Scottish Power, Fixed rates and Estimates, Be careful

notomonkeys

Many people not in the know, are under the impression that a fixed rate contract means that their bills will be fixed too, with usage based on previous usage, before the move to a new tariff.
Be warned:  Energy companies no longer do this.
Example: You move to a new fixed tariff ( in winter ) from your previous tariff . Energy companies now treat this as if you are a new customer and will not use previous useage to calculate your bills on the new tariff, therefore you will get hammered in the first year.... that is the bad thing, the good thing is you'll probably be hundreds of pounds in credit at the end of your fixed term if you do nothing about it.. BTW Energy companies are not in the habit of telling you they have overestimated your usage, that is up to you to spot and correct if you so wish..
Just a heads up if you change your tariff in winter/spring.

pochase

Do you maybe mean direct debits instead of billing?

And there was never an all you can eat for energy.

Ultrasonic

When I switched to Scottish Power at the end of February their site didn't even give me an option to estimate my usage. Consequently my first DD was over three times what it should have been but the website let me change the amount for subsequent months. This would have been utterly useless for someone who didn't work things out for themselves but then I guess only those who did might have made such a switch.

FreeBear

notomonkeys said: Example: You move to a new fixed tariff ( in winter ) from your previous tariff . Some Energy companies now treat this as if you are a new customer and will not use previous useage to calculate your bills on the new tariff, therefore you will get hammered in the first year....

Fixed that for you. Not all energy suppliers do as you suggest. OFTM didn't when I switched a tariff with them.

Moved to Eon.Next last year, and they accepted my predictions of usage - Looks like the numbers I gave were slightly higher than actual, but I'm not getting "hammered" as a result.

wild666

Always try and use the previous 12 months usage as a yearly reading, if it's being a mild winter, lower than normal usage then you might want to increase the total kWh usage on the gas or electric if an all electric property.
I've found that if you change supplier or tariff in the winter months and use estimated readings for the yearly usage that if the estimate is over your annual usage you will quickly build up a credit balance on the account.
Personally I switched providers at the end of winter and got a credit balance for the next winter.