Business Account - Switching Electricity Supplier

Qyburn

Hi,

What are the material differences, if any, with the actual switching process for a business account, compared to residential?

FYI currently with SSE, three phase with AMR meter that doesn't communicate, single rate. Quite high usage, I don't have proper annual figures but it's going to be in the region of 30,000kWh. Electricity only.

Contract will be coming up for renewal in the next couple of months. Originally we stayed with SSE primarily because address, meter type and basically every administrative detail was wrong meaning we couldn't even get a quote from anyone else. It was better to commit with SSE than to stay on their punitive non-contract rate while trying to sort that out.

Robin9

The back page of my commercial invoice (not SSE) gives the message

Your contract end date is 30/09/26.
You may notify us in writing at any time before this date
to terminate the contract, with effect from this date.
If not, the contract will continue, but you may change to another supplier
or terminate the contract without notice at any time after this date

My meter is AMR and communicates fine

What rate are you paying ?

PS Ring suppliers direct

Qyburn

Cheers. Contract rate is 24.00637p/kWh, plus VAT and CCL. Standing charge 1.21586601.

Non contract rate was 36.68 (day) and 32.07 (night) SC £2.91988650.

Contract end terms ..

"After expiry of Your fixed term contract, if you have not agreed a new contract with Us or transferred Your supply to another Supplier, You will continue to be supplied at Our Variable Business Rates, subject to our Deemed Contract Terms"

Qyburn

Really what I was wondering about is the process. For a residential account you just deal with the gaining supplier and they in turn deal with the ceding. Is that any different? And timescales, how long does a switch take?

Robin9

You should certainly improve on the rates - my contract is 23p and £2.20. for 20,000 kWh

The important bit which differs from Domestic is that you must notify your existing supplier

The challenging bit is accepting the quoted rates - when I last did it I had 6 hours to get all the paperwork to the new suppliers- gas and electric for buildings, 4 x Bank DD, CCL declarations -

Your new supplier should be able to tell you how long.

Lean on SSE to get the databases corrected and to get the AMR working - the meter serial number may be a way forward