Tomato Energy (Electric Only Supplier) - Too Good To Be True ?

masonic

TroubledTarts said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Definition of gamble  "a risky action undertaken with the hope of success"  "take risky action in the hope of a desired result"

T.E  take payment after energy has been used.

I think the risky part being stuck on svt if they go under for an unknown period of time waiting for a SOLR is a risk.

I see this as a very small impact risk given the next best tariff is not much below SVT anyway.

TroubledTarts

masonic said:

TroubledTarts said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Definition of gamble  "a risky action undertaken with the hope of success"  "take risky action in the hope of a desired result"

T.E  take payment after energy has been used.

I think the risky part being stuck on svt if they go under for an unknown period of time waiting for a SOLR is a risk.

I see this as a very small impact risk given the next best tariff is not much below SVT anyway.

Three months being on svt in winter would cost us £450 so it's food for thought for those that use a lot of electricity 

Big savings whilst it's good, bad losses if it goes pear shaped for a period of time

But everyones usage is different of course

TroubledTarts

lohr500 said:

TroubledTarts said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Definition of gamble  "a risky action undertaken with the hope of success"  "take risky action in the hope of a desired result"

T.E  take payment after energy has been used.

I think the risky part being stuck on svt if they go under for an unknown period of time waiting for a SOLR is a risk.

The two concerning things being late financials and the elexon potential expulsion.

But yes I agree no risk with paying after the fact, that is a bonus

I agree about the risk of being stuck on an SVT for a period of time, especially if there are issues with outstanding billing. I don't know what the rules are on switching out from a SOLR whilst there are still outstanding debts with the failed supplier.

And what happens for those customers who have missing half hourly data? If the data cannot be retrieved at what price will customers be charged by the administrators if a supplier fails? It's great not having bills for months on end and promises of discounts when the bills do get generated, but do those promises count for anything if it all goes pear shaped? 

I was trying to find some rules and someone on another forum said you can still leave whilst they switch you to SOLR but it is ill advised. So at the moment that is hearsay and to be honest if a company goes bust no one is going to be actioning moves and confirming last meter readings I wouldn't expect? But don't know for certain.

bagand96

TroubledTarts said:

lohr500 said:

TroubledTarts said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Definition of gamble  "a risky action undertaken with the hope of success"  "take risky action in the hope of a desired result"

T.E  take payment after energy has been used.

I think the risky part being stuck on svt if they go under for an unknown period of time waiting for a SOLR is a risk.

The two concerning things being late financials and the elexon potential expulsion.

But yes I agree no risk with paying after the fact, that is a bonus

I agree about the risk of being stuck on an SVT for a period of time, especially if there are issues with outstanding billing. I don't know what the rules are on switching out from a SOLR whilst there are still outstanding debts with the failed supplier.

And what happens for those customers who have missing half hourly data? If the data cannot be retrieved at what price will customers be charged by the administrators if a supplier fails? It's great not having bills for months on end and promises of discounts when the bills do get generated, but do those promises count for anything if it all goes pear shaped? 

I was trying to find some rules and someone on another forum said you can still leave whilst they switch you to SOLR but it is ill advised. So at the moment that is hearsay and to be honest if a company goes bust no one is going to be actioning moves and confirming last meter readings I wouldn't expect? But don't know for certain.

With the last round of failures (when it was one every few weeks) I saw a couple of reports on here that people "beat" the SoLR process by starting a switch as soon as the bankruptcy was announced and it did work. Not the general advice, and I've never done it. But now with the faster switching within a few days I think it would be very easy to beat SoLR.

Quite normal that everyone has their own attitude to risk, I personally don't see Tomato as any sort of gamble.  Your money is never at risk with domestic supply, and that's not even an issue on Tomato as they don't hold credit balances.  So for me make hay while the sun shines and take the savings.

