Haggle for energy tariff

pipdus

Just wanted to pass on my experience when my energy deal came up for renewal. 

I was in the process of switching to Eon via cheap energy club as it seemed the best tariff. Needed to contact my existing supplier to clarify some info and during the call they said they wanted to try to retain me and would apply some discounts to my account to match what Eon were offering. I was surprised (pleasantly!) as although I always follow Martins advice and haggle when renewing car/home insurance, phone tariff etc but I’d always thought the tariff was the tariff for energy, hope this helps others. 

pipdus

PS my supplier in the message above was British Gas

[Deleted User]

pipdus said:

Just wanted to pass on my experience when my energy deal came up for renewal. 

I was in the process of switching to Eon via cheap energy club as it seemed the best tariff. Needed to contact my existing supplier to clarify some info and during the call they said they wanted to try to retain me and would apply some discounts to my account to match what Eon were offering. I was surprised (pleasantly!) as although I always follow Martins advice and haggle when renewing car/home insurance, phone tariff etc but I’d always thought the tariff was the tariff for energy, hope this helps others. 

What tariff are you now on and what ‘discounts’ were you offered? 

pipdus

Home Energy Fix Nov 21v3 and they then applied 15% discount and when I proved that Eon was still cheaper, they adjusted further to match Eon. Result! 

[Deleted User]

I do not doubt what you have been told but how do they intend to apply this discount? I hope that you have all the tariff/contract details in writing. I am slightly concerned that you have just been offered a low starting DD which the agent that you spoke to knows will increase overtime.

stewie_griffin

I hope you got them to confirm the unit prices and standing charge in writing.

phillw

pipdus said:

Home Energy Fix Nov 21v3 and they then applied 15% discount and when I proved that Eon was still cheaper, they adjusted further to match Eon. Result! 

I would double check they haven't put you on the Home Energy Fix Nov 21v3 tariff and then set your direct debit 20% too low for the energy you are using.
I don't know if British Gas sales did that, but Scottish Power tried that on with me to convince me to not switch away.

bagand96

There was another thread recently where someone else stated the same...that BG had offered a 15% discount.

I suppose in theory there's nothing to stop them doing it... generate a bill as per the tariff then apply a 15% discount to it. 

BG may be doing it to retain business. The sceptic in me thinks they may also hope people forget when it expires, or that it makes people confused when it comes to comparing tariffs...

glennevis

I wasn't aware you could haggle tariffs and was assuming BG either tweaked the quoted DD amount to make it appear 15% cheaper, or were referring to a discount for using DD instead of manual payment.

But checking the Ofgem rules on tariffs, they refer to mutual variation  and state "Suppliers must write to the customer within five days setting out the mutual variation that was agreed with the customer." which looks like haggling is permitted.

It would be helpful if the OP could confirm they did receive confirmation of their negotiated discount.

[Deleted User]

The mutual variation of contract paragraph in SLCs has been there for years. It covers the situation where the consumer and the supplier agree to a tariff change which clearly does not involve a transfer of supply. As far as I know, the rules on discounts haven’t changed but I am happy to be proved wrong. Before committing to any agreed contact then I would want to know 5 things: the daily standing charge; the unit price; the term of the contract; exit fees or not and, most importantly, how any discount would be applied. I would want to see this in writing. 

It is worth remembering that mutual variations of contract have no ‘cooling off’ period. Finally, in the past, discounts such as dual fuel or for DD payments were applied to the daily standing charge and even in a fixed term contract, the standing charge could increase if say a DD mandate was revoked.

pipdus

I was careful to check standing charges and unit rates with them. It’s not simply a reduction in DD (in fact it’s set the same for now) but at each bill point they will apply a 15% discount for energy used (so not standing charge) and they confirmed in writing. Bottom line is, i secured a better deal than they (British Gas) were originally offering as my existing supplier, it’s about the same (if anything marginally cheaper) than the Eon deal which originally looked like the best and if you’ve seen my other post you’ll know that Eon were a nightmare to deal with so all in all I’m glad to be staying put.
just thought the info might be useful to others. 🙂