Four more small energy firms could go bust next week (c. 20/09/21)

dolphindiver

Martin always says your credit is protected if a supplier goes bust but what if… having sold the house, we have a final bill in credit as we are no longer supplied by the energy company. They don’t have a new address on file. They owe us that credit back but the ten days has long been and gone. What if they go bust, is the credit still protected even if I am not supplied by them at the time of them going bust?

wakeupalarm

acc said:

The total customers for the four firms mentioned is one million, which rules out firms in the top 14.

https://powercompare.co.uk/energy-suppliers/ Powercompare lists the top 14 firms as:

<snip>

The industry sources' prediction that there may be as few as ten firms left by the end of this year would suggest that anyone switching now should be looking mainly at only the top six or so.

That list is a few years out of date. First Utility and Green star energy were taken over by Shell, Co-op energy was taken over by Octopus, and Npower is now part of eon Next.

Avro are the 9th largest Energy supplier currently with around 550,000 accounts.

FreeBear

ewokuk said: I am considering jumping quickly to one of the big ones before they make any announcements and I get stuck on another crap tariff for weeks or months with whoever they dump me on this time.  What do people think?

I had initiated a switch away from TOTO the clowns just before they went bust. It took a while to get the electricity moved because they kept blocking it for some unknown reason... Eventually went through on the day they went bust.

Was very annoyed when EDF then popped up saying "we have taken over your supply" - Some strongly worded emails soon got that fixed. Two years on, and EDF have yet to issue a correct final bill for the closing month(s) I was with TOTO.

Waiting to see if my current supplier is one of the four at risk - Started a switch last week, so fingers crossed, I don't have a repeat of the TOTO/EDF saga.

ewokuk

masonic said:

ewokuk said:

I am considering jumping quickly to one of the big ones before they make any announcements and I get stuck on another crap tariff for weeks or months with whoever they dump me on this time.  What do people think?  Obviously the risk is Avro are fine and I just end up paying more for no reason, the advantage is if Avro do go bust I avoid messing about for months with whatever provider I get dumped on and probably end up saving money as whatever tariff people get moved to will not be a good one.

There is a cooling off period, so you could take this approach and cancel if Avro are ok. It usually takes a couple of days between a supplier going into administration and the SoLR being appointed, so potentially time to get in first with a switch to a different supplier if you keep abreast of developments, but this is not guaranteed.

Yep, I have gone with E.on.  No early exit fee so I can ditch it in a few months when cheaper ones start coming out.  I have 14 days to cancel from when I get the welcome pack so that probably gives me until about 6th October (They are taking the first payment on 5th Oct so I will likely try to cancel on Monday 4th if Avro are still ok).  If I haven't heard anything about Avro by then, I will just cancel the switch.

Of course e.on have pretty poor service ratings so no doubt it will be fun and games if I do need to cancel it.

smugwalrus

dolphindiver said:

Martin always says your credit is protected if a supplier goes bust but what if… having sold the house, we have a final bill in credit as we are no longer supplied by the energy company. They don’t have a new address on file. They owe us that credit back but the ten days has long been and gone. What if they go bust, is the credit still protected even if I am not supplied by them at the time of them going bust?

You'll get there eventually.  I had similar with Yorkshire Energy.  New supply went live before they entered administration and they had not yet produced a final bill for me.  Possibly 2 months getting the final bill produced from the few YE staff left, who then said it was passed to Scottish Power - who had no record of it. id move house 3 times but kept SP updated on my moves by email.

poppellerant

I will be amazed if Green don't go bust, if not this month then next.  I got the impression that they were struggling and their staff were very stressed on the phone.

bristolleedsfan

ewokuk said:

masonic said:

ewokuk said:

I am considering jumping quickly to one of the big ones before they make any announcements and I get stuck on another crap tariff for weeks or months with whoever they dump me on this time.  What do people think?  Obviously the risk is Avro are fine and I just end up paying more for no reason, the advantage is if Avro do go bust I avoid messing about for months with whatever provider I get dumped on and probably end up saving money as whatever tariff people get moved to will not be a good one.

There is a cooling off period, so you could take this approach and cancel if Avro are ok. It usually takes a couple of days between a supplier going into administration and the SoLR being appointed, so potentially time to get in first with a switch to a different supplier if you keep abreast of developments, but this is not guaranteed.

Yep, I have gone with E.on.  No early exit fee so I can ditch it in a few months when cheaper ones start coming out.  I have 14 days to cancel from when I get the welcome pack so that probably gives me until about 6th October (They are taking the first payment on 5th Oct so I will likely try to cancel on Monday 4th if Avro are still ok).  If I haven't heard anything about Avro by then, I will just cancel the switch.

Of course e.on have pretty poor service ratings so no doubt it will be fun and games if I do need to cancel it.

What makes you think cheaper prices in a few months when April 1st cap increase is tipped to be around £280, the more suppliers that go bust the more expensive remaining suppliers will become, if 4 go bust next week more will probably go bust subsequent weeks

You seem to be confusing original E.on platform with new platform built using Octopus Energy Kraken  technology, customer service operates exactly the same as O.E, freephone 0808 same operating hours. as is customer services via social media and email https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/eonnext.com

maddoglewis

I'm no longer with Avro but they owe me £304. Am I likely to ever see this money again if they go bust?

Swipe

If Symbio goes bust I may actually get my final bill credit balance back

spot1034

maddoglewis said:

I'm no longer with Avro but they owe me £304. Am I likely to ever see this money again if they go bust?

Yes, whoever took over as 'supplier of last resort' would be responsible for dealing with this, but don't expect it to be a quick process!