ScottishPower £200 upto £650!!!!!!!!!!!!! a month.

t0rt0ise

Mrs_Bones said:

Paulcortina said:

As my current fixed rate deal is coming to a end soon I thought I would check my options with Scottish power.I was aware that prices would rise but by £450 a month!!!!!!  £650 This is more then my mortgage.
my predicted annual usage is 
gas 23206 kWh

Electric 5103 kWh

its a 4 bedroom house but it’s empty all day and there’s only 2x adults and 1x toddler.
How are people meant to pay theses prices?

Ouch that is steep, you've got my sympathy. I had to do same with Scottish power (SP) on Monday, the sharp rise didn't help my breathing. My house is smaller than yours, yet being house bound and being affect by cold my energy usage is high, especially in winter, even when I'm doing my best to keep it down. Mine has now gone up by £325 per month, fixed rate for two years, that is way more than doubled my previous monthly cost.

Knowing the rate I was on was finishing at the end of March I've been checking the rates via SP and comparisons sites since February. There were not many deals around in Feb., now it's a desert. In Feb. the deals on the comparisons sites were hardly any different to the ones on offer from SP, some were even higher. Every few days I did a check around for prices it seemed to jump up another £50. Now most of the comparison sites just say "sorry they can't offer deals now due to the volatility of the energy markets and suggest you stick with your current provider and they hope to be able to help you switch again soon". I tried going direct to different suppliers and they were either not accepting new customers or wanted an even higher price. On Monday decided I had to bite the bullet and sort it out. SP online offered me just two deals with only a £1 difference between them and said they best they could offer, but I rang to speak to them direct to see if they could better it (Note the message on the phone said there was a two hour wait which nearly put me off waiting to speak to them but thought I'd give them a little while and got put through in 10 minutes.). It took a while talking to them but I managed to get the price down £9 per month from their original offers online. It was still a steep jump up but £9 off is better than nothing, do try ringing them to see if they can do better from what they first say is their best offer online.

I keep a record of my meter readings each month and have to be fair and say that their figures did match with my actual readings. There is always the option of changing to variable rate which may work out cheaper if you can lessen your energy usage. Personally that would not work for me as I like peace of mind of what my bill will be and work around that for everything else.

But what they ask for by way of monthly direct debit makes no difference. It's the cost of each kWh used that matters. Getting your payment down by £9 means nothing if it then doesn't cover the cost of what you use. You will still have to pay for it. What is the cost per kWh and standing charge of the tariff that you have taken?

bigfer

Regardless of the cost, I would never again use Scottish Power. One of the worst companies to deal with and I include Ryanair and virgin media on that list.

EssexHebridean

Phantom151 said:

I would suggest you are missing the point of these quotes. The companies that are offering the ridiculous priced ones don't expect you to actually take them. Bonus for them if you do but they pricethem so high that nobody will agree to them. Same as someone quoting you stuoid money to do a small job.

The problem is that in a lot of cases they are being posed as the only option people have - we see it here day on day at the moment. IMO they should HAVE to put any fixes that are being offered alongside the variable so people can get a full comparison, not just give the impression that the fixes are all that is on the table.

Robin9 said:

Paulcortina said:

As my current fixed rate deal is coming to a end soon I thought I would check my options with Scottish power.I was aware that prices would rise but by £450 a month!!!!!!  £650 This is more then my mortgage.
my predicted annual usage is 
gas 23206 kWh

Electric 5103 kWh

its a 4 bedroom house but it’s empty all day and there’s only 2x adults and 1x toddler.
How are people meant to pay theses prices?

Forget these estimates  - what do your own readings tell you ? Read your meters ASAP and look back in your old statements to find some ACTUAL readings about 12 months ago. Do some simple sums and let us know what  your annual consumption actually is .

Absolutely this. It might be that you already read your meters at least once a month and give those readings to your supplier, in which case that prediction might be right - but then again it might not, and they might as a result have been OVER estimating what you use - perhaps off the back of a lot of time at home last winter plus a long,cold winter-into-spring period. Follow Robin's advice ASAP.

babybluetoo

I so agree with what Essex Hebridean has said.  My Scottish Power account now shows 4 fixed price deals way above the cap and as previously mentioned the opportunity to fix at the level of the cap now seems to have been withdrawn. There is no mention that you can actually choose to do nothing and be on the standard rate for 6 months.  I definitely think they should be obliged to provide this info alongside their fixed offers but of course that would destroy their business model of trapping people who don't understand how it works into fixing at an even higher price.

EssexHebridean

I've said before - I can honestly see "energy fix mis-selling" being the next thing that those formerly coining it from making PPI claims for people will be pouncing on. 

MWT

babybluetoo said:

I definitely think they should be obliged to provide this info alongside their fixed offers but of course that would destroy their business model of trapping people who don't understand how it works into fixing at an even higher price.

They are obliged to provide that information in the formal communication they send when you approach the end of your current fix, but they are not obliged to do that if you are just looking at what other tariffs are available at other times...