SO Energy - got me in on a cheap fixed price deal and now BOOM!!! DD increase!!

louspoon

Hi,

I transferred over from Scottish Power to SO Energy when my fixed tariff deal ran out. I was paying £199 dd a month with SP until the end of July - (my energy with SP was fixed for 2 years). I switched to SO with the new monthly DD of £177 in August - I took Martin's guidance up as a new provider on the market.

However, I have had an email to say that my SO Energy dd is going up to their recommended £319, at the minimum I can change it down to £290 but no less. How is this so? They got me on on a price fix of £177 and now they are changing it.

Any guidance is welcome.

TIA

[Deleted User]

Hi,

the fixed price is only on tariff and standing charge.

Was DD based on annual usage?

la531983

You have sadly misunderstood how a "fix" works.

The monthly direct debit is a contribution to a pot from which bills are paid, initially based either on an estimate of your usage, or you providing a figure of how much you are likely to use.
The monthly direct debit is not "fixed", your unit rates are. If you use more gas and electric, you pay for it, it isnt "all you can eat for £177pm".

In your case your contributions likely havent been enough based on your actual usage, hence you are being asked to contribute more.

louspoon

When I applied initially and ran through all of the documents, meter readings etc it gave me a dd fixed at £177??

la531983

louspoon said:

When I applied initially and ran through all of the documents, meter readings etc it gave me a dd fixed at £177??

As already posted, only the unit rates are fixed. Did you think it was use as much as you like for £177? It sadly doesnt work like that.

If you use more you pay more. Conversely if the £177 was an over estimate you pay less.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

do you have usage figures for 12 months based on actual meter readings?

If so what is your new tariff and standing charge, we can then give you a better idea of what your DD should be.

matelodave

As FMcD suggest, tell us what you used in the last 12 month in kwh (gas and leccy) then tell us what your tariff and standing charge is for each fuel (or you can do it yourself, using the example below but using your own figures)

Multiply the number of kwh x tariff (eg gas 12,000kwh x 7.2p = £864, then work out the standing charge 365 days x 30p = £109.5, total £973.5)

Do the same for leccy (2900kwh x 30p = £870 plus the standing charge 365 x 45p = £164.25 = £1034.25)

add them together = 973.5 + 1024.25 = £2007.75 now divide it by 12 = £167.31, however tha assumes that you'll use the same amount of gas and leccy every month.

Starting a new contract at this time of the year could mean that you go into arrears in the next few weeks as you could be using twice the amount of energy that your DD is buying and will ramp up a very unhealthy debit by March, so I guess the energy supplier has done some juggling to to ensure that you dont owe them a large amount next year.

[Deleted User]

I transferred over from Scottish Power to SO Energy when my fixed tariff deal ran out. I was paying £199 dd a month with SP until the end of July - (my energy with SP was fixed for 2 years).

You have benefited from extremely good prices whilst the majority of consumers have suffered from high prices over the past 18 months. It follows that you can expect to pay a lot more for your energy this coming Winter.

I can well understand it when posters get alarmed when a supplier increases a monthly payment. The ‘good news’ is that this is not what you will pay for your energy. Your energy charges will be based on your actual usage and the agreed tariff price. The charges will be deducted from what you are paying each month.

Someone will check whether your DD payment is reasonable if you post details of your annual usage (in kWh/year) and the tariff that you are on.

Bungle73

This is why before I made the decision to switch to So Energy recently I took the quoted DD figure with a pinch of salt, and based my decision on comparing the unit rates with those of the supplier I was leaving.

markin

Did you provide them with correct usage for the quote? Its common for compare sites to use a lower usage number to give a lower DD.

Either way your bill was always going UP after a 2 year fix ended.

Jyana

I really wish they wouldn't offer the option to click Low, Medium, High user when giving quotes on energy sites. It's pretty obvious that many people assume themselves to be a lower user than they actually are, we see that all the time on here. But it ensures a lower quote in order to entice a new customer in, I guess, then they bump it up to the necessary amount once they have switched over. 

It should be enter the amount you do use, or perhaps the size of your house and number of residents. I know that will undoubtably cause some issues for people who are new to buying/renting, but some gentle nudging towards getting people more aware of their energy usage isn't a bad thing to my mind.