Utility Warehouse

DaveDaveDave123

I'm with Utility Warehouse on a standard variable rate with a smart metre, pay the whole bill each month it varies each month. Average bill is £186 per month, I can only get a fixed deal with them if I add 2 additional services.  I can't add my landlord/broadband as in term, however I can switch my home insurance and SIM only mobile to them, I won't save on SIM or the insurance ( I will pay more for the SIM but save slightly on home insurance).  Anyway the price I have been quoted for gas & electric is £234 per month, an increase of 26 percent.  I would be paying an extra £46 per month between now and October and I assume based on the price cap rise in October I would be better off on this deal from October, any suggestions on any better deals? Is now a good time to switch or should I wait until October?

EssexHebridean

Personally, if even anyone else's variable rate came close to working out better for us than UW's rates did, I'd be off away from them like a greyhound. 

JGB1955

DaveDaveDave123 said:

I'm with Utility Warehouse on a standard variable rate with a smart metre, pay the whole bill each month it varies each month. Average bill is £186 per month, I can only get a fixed deal with them if I add 2 additional services.  I can't add my landlord/broadband as in term, however I can switch my home insurance and SIM only mobile to them, I won't save on SIM or the insurance ( I will pay more for the SIM but save slightly on home insurance).  Anyway the price I have been quoted for gas & electric is £234 per month, an increase of 26 percent.  I would be paying an extra £46 per month between now and October and I assume based on the price cap rise in October I would be better off on this deal from October, any suggestions on any better deals? Is now a good time to switch or should I wait until October?

You might want to look at this thread before sticking with UW ........UW trying to charge for electricity I never used. - Page 2 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

QrizB

I've never been a UW customer but from reports on the forum they seem to be part utilities supplier, part MLM scheme and part cult!

StocktonFlyer

I've just realised why I think I owe more money to Utility Warehouse than they do.
They are charging the VAT on my budget plan payments, which haven't been anywhere near my actual bills during the winter and especially since the April price cap rise, rather than on the actual cost of the energy that they are billing me for.
I've been trying to get them to put my payments up, and finally succeeded, but wondering how they will deal with this discrepancy.

EssexHebridean

Oh yes - they take your payment, remove the vat portion, then apply the remainder to your “budget plan”. I’m going to be interested to see what happens as and when we come to escape from them - whether they will “remember” to add the vat back on to any credit balance before refunding it to us! 

wild666

When a DD is collected from the bank the full amount should register in the account as credit, not minus the VAT. The VAT should only be taken off when the money is reduced due to the usage of electric/gas and then it should only be the amount of the bill that the VAT deductions is made. 

For example your bill is £100 including VAT but you paid a DD of £200 only the £100 payment should have VAT with the bill being £95 and the VAT of £5 making up the £100 bill. 
If they take the VAT off any credit balance then if you leave the company the credit after payment of the final bill should be the full credit plus 5% if they have taken the VAT off before any bills are produced.

pochase

wild666 said:

For example your bill is £100 including VAT but you paid a DD of £200 only the £100 payment should have VAT with the bill being £95 and the VAT of £5 making up the £100 bill. 
If they take the VAT off any credit balance then if you leave the company the credit after payment of the final bill should be the full credit plus 5% if they have taken the VAT off before any bills are produced.

5% VAT on £95 is £4.75 not £5. You need to calculate VAT from the bottom amount not the top amount. 

I think this one of the reasons about confusion about VAT. Second is that the companies will calculate internally everything as net amount and usually add the VAT in the last step. If they give you a payment of £ 30 as goodwill, they will usually only credit you in there calculations with £28.57, but the remaining 1.43 is deducted from the amount of VAT you owe, so you get a credit of £30.

So your debt or credit amount will (should) always be including VAT, and your payments will add to this amount and VAT cannot be deducted from this.

StocktonFlyer

Which isn't what happens. For instance (example only):

My actual monthly bill (Gas and Electric combined) now comes to £200 (averaged across the year). My monthly DD was £120 (because it has not been revisited since I set up the account which was set up on historic usage and old prices). The VAT I am billed is included in the DD amount calculated on that initial assumed cost. The actual itemised energy spend does not have VAT applied to the bill.

Previous suppliers have included VAT calculated on the cost of the actual energy I used each month (I think they did anyway?).

I assume this will all correct itself as I get closer to being in credit. Due to this I have ended up being more than £300 in energy debt and just rearranged my DD (at my prompt) to cover usage and a little more to claw it back.

My biggest issue really is now being unable to access any beneficial "Existing Customer" fixed rate tariffs from one of the suppliers that offer them.

For the record I jumped to UW from Pure Planet as PP's new deal that I was offered last September was extortionate and UW was the only remaining provider on the MSE Cheap Energy Club to offer a reasonable rate. PP then went into administration mid switch so I was never moved to Shell.

I'm not complaining, just trying to understand.

pochase

It is quite normal that you are unable to get onto a good "existing customer" deal if you are not a customer. 

If you are with Utility Warehouse you will have access to the UW deals for existing customers if they have one, if not you are out of luck. Octopus for example does not have any good fixed tariffs at all.

StocktonFlyer

pochase said:

It is quite normal that you are unable to get onto a good "existing customer" deal if you are not a customer. 

If you are with Utility Warehouse you will have access to the UW deals for existing customers if they have one, if not you are out of luck. Octopus for example does not have any good fixed tariffs at all.

Yes I am aware of this. I was just describing the situation, not complaining.