Green Energy (GEUK) No News Yet

wittynamegoeshere

I switched to GEUK recently and am currently paying 39% more than the current cap.  This would have been much less than the cap was predicted to rise to in October, so it was a wise move based on the world a month ago, but now with the new cap I believe it will be around 10% more.

Thankfully this tariff has no exit penalties.  However, GEUK is an eco-supplier so was excluded from the previous cap so was not required to offer a capped variable tariff at all.  I do not know whether this also means that it will now be excluded from the new cap (on the cap) or not.

I also do not know whether it will be possible to be taken on by a mainstream supplier that does operate within the cap.

So I phoned them today.  The answer is that they're deciding what to do and will be contacting customers soon, hopefully before the end of next week.  They are recommending that customers stay where they are for now.  Hopefully this means that they will be coming up with something, they are surely going to lose lots of customers if not.

So I'll stay with them for now and see what happens.  If they don't offer anything capped then I suppose I'll just get onto the Octopus beg and plead helpline, probably along with thousands of others.  Hopefully the govt will decree something about suppliers being required to accept new customers, but who knows.

There may be still some value in staying on this fix though, as I don't know how long the capped rate will be fixed for.  Perhaps there's a chance that the cap could rise above the fixed tariff within the 12 months, in which case it would be a useful limiter.

So all in all, this thread just confirms that there's nothing to announce and it's not worth phoning at the moment.

bristolleedsfan

wittynamegoeshere said:

There may be still some value in staying on this fix though, as I don't know how long the capped rate will be fixed for.  Perhaps there's a chance that the cap could rise above the fixed tariff within the 12 months, in which case it would be a useful limiter.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-energy-price-guarantee-for-families-and-businesses-while-urgently-taking-action-to-reform-broken-energy-market

wittynamegoeshere

Thanks for that.  2 year guarantee so that makes probably all fixes irrelevant unless they're below the new cap.

It also says it applies to ALL households, so that should mean it also applies to suppliers that were previously outside of the cap.

Wait and see to be sure, but it looks like staying put is probably as good as moving.

wittynamegoeshere

This was the existing situation around Green Energy and the previous cap...

https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/08/01/ofgem-confirms-permanent-energy-price-cap-exemptions-for-three-green-suppliers/

So it appears that the new cap includes those that were exempt from the previous one, but I definitely wouldn't say that this is certain.

ashe

Thing is, if GEUK don't respond in a positive way, the fact there are no exit fees will mean a massive portion of their customer base will flock to where the price is lower, so they are going to have to do something. 

wittynamegoeshere

That all depends on whether other suppliers are actually welcoming new customers.  I don't know where I'd start if I had decided to switch supplier today.

The fact that they will end up profitable after having buckets of government cash lobbed at them should mean that they actually start wanting new customers, but who knows - we're in a situation that's never existed before.  Hopefully the terms of the free money handouts will include a requirement for customers to be able to actually switch, but this is all speculation based only on hope.

I'm sure the suppliers would prefer to keep the current paralysis, where basically they can be as terrible as they like and their customers can't leave them.  If customers could switch and all the prices were the same then customers would choose based on customer service.  Perhaps we could even end up with daft gimmick offers, like a free gadget or a bit of cashback for switching.  All would be bad news for the industry, which is currently something of a cartel or oligopoly.

nekr0mantik

When I emailed them yesterday they just said they still waiting for more information from government. I hope they left customers know next week latest so we can switch it needed and if possible. I would go to octopus and stay on SVR.

Mike360

I would hazard a guess and say GEUK will follow the government guidance and reduce by 17p and 4p as well where it applies.

The exemption from price caps may have been fine before but the Government have stepped in this time and declared a '2 year freeze' and said that their rules/laws would apply to all households. That is my thinking at the moment.

Plus, the person I spoke to last week said they would offer the tariff based on the announcement. In which case nobody would need to switch supplier.