they should record them for info only since it could cause your bills to jump for the next quarter.

If you have done it within a week or two of getting your bill, no reason why they can't send you a new one. Your readings actually make their automated estimation more accurate for the future so they should be happy!

lizc

jackieb wrote: »

I've paid by direct debits for over 10 years with various companies and I always seem to get stung when I shift. I never miss a direct debit either. I'm staying put for a while to see if I can regulate the payments a bit. The new companies always promise you lower payments but forget to mention that you'll end up paying more to catch up. :mad:

I've found this too. I've switched three times in three years and each time, after 3to 6 months, the supplier has decided that my payments won't cover my usage. In the long run I've saved nothing. I'm now querying the whole point of switching - just seems a lot of effort for nothing.