Alternatives to SSE Superdeal tariff?

Shedman

My stepdaughter is in a rented flat in Southampton which has Storage heaters so has a 3 rate meter and has meant she has been on Superdeal tariff. We did manage to find an M&S Energy 2 year fix (supplied thro SSE) at a 'reasonable' rate (with an M&S voucher incentive as well) back in Aug 2017 but we're coming up to renewal time.

I've been looking at what's available but there now only seems to be SSE themselves that has Superdeal tariffs (M&S Energy now supplied through Octopus). The SSE tariffs are considerably higher than her current rates and would mean a 40%+ increase in her Electricity bills, which would be nearly £850 for a 1 bed flat !!

As it's a rented flat she can't arrange for the heaters etc to be rewired (and I don't think landlords would pay) which I think would need to be done to allow her to go onto say a single rate or E7 and move to a cheaper supplier. (I think SSE may possibly have a single rate tariff that can be applied to Day,Night and Stored bands but when I costed this up using her total annual KWH their standard tariff it was even higher)

Does anyone have any knowledge or ideas as to whether there are any alternatives or is she just stuck on this uncompetitive Superdeal tariff through one supplier.?

Flt._Lt._Biggles

Shedman wrote: »

My stepdaughter is in a rented flat in Southampton which has Storage heaters so has a 3 rate meter and has meant she has been on Superdeal tariff. We did manage to find an M&S Energy 2 year fix (supplied thro SSE) at a 'reasonable' rate (with an M&S voucher incentive as well) back in Aug 2017 but we're coming up to renewal time.

I've been looking at what's available but there now only seems to be SSE themselves that has Superdeal tariffs (M&S Energy now supplied through Octopus). The SSE tariffs are considerably higher than her current rates and would mean a 40%+ increase in her Electricity bills, which would be nearly £850 for a 1 bed flat !!

As it's a rented flat she can't arrange for the heaters etc to be rewired (and I don't think landlords would pay) which I think would need to be done to allow her to go onto say a single rate or E7 and move to a cheaper supplier. (I think SSE may possibly have a single rate tariff that can be applied to Day,Night and Stored bands but when I costed this up using her total annual KWH their standard tariff it was even higher)

Does anyone have any knowledge or ideas as to whether there are any alternatives or is she just stuck on this uncompetitive Superdeal tariff through one supplier.?

You should never have moved your daughter away from SSE - they are the only supplier obligated to support that type of metering in that region, and they are not obligated to take on new (including returning) customers with such metering.

You can ask SSE and see what they say.
Or if M&S were prepared to take on your stepdaughter for the last year, stay with them.

If your setepdaughter doesn't like the prices, then she can move.

Let's hope the landlord doesn't take exception to messing up the energy supply to the property - it could be very expensive to remedy. :eek:

Shedman

Flt._Lt._Biggles wrote: »

You should never have moved your daughter away from SSE - they are the only supplier obligated to support that type of metering in that region, and they are not obligated to take on new (including returning) customers with such metering.

You can ask SSE and see what they say.
Or if M&S were prepared to take on your stepdaughter for the last year, stay with them.

If your setepdaughter doesn't like the prices, then she can move.

Let's hope the landlord doesn't take exception to messing up the energy supply to the property - it could be very expensive to remedy. :eek:

The energy supply hasn't been 'messed up' so your concerns are fortunately not relevant. The M&S Energy deal is supplied by and billed by SSE - it's seems to be effectively one of their tariffs so there is no issue about having moved away from SSE.

As to "If your setepdaughter doesn't like the prices, then she can move." if you mean move suppliers well that's exactly the issue...there is nobody else unless you or someone else knows something to the contrary. (However if you mean move flat.. well that's not exactly a helpful response).

[Deleted User]

Hi,


Scottish Power do a 3 rate meter, day/night/control.

Flt._Lt._Biggles

Shedman wrote: »

The energy supply hasn't been 'messed up' so your concerns are fortunately not relevant. The M&S Energy deal is supplied by and billed by SSE - it's seems to be effectively one of their tariffs so there is no issue about having moved away from SSE.

As to "If your setepdaughter doesn't like the prices, then she can move." if you mean move suppliers well that's exactly the issue...there is nobody else unless you or someone else knows something to the contrary. (However if you mean move flat.. well that's not exactly a helpful response).

Precisely - the energy supply has been messed up because there is now no one else to move to. The only supplier who is obligated to support the current metering is under no obligation to accept new customers (including returning customers) with that metering.

It matters not that M&S is a whote label - your daughter is now a customer of that white label.

But that was not what I meant by 'move'.
By move, I mean physically move i.e. move to another rented property, hence the comment about hoping the existing landlord doesn;t take issue when he finds out what you have done.

Flt._Lt._Biggles

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,


Scottish Power do a 3 rate meter, day/night/control.

Yes, I think all 5 of the Big 6 suppliers has a similar tariff for existing customers in their legacy supply region

But the tariffs are not transferrable, in part because the way they work is often not the same region to region.

This topic has been discussed ad nauseam on this board in the past - no point repeating it all again

jk0

I'm wondering how o/p's daughter managed to move supplier from SSE with a 3 rate meter anyway.



One of my tenants did this also. He moved from SSE Flexiheat to Utility Warehouse Economy 7. The F***wits charge him rate 1 use at Day rate, rate 2 use at night rate, and ignore rate 3 (stored heat) altogether!


He is very happy!

Shedman

Just to clarify as there is perhaps some confusion as she hasn't moved away from a 3 rate tariff..the M&S Fixed tariff I referred to was in fact seemingly just another Superdeal tariff supplied on behalf of M&S Energy through SSE (all bills are coming from SSE on their paperwork and under the Personal Projection bit they state "you're already on our cheapest Fixed tariff" which clearly indicates to me it's one of their tariffs). I might have mislead into thinking she had moved off a 3 rate deal by not giving the full description of the M&S Energy tariff..my apologies. I can now see why Flt Lt Biggles rightly raised his concerns.

Anyway from what I am understanding and reading from this and other sources it does seem that unfortunately, without getting the meters and/or wiring changed (with landlords consent if required naturally) she is stuck on whatever the best 3 rate deal that SSE can offer come renewal in August

jk0

£850 pa sounds relatively cheap to me for an electrically heated flat. I tend to have the rent maybe £50 pcm less for mine than similar gas heated ones. This compensates tenant for the higher bills. Is your daughter's landlord possibly of the same mind as me?

Shedman

jk0 wrote: »

£850 pa sounds relatively cheap to me for an electrically heated flat.

I'll let you convince her of that one lol :rotfl:

Looking back over the 3.5 years she's been in the flat it looks like she's actually been on the same level of tariff throughout so I guess she's done well - it's just that the 'catch up' (ie the change up to new tariff) is rather steep (extra £250 a year to find out of a nurses income when on your own hits hard).

She has also been fortunate that her rent hasn't risen in that time so I guess it's swings and roundabouts as she could be £50-60 a month worse off on rent by now (not that she sees it that way either...)

jk0

EnergyTwist wrote: »

Annual bill of £850, and you are giving your tenants £600 pa rent discount compared to otherwise normal market rates,and that's ignoring the fact you have allowed your tenant to switch supplier, and now only pay 2/3rds of the electricity consumed (probably significantly less than that!) - a switch that will end up costing you a small fortune

And you wonder if other landords are of the same mind?
No - the good landlords are good business operators ... and the bad ones usually just want to get as much money out of their tenants as possible for little or no expenditure.

I didn't 'let' my tenant switch. I don't have just the one flat. Nor are the bills usually anything like £850 per year, but higher. Thank you for your input.