MSE News: People's Energy and Utility Point the latest energy suppliers to cease trading

MoJoeGo

MoJoeGo said:

spot1034 said:

Still no announcement about who is to be the SOLR to Peoples Energy customers. Utility Point went out of business on the same day yet their SOLR was appointed yesterday. Similar announcements have been made over the weekend before so that is not the reason for the delay. 

The FT are now suggesting that a special administrator might be appointed to run a  failed supplier if a SOLR cannot be found.

https://www.ft.com/content/19fddb9d-8123-4f0c-9e46-909cac4a55b6

I was thinking the same thing about the delay here, but I'm seeing it as a positive for 2 reasons

1) The longer it takes, the longer we can reasonably argue that the existing (very very cheap) PE tariff applies. I'm at the point of taking daily meter readings so I can keep a live view of my balance.

2) If there's no SOLR, then less chance that my switch out to Sainsbury will be blocked.

So I'm happy to sit tight...

So with ofgem just tweeting that British Gas will be taking over as SOLR for PE tomorrow, I think that's the key date to take meter reads and plug them in to the PE website to get a live balance.

Because after that, BG can effectively charge whatever tariff they like, and it's a dead very they will like it more than we will!

brook_heather

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-appoints-british-gas-take-customers-peoples-energy

brook_heather

MoJoeGo said:

So with ofgem just tweeting that British Gas will be taking over as SOLR for PE tomorrow, I think that's the key date to take meter reads and plug them in to the PE website to get a live balance.

Because after that, BG can effectively charge whatever tariff they like, and it's a dead very they will like it more than we will!

BG are actually taking over from yesterday:
People’s Energy customers will be supplied by British Gas as of 19 September 2021.

MoJoeGo

brook_heather said:

MoJoeGo said:

So with ofgem just tweeting that British Gas will be taking over as SOLR for PE tomorrow, I think that's the key date to take meter reads and plug them in to the PE website to get a live balance.

Because after that, BG can effectively charge whatever tariff they like, and it's a dead very they will like it more than we will!

BG are actually taking over from yesterday:
People’s Energy customers will be supplied by British Gas as of 19 September 2021.

Hmmm.........

[Deleted User]

MoJoeGo said:

MoJoeGo said:

spot1034 said:

Still no announcement about who is to be the SOLR to Peoples Energy customers. Utility Point went out of business on the same day yet their SOLR was appointed yesterday. Similar announcements have been made over the weekend before so that is not the reason for the delay. 

The FT are now suggesting that a special administrator might be appointed to run a  failed supplier if a SOLR cannot be found.

https://www.ft.com/content/19fddb9d-8123-4f0c-9e46-909cac4a55b6

I was thinking the same thing about the delay here, but I'm seeing it as a positive for 2 reasons

1) The longer it takes, the longer we can reasonably argue that the existing (very very cheap) PE tariff applies. I'm at the point of taking daily meter readings so I can keep a live view of my balance.

2) If there's no SOLR, then less chance that my switch out to Sainsbury will be blocked.

So I'm happy to sit tight...

So with ofgem just tweeting that British Gas will be taking over as SOLR for PE tomorrow, I think that's the key date to take meter reads and plug them in to the PE website to get a live balance.

Because after that, BG can effectively charge whatever tariff they like, and it's a dead very they will like it more than we will!

Charge what they like - not quite. From the Ofgem Regulations:

Deemed contracts and customer balances

3.23. Ofgem policy: A failed supplier’s customers should not generally expect to be protected from paying increased prices. However, deemed contracts can reflect no more than the reasonable costs of supply (including costs attributable to the purchase of gas or electricity at short notice), together with a reasonable profit.

MoJoeGo

Dolor said:

MoJoeGo said:

MoJoeGo said:

spot1034 said:

Still no announcement about who is to be the SOLR to Peoples Energy customers. Utility Point went out of business on the same day yet their SOLR was appointed yesterday. Similar announcements have been made over the weekend before so that is not the reason for the delay. 

