Atlantic Gas and Electric - 'Free' month

Froglet

I agree with you Andrew,they are the best for customer service,and a great price for gas,but as we are low users of gas but high on electricity I am waiting till i get my end of year rebate then i am going to compare the electric prices elsewhere.

Real shame as i have been with them for 2 years and cannot fault them but does anyone else think their prices for electric are a bit steep?

espresso

Froglet wrote: »

Real shame as i have been with them for 2 years and cannot fault them but does anyone else think their prices for electric are a bit steep?

They split their prices into 14 different regions for electricity, so it depends where you are located.

Froglet

Why DO prices vary so much from one region to another? Surely the cost of electricity cannot vary that much for the different regions,unless it is like the south east and london areas for housing,for example.

Terrylw1

Elec prices have always been that way since deregulation.

Initially some regions were much higher than others.

You have to think about how a Supplier is operating. They may wish to grab as many customers in one region more than another. Suppliers are also notorious for targeting social groups e.g. they go through stages of grabbing as many househlds using over X pounds as opposed to targetting lower income households.

Suppliers also have to pay charges back to the Distributor and these can vary. Also, some Suppliers had an old PES area e.g. Npower was MEB so since they started having the most registered customers at dereg, they would get the best deal due to the bulk factor.

There are also more complicated factors such as Group Correction Factors. This is where you get into the very complex stuff behind the industry an how all parties exist & pay charges. GC factor (and other smoothing factors) mean the Supplier with the largest customer base in a grid region gets the most correction factor (a type of energy refund in very simple terms) so smaller SUppliers in those regions lose out.

You have to remembed that they have to buy energy as well as you so bigger players in a region have more weight and also get bigger refunds like this. So, they can then be more competetive.

Then you've got the greed factor on top.

zalek

andrew-b wrote: »

I asked for how much we would get back as i had recently changed the direct debit as we had been paying too little for electric and too much for gas (received a £120 refund for overpayments on gas!)

So they refund what you overpaid? Would that mean I could set up a direct debit like 200 for gas and 200 electric and they would return me what I overpaid over last 12 months?

If that's correct, that would be a best deal on the market in the whole world - if you were going to have a saving account into which you would be paying £400 each month (the same amount you pay for your bills) the interest would have to be 14.77% tax free to match this offer.

So maybe I should start making overpayments for my gas and electric instead of putting my money into saving accounts.

espresso

zalek wrote: »

So they refund what you overpaid? Would that mean I could set up a direct debit like 200 for gas and 200 electric and they would return me what I overpaid over last 12 months?

If that's correct, that would be a best deal on the market in the whole world - if you were going to have a saving account into which you would be paying £400 each month (the same amount you pay for your bills) the interest would have to be 14.77% tax free to match this offer.

So maybe I should start making overpayments for my gas and electric instead of putting my money into saving accounts.

I think that you have misunderstood!

:rolleyes:

i_like_shoes

I've just had my bill in for gas and electric, and how come my electric is double my gas when i mainly use gas for heating and cooking????

espresso

i_like_shoes wrote: »

I've just had my bill in for gas and electric, and how come my electric is double my gas when i mainly use gas for heating and cooking????

Is this bill based on actual readings or estimated?

zalek

espresso wrote: »

I think that you have misunderstood!

:rolleyes:

What do you mean by misunderstood? It states plainly that:
"Rebate paid in month 13 after 12 month's continuous supply and annually thereafter. Amount based on average of total payments made over the preceding 12 months."

So it's not based on usage, as they assumpstion is (my guess) that more people underpay for the utilities rather than overpay.

If I missed something could you please tell me what it is?
Because even if they don't pay you back what you overpaid, you can always switch suppliers (after getting the rebate into your account) and after receiving final bill they would have to pay you back that overpayment.

espresso

zalek wrote: »

What do you mean by misunderstood? It states plainly that:
"Rebate paid in month 13 after 12 month's continuous supply and annually thereafter. Amount based on average of total payments made over the preceding 12 months."

So it's not based on usage, as they assumpstion is (my guess) that more people underpay for the utilities rather than overpay.

If I missed something could you please tell me what it is?

You seem to think that you can fiddle the loyalty scheme by increasing your payments!

One month free in one year, works out at 8% discount.

:rolleyes: