Is switching to EBIco worth it?

Sol00

I found out about this company from a friend and have checked through their website to find out if it's worth changing. The problem is I'm hopeless at understanding it.

My mum has electricity and gas through card meters and she's paying on average £20 a week for both. She's with Scottish Gas after just changing from Scottish Power. After all these price increases I was wondering if it's worth changing to this company and exactly how it works.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cardew

If you do a search you will find hundreds of posts about this company.

In brief:

An excellent non-profit making company whose accounts are handled by southern electricity.

If you have a normal credit meter(pay by direct debit or quarterly) they are only cheap if you are a very low user.

If you have a pre-payment meter they are a better value still, but not the cheapest if you are a medium/high user.

Gavioli_UK

Sol00 wrote: »

I found out about this company from a friend and have checked through their website to find out if it's worth changing. The problem is I'm hopeless at understanding it.

My mum has electricity and gas through card meters and she's paying on average £20 a week for both. She's with Scottish Gas after just changing from Scottish Power. After all these price increases I was wondering if it's worth changing to this company and exactly how it works.

Any help would be much appreciated.

From what I read from this and other forums I must be the only person to have a bad experience with EBICO.

They changed my gas supplier supply in error. I then found it was impossible to talk to them by phone - it is always on answer phone and they never returned the calls. They were very very slow in answering e-mails. They said they had put things right, but not completely. It took 3 months to put things back to as they were, and I had to do some of the work myself. Never got an appology. I am waiting to see if I have lost 3 months d/d discount from my supplier.

I do admire EBICO's aims. I work with groups who support people in deprived areas of Nottingham, and I was hoping I could promote EBICO to them. I am sure if things go well then they are fine, but I asume my bad experience was due to them not having the admin support to sort out problems.

alared

No disrespect to the above poster but I have only praise for Ebico and Southern Electric who administer their accounts.

I switched about 18 months ago from that nightmare who were PowerGen (now Eon).
A company who in six years NEVER produced a correct bill at the correct time and mostly talked a load of tripe when you finally got to speak to a "human" about your problem.

I would say that from what the OP said about her mother`s usage that Ebico would be an ideal switch for her.
Simple straight forward billing and prices.

Sol00

Thanks for the help. I've ordered an information pack from their website, so hopefully that will convince her to switch.

benjdr

Hi,
I started a thread a few months ago which could provide some reading for you:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=613271
I posted some simplyfied graphs and maths for some uniform yearly usage so you can sort of gauge how cost effective Ebico might be.

Sol00

Thanks I'll have a look at that.

ilikepoints

Cardew wrote: »

If you have a normal credit meter(pay by direct debit or quarterly) they are only cheap if you are a very low user.

Not true - gas prices in some areas (well at least here in East Anglia) are very competitive even for higher users.

Ice_2

ebico/southern electric will be putting there prices up on 31st march 08 but that'll be it just the once...as if you mum is over 60 or disabled or on a low income you can register with the careline and go on the care tariff which give's you 20% off each unit you use gas or electric...I don't know if this still applys to meters but it applys to normal meters...you'd have to ask...also I have been with them for 18 months and cannot fault them it a free phone number to ring them and they are always very nice to talk to a great all round company...check out my other thread about southern electric care tariff you get alsorts free off them so worth a look...hth's:D

Sol00

Thanks for the help.

Got the information pack through today and my mum is going to switch as she's paying 3 times more in gas and twice as much in elec with Scottish Gas.

Why hasn't Martin recommended this company on his site? I only heard about this through word of mouth.

Ice_2

Sol00 wrote: »

Thanks for the help.

Got the information pack through today and my mum is going to switch as she's paying 3 times more in gas and twice as much in elec with Scottish Gas.

Why hasn't Martin recommended this company on his site? I only heard about this through word of mouth.

because when you do the price comparrison it doesn't come up as the cheapest but I have found it to be far cheaper than...
Npower
Powergen
British gas
Edf
so I am sticking with them
have been with them for 18 months now...and they are really great...:D