The FT are now suggesting that a special administrator might be appointed to run a  failed supplier if a SOLR cannot be found.

https://www.ft.com/content/19fddb9d-8123-4f0c-9e46-909cac4a55b6

I was thinking the same thing about the delay here, but I'm seeing it as a positive for 2 reasons

1) The longer it takes, the longer we can reasonably argue that the existing (very very cheap) PE tariff applies. I'm at the point of taking daily meter readings so I can keep a live view of my balance.

2) If there's no SOLR, then less chance that my switch out to Sainsbury will be blocked.

So I'm happy to sit tight...

So with ofgem just tweeting that British Gas will be taking over as SOLR for PE tomorrow, I think that's the key date to take meter reads and plug them in to the PE website to get a live balance.

Because after that, BG can effectively charge whatever tariff they like, and it's a dead very they will like it more than we will!

Charge what they like - not quite. From the Ofgem Regulations:

Deemed contracts and customer balances

3.23. Ofgem policy: A failed supplier’s customers should not generally expect to be protected from paying increased prices. However, deemed contracts can reflect no more than the reasonable costs of supply (including costs attributable to the purchase of gas or electricity at short notice), together with a reasonable profit.

Alright, perhaps a touch of hyperbole in my post, and yes, I read up on that regulation after Simplicity went bust. Point being though, whatever tariff we are moved to, it's going to be a lot more expensive than the legacy PE one. 

And I'm also sure it will also be quite a bit more expensive than the Sainsbury/EON one I'm hopefully switching to in 2 weeks...

Given the time it took, you wonder how willing BG were as SoLR here...

ichigo21

aruck said:

I am sure I was in credit but I do not have a statement and utility point website is down. How do I find out what my balance was?  Will the new appointed provider know when they contact me?

I had the same issue but website is back up now now, so I've downloaded my last few statements. -- Pleasant surprise that the Utility Point website came up again after the shock of hearing they ceased trading. 

ichigo21

I was with Utility Point and I have a balance in credit. They ceased trading 14/9 but I didn't realise until 15/9 - so that's when I checked my bank account. I was really surprised to see they took the monthly direct debit that day - 15/9 -- that's after they ceased trading. Can they do that ? I've cancelled the DD now.

But then - when the UP website came back up - I got my statement for September dated 16/9. Normally the monthly direct debit is on there and the balance calculated accordingly, but the 16/9 statement, which presumably is the one that will get sent over to EDF, is missing the direct debit taken on 15/9. Although the actual credit balance I know is protected, I'm afraid if that only works for the balance on the statement (rather than the correct balance - 1 payment more in credit than they show).  Am I ever going to get that payment back ?  And how ?

Also was I really unlucky my direct debit was so close to the date they ceased trading, or did Utility Point set it up to charge everyone the day after they went out of business?  Even if they did that surely, surely it should be explicitly on the account and the relevant statement - not  mysteriously hidden.

I'm really worried that latest payment looks like it slipped out of my bank account without showing up anywhere on my account.

t0rt0ise

ichigo21 said:

I was with Utility Point and I have a balance in credit. They ceased trading 14/9 but I didn't realise until 15/9 - so that's when I checked my bank account. I was really surprised to see they took the monthly direct debit that day - 15/9 -- that's after they ceased trading. Can they do that ? I've cancelled the DD now.

But then - when the UP website came back up - I got my statement for September dated 16/9. Normally the monthly direct debit is on there and the balance calculated accordingly, but the 16/9 statement, which presumably is the one that will get sent over to EDF, is missing the direct debit taken on 15/9. Although the actual credit balance I know is protected, I'm afraid if that only works for the balance on the statement (rather than the correct balance - 1 payment more in credit than they show).  Am I ever going to get that payment back ?  And how ?

Also was I really unlucky my direct debit was so close to the date they ceased trading, or did Utility Point set it up to charge everyone the day after they went out of business?  Even if they did that surely, surely it should be explicitly on the account and the relevant statement - not  mysteriously hidden.

I'm really worried that latest payment looks like it slipped out of my bank account without showing up anywhere on my account.

You could use the direct debit guarantee and get it back via your bank. 

gt94sss2

ichigo21 said:

I'm really worried that latest payment looks like it slipped out of my bank account without showing up anywhere on my account.

It will be fine. Your entire balance including the latest payment will be protected by the SoLR