People's Energy Hacked!

gachilleos

Hi,
I am one of the customers for the energy provider, People's Energy, who were recently hacked due to a data breach. Although they claim my data and info weren't stolen, I feel unsafe remaining as one of their customers. I originally signed up using the "Look after my bills" website which stated I would have a £200 saving for the year except they already put my direct debit up from £56 per month to £90 something a month and now want to increase it to £113 per month. As I am in a contract for a year (from August 2020) am I able to leave without facing any penalties due to the data breach? Is that a breach of their condition or contract? In the T&C I can't see any paragraph dealing with this issue.
Kind regards,
George

Hasbeen

Look after my bills LOL.
Do it yourself. More control! No you cannot leave free regardless of any data breach to you.

People's Energy data breach affects all 270,000 customers - BBC News

Did you input actual annual usage or just go for the DD amount or how many bedrooms scenario?
What tariff you are now on depends on what penalties you face for leaving.
What does your contract say? regardless of any breach you will have to pay if your contract has penalty fees.
Initially £56 per month for what Gas? Electric? Both?  That is very under priced if both?
Do you provide monthly readings or check consumption against what you are being billed?

btr30

It will be £30 per utility to leave early

MWT

gachilleos said:

I originally signed up using the "Look after my bills" website which stated I would have a £200 saving for the year except they already put my direct debit up from £56 per month to £90 something a month and now want to increase it to £113 per month.

Firstly, if you do switch away from them make sure you cancel your account with LAMB or 12 months from the day you joined People's Energy you'll find they will switch you away from wherever it is you've manually switch to, potentially causing you to pay penalties for leaving in the middle of your contract.

Secondly, don't confuse your DD payments with your bills. You could still be making a saving over staying with your previous provider, but your DD will always be adjusted to reflect your actual usage, so you can't just take your initial DD payment multiply by 12 and assume that is your cost for the year...

[Deleted User]

Price Comparison Websites and auto switching sites can legally make claims such as ‘ Mrs A saved £300 a year by switching a year ago, and is saving a further £200 by switching again today’. As the OP has found out, the savings have ended up costing more. Why - because the switching site bases its savings on the a simple comparison with a supplier’s standard variable (expensive) tariff. This methodology is approved by Ofgem.