Help to switch?

Fianw1

Hi all, i was with sse since doing a switch with cheap energy club. I was paying quarterly dd. Ovo energy have inherited/taken over and are switching me to monthly dd based on estimated yearly consumption. I want to pay for exactly the amount I use but they refuse saying I will benefit because I know how much will come out each month so I can budget better, but I don’t need to budget better I Just want to pay for what I use. I have heard people get into credit by up to a £1000 over the year, if they have half a million customers with that amount of cash sitting an account waiting to be Play and back it’s a hell of a lot of interest they will be making, just doesn’t sit well with me. None of the switching sites will let me switch I’m not interested in saving money as I know it’s impossible but I just want to pay quarterly for what I use sorry for rabbiting on but if anyone could help me out that would be great

ariarnia

hi there. if you want to switch i only know of two places that are recommended on here as accepting new customers at the moment (there might be more). that's edf and octopus. i don't know if either of them do quarterly dd but they might do monthly variable dd which is paying for the energy you use each month (meaning higher bills in winter and lower in summer). i think both arent doing switching online so you need to phone on 

edf 0333 200 5100 

octopus 08081693274 

octopus seem to get better customer reviews on here (i don't know what there like i'm not with them) and if you know someone who can give you a referral code you can get £50 off. 

[Deleted User]

Quarterly variable direct debit is becoming increasingly rare.  Few suppliers offer it, and those that do are moving people off it onto monthly fixed direct debit.  They are allowed to do this, and you can't do anything about it other than change supplier.  Monthly variable is slightly more common, but still disappearing.

Otherwise, you will have to pay cash/cheque on receipt of bill and pay the higher prices, if you are determined not to have a fixed DD arrangement.

No comparison sites or online switching works at the moment.  If you want to switch to someone, call them or use live chat.

Oh, and that "massive amount of cash" is a liability on their balance sheet, doesn't make them any extra profit, and keeps their share price slightly lower than it otherwise would be.

BUFF

You could try phoning GEUK too (not online). If they allow a switch they would automatically put you on a variable monthly DD for the first 6 months.
Of course, you won't know what prices you will be on come the end of EPG in Spring but you can leave without penalty (if you can find someone to switch to then).

ariarnia

BUFF said:

You could try phoning GEUK too (not online). If they allow a switch they would automatically put you on a variable monthly DD for the first 6 months.
Of course, you won't know what prices you will be on come the end of EPG in Spring but you can leave without penalty (if you can find someone to switch to then).

i think geuk is on 01920 486156

GlasgowExpat2

I switched to EDF as prefer to pay for what I use but you need to phone. They have a referral scheme too. 

Fianw1

Deleted_User said:

Quarterly variable direct debit is becoming increasingly rare.  Few suppliers offer it, and those that do are moving people off it onto monthly fixed direct debit.  They are allowed to do this, and you can't do anything about it other than change supplier.  Monthly variable is slightly more common, but still disappearing.

Otherwise, you will have to pay cash/cheque on receipt of bill and pay the higher prices, if you are determined not to have a fixed DD arrangement.

No comparison sites or online switching works at the moment.  If you want to switch to someone, call them or use live chat.

Oh, and that "massive amount of cash" is a liability on their balance sheet, doesn't make them any extra profit, and keeps their share price slightly lower than it otherwise would be.

Thanks for the reply, sparkygrad, do you know if the higher prices for paying on receipt of bill rather than dd is a set percentage discount industry wide or made up by each supplier. Also I am not business minded but even though the cash is on their balance sheet 
surely the cash is in their bank account, somewhere earning somebody interest if it’s not I’ll gladly put it in my savings account and split the interest 50/50 with them until the customer asks for it back, what do think? Winner winner chicken d…

[Deleted User]

At the moment it's the same difference everywhere because the cap is different depending on how you pay.

It used to be slightly different at each supplier, often described as "between 7% and 10%".

[Deleted User]

No supplier is going to engage in a debate about splitting anything. All businesses require money as cash flow. If we all reverted to paying in abeyance, then the supplier would have to borrow more money to pay its wholesalers; pay staff etc. This would be reflected in higher energy bills going forward - along with a greater risk of supplier failure once we go back to some form of a Cap next April.

The present payment works for most people, but I agree it angers some. Like millions of others, my energy account is some £s in credit which will draw down as we get into Winter. My aim is to maintain enough credit to cover the following month's bill in full. To keep my DD payment at a low level, I just top up my account as required. My supplier keeps saying that I should pay more each month but, so far, it has not unilaterally changed my DD payment. 

Fianw1

[Deleted User] said:

No supplier is going to engage in a debate about splitting anything. All businesses require money as cash flow. If we all reverted to paying in abeyance, then the supplier would have to borrow more money to pay its wholesalers; pay staff etc. This would be reflected in higher energy bills going forward - along with a greater risk of supplier failure once we go back to some form of a Cap next April.

The present payment works for most people, but I agree it angers some. Like millions of others, my energy account is some £s in credit which will draw down as we get into Winter. My aim is to maintain enough credit to cover the following month's bill in full. To keep my DD payment at a low level, I just top up my account as required. My supplier keeps saying that I should pay more each month but, so far, it has not unilaterally changed my DD payment. 

The splitting remark was meant in jest, don’t be so uptight.  

I’m sorry but that sounds wrong, the company ovo/sse posted a cool 1.16bn profit, yes billion a jump of 23% from previous year so to say they need the interest from their customers credit that they’ve racked up sounds ludicrous. Why can’t they automatically give it back to the customers unless said customers specifically say they give permission for them to hold onto it. Why is it a complete mission to get them to give it back to you when you request it? With the smart meters able to read meters every half hour should be a price of cake. Profits like that at this time we are living in makes most normal people sick to their stomach. 

Ovo have banned me from their forum after asking these questions. Anyhow I have switched now and glad to be off their sucker wheel, much happier with deal I have penny cheaper per unit and 1.5p cheaper on st ch. payment on receipt of bill for exactly what I use. So fk em. I urge everybody who was swapped From SSE to OVO to ring the other suppliers and fight for every penny you can.  

ariarnia

sounds like you got the result you wanted. thank you for coming back to update us and i'm glad our responses were helpful.