Grrrrr Powergen...but to who?

Woby_Tide

Mostly my own fault for not paying enough attention, but, having always thought I was on the Powergen Energy Online tarrif, having seen some people quoting the new prices for that tarrif on another topic I suddenly realised I evidently wasn't. I was transferred to Powergen after the demise of TXU a couple of years back. Whenever I queried Powergen over the phone they said I was on "the cheapest tarrif they offered", and as I had all the bills online etc. I assumed(stupidly) to be on Energy Online dual fuel. having now looked on uSwitch etc., I'm actually on Powergen Energy Saving PLan(or standard no standing charge on some of the comparison sites). So I've been paying about £50 too much a year if not more for 2 years or so...grrr

But question is where to switch too now, given that others are evidently considering price rises. Currently it advises that British Gas Energy Online Dual will be cheapest at £538 (compared to £653 with Pgen now). However have BG done their latest round of increases yet(I saw a news report earlier this month where they were considering a 15% rise), likeiwse are Scottish who are 2nd cheapest set to do increases shortly?

the other option looks to be to split out the Gas and Elec seperately. Ebico quotes c. £77 (including the 18.5% rise of today) which assuming they don't have any more rises looks like it is set to stay at that level for a while. This then leaves Elec prices of £445(i.e. £532 total) with BG or £482 with Scottish, again though I'm at mercy of whether either of these puts prices up?(I guess I'm still 'up' even if BG/Scottish increase Elec by 20%) but would be nice to get best deal without looking at another switch in a few months.

suekjw

I want to switch from Powergen too, basically fed up with their terrible service - but is anyone any better?
Sue

rosscobley

look at the energywatch web page it lts has a list of every gas and elec company and how good the are.

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/

Woby_Tide

in fairness Energywatchs website is rubbish compared to the Uswitchs etc., seems to have data provided by Uswitch but is only up to May 2005, plus half the suppliers i.e. Ebico as mentioned earlier don't even appear. I have a fair idea of who I need to move to following the research earlier. It was more a case of finding out who has already announced increase, or is likely too, and whether going to a non-dual fuel tarrif and splitting my suppliers is worthwhile but thanks for the link anyway.

kidtechnical

suekjw wrote:

I want to switch from Powergen too, basically fed up with their terrible service - but is anyone any better?
Sue

I'd love to switch, but owe them £400! They have had so many price rises & have never increased my direct debit to take this into account, combine this with increased usage thanks to the terrible weather we've had & having to tumble dry laundry thanks to nesting birds & the result is a big huge debt to them... they've spread it over 9 months but my original direct debit amount was £26 and now I'm now looking at £103 per month. Unless I can get the cash together to pay them off I'm stuck with them for a while... perhaps that was their intention!

An email to their complaints dept advised me they have reviewed their processes... blah, blah!

djm5

Isn't it about time the energy companies were made to state clearly on their bills / statements the exact name of the current tariff being applied?

My Powergen bills don't show this info. I had always understood that I was on a dual-fuel discounted tariff with no standing charge. When I phoned them today (to query the IGT £42 charge - a standing charge by any other name!!) they said I was on a "ONE" tariff for elec and a "DISCOUNTED GAS FOR ELEC CUSTOMERS" tariff for gas.

When trying to compare suppliers, I can't find any mention of these tariffs on the comparison sites. I can't help wondering if this "make up a tariff name as we go along" policy is just designed to make comparison more difficult.

And, about that IGT charge (standing charge). GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

silvertoes

I've switched to Ebico, it's fairtrade and not for profit. There is no standing charge and both gas and electric tarifs are the same as I was paying Powergen

bylromarha

Like OP, powergen wouldn't switch me to their cheapest tariff when I became their customer from TXU.

The clubcard points and good service kept me there, but they screwed up recently so I have finally swapped to Seeboard...used www.uswitch.com to get the cheapest rate. powergen rang to offer me a 6% permenant discount to stay with them, but Seeboard was still cheaper.

And who knows I may go back to P'gen after a few months as that means I'll be able to join on their cheaper tariff?

c_smith

bylromarha wrote:

Like OP, powergen wouldn't switch me to their cheapest tariff when I became their customer from TXU.

The clubcard points and good service kept me there, but they screwed up recently so I have finally swapped to Seeboard...used www.uswitch.com to get the cheapest rate. powergen rang to offer me a 6% permenant discount to stay with them, but Seeboard was still cheaper.

And who knows I may go back to P'gen after a few months as that means I'll be able to join on their cheaper tariff?

Seeboard have now notified they are increasing their prices as well.

bikeman

It took me ages to get out of Powergen that as an ex-TUXI customer I was on their standard tariff and being in the 'wrong ciustomer database' I could only be switched to the energy online tariff manually. Disappointedly their rep insisted that I would save £42 pa and it took her to manually do a comparison before she accepted that the savings are of course usage dependent and there would be no actually saving for me.

competitionscafe

kidtechnical wrote:

I'd love to switch, but owe them £400! They have had so many price rises & have never increased my direct debit to take this into account

Same here, I owe them £480 so they increased my direct debit to £100 a month from this month [so I guess I won't be stuck with them too long until it is paid off and I can move]. However I did a search on uswitch and they said that Powergen was still the cheapest, however my last quarterly bill was £254 (£101.09 electricity, £153.00 gas) - this sounds very high for 1 person in a 2 bedroom flat in summer! (I don't have a tumble dryer or anything, no heating on in the summer obviously, but I have put in the meter readings online so they are not estimates). £85 a month charges in summer, can that be right, heaven knows what it will be like in winter when the heating goes on!

Am thinking of ecotricity for electricity as I want to support a genuine green energy supplier but I am not sure who to choose for gas. Is there an energy co-op like an equivalent of the phone co-op but for gas?

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