Been through SoLR twice in the past and it was painless, just made sure I kept good records of my own and everything tallied up in the end. I switched out of the SoLR's very quickly without issue.  Again might be different with Tomato Energy as the ToU might cause issues, as well as the fact there would be a debt as there's no credit balance. None of it worries me though.

masonic

TroubledTarts said:

masonic said:

TroubledTarts said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Definition of gamble  "a risky action undertaken with the hope of success"  "take risky action in the hope of a desired result"

T.E  take payment after energy has been used.

I think the risky part being stuck on svt if they go under for an unknown period of time waiting for a SOLR is a risk.

I see this as a very small impact risk given the next best tariff is not much below SVT anyway.

Three months being on svt in winter would cost us £450 so it's food for thought for those that use a lot of electricity 

Big savings whilst it's good, bad losses if it goes pear shaped for a period of time

But everyones usage is different of course

If you've found a tariff that already gives you significant savings vs SVT, then it's probably worth sticking with it. I had the choice of Octopus Tracker or Agile, both of which would have cost me more than SVT over the past month (about £94 on Tracker). Instead I've paid £50.

Out of interest what would three months of being on your current tariff cost you if SVT would cost £450?

TroubledTarts said:

I was trying to find some rules and someone on another forum said you can still leave whilst they switch you to SOLR but it is ill advised. So at the moment that is hearsay and to be honest if a company goes bust no one is going to be actioning moves and confirming last meter readings I wouldn't expect? But don't know for certain.

Ofgem don't recommend it as they are of the opinion that the SoLR process is easiest for consumers. Like bagand96 I'm no stranger to the SoLR process. I've been through it twice and on both occasions I waited it out while others jumped ship immediately. Even then, it took only about a month on each occasion to move on again. With 5 day switching that would now be shorter. If I find myself in this situation again, I'll be one of the ones jumping immediately. There really is no good reason not to, unless you think the deemed tariff will be more competitive than anything available to you elsewhere.

masonic

tlcgrantham said:

Latest bill from tomato just landed in my online account. It’s correct apart from not charging for a few slots they couldn’t retrieve. The bill was £102.92 for 720kwh but should have been about 40p more. 

    Interestingly it mentions on the bill that “Tomato” is the new name for “Logicor”.

Same, there were numerous gaps over the weekend, but I was also missing a few slots on Friday evening. My billed consumption is just under 2 kWh under because of this. Seems they are prioritising getting the bills out over filling gaps. Will be interesting to see what happens when those gaps are filled.

Thought the CSV download option was a nice touch.

bristolleedsfan

Some suppliers switch within 3 working days, 5 working days is maximum before GSP kick in.

TroubledTarts

@masonic yes svt would cost us £450 more for three months if we were stuck on it like we were with Symbio if my recollection is correct (£150 a month)

On tomato we average about 12p kwh and svt is 25.57p kwh and we are all electric household over 1100kwh a month in winter

So worse case (absolute worse case) that's what the move to tomato would cost us minus the last two months with them where we saved £86 over Octopus Cosy.

It's a risk and a gamble but one we can afford so as long as others know the same risks and their affordability then all is good.

HillStreetBlues

Has anyone paid a balance via credit/debit card?

masonic

TroubledTarts said:

@masonic yes svt would cost us £450 more for three months if we were stuck on it like we were with Symbio if my recollection is correct (£150 a month)

On tomato we average about 12p kwh and svt is 25.57p kwh and we are all electric household over 1100kwh a month in winter

So worse case (absolute worse case) that's what the move to tomato would cost us minus the last two months with them where we saved £86 over Octopus Cosy.

It's a risk and a gamble but one we can afford so as long as others know the same risks and their affordability then all is good.

I'm all elec too and don't qualify for Cosy (though I understand they've been waving people without heat pumps on anyway). My next best option is one of the deals with half price energy during weekend slots.

There was no way I was going to join TE in October or November as there were too many reports of billing issues. But by Jan most of that was resolved and the remaining issues mostly understood. My usage in Jan has been around 330 kWh for the past couple of years, while Feb drops to 240 kWh and by April it's about 120 kWh where it remains until it starts picking up again towards the end of October.