Scottiah Power Dual On line Fixed..A no brainer?

mike_the_bike_2

In the light of the British Gas announcement I've just been trawling U Switch /Energy watch site for a new provider

Scottish Power are doing an online dual gas and electricity price scheme with capped fixed price until May 2007...It seems a no brainer to switch to them and I'm not sure how long it will remain on offer...Any thoughts or am I missing something?

Cheers

Dee123_2

I agreed to switch to them this week. Still debating whether to cancel in the few days I have left just on principle.

They rang me several times. I kept asking for something in writing but they wouldnt till I agreed to switch. What the sent me (once I did agree to switch) was the quarterly tarriffs rather than the monthly ones I wanted but I did spot a £2.50 fee monthly (one for gas, one for electricity) for capping the sales agent had "forgotten" to mention. She was more than happy to tell me about the Direct Debit discount and Dual fuel discount but not the fee. I'd gone through with her in extreme detail all the costs and to the penny what they would be deducting from my account as well. This fee means I will be paying a couple of quid more - as I say just on principle I might change back.

I have some breakdown figures if you need them for standing charges and unit costs assuming regional costs are the same.

Dee

Bennifred

We switched to this tariff (or the equivalent one at the time) 12 - 18 months ago and are very pleased we did. We pay less monthly for the dual fuel than Southern Electicity wanted just for electrity, and actually have a surplus on the account. I like the fact that every month you can see how much of gas/electricity has been used, how much it has cost etc etc. I will be lowering my monthly payment soon to stop the surplus building up - better in my pocket than theirs! - and basically YOU choose what level of payments are needed to cover your costs. You have to enter meter readings at least once every three months, but in fact I do it every month - I find it easier to remember and also I like to keep an eye on our monthly usage.

Nemo

I've also been looking at Scottish Power this morning. I spotted the £2.50 per month charge (£30 per year) which is aprox. 8% of my normal bill.

The charges are also more. Gas 3.003p for first 1143kWh instead of 2.628p. Elec. 12.390p for first 225kWh instead of 11.12p. This works out as 14% and 11.4%. (These figures are for the Yorkshire area). I think this will make my bill approx. 13% higher than being uncapped. (E.&O.E.)

I'll think it through a bit further, but I'm currently leaning towards staying uncapped. Take my chances, and regret it later!

Not sure whether to go Online or not. I can see the advantages, but any particular disadvantages?

PS. The thing that got me looking at changing again was getting a leaflet for this:- http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/VIRGINWINES/

sparkymark_3

Perhaps Martin could look into these types of deals and give us the lowdown !

Gambler

Nemo wrote:

I've also been looking at Scottish Power this morning. I spotted the £2.50 per month charge (£30 per year) which is aprox. 8% of my normal bill.


QUOTE]

It says on their website this £2.50 charge has been takin into account when calculating the respective savings.

Nemo

Gambler wrote:

It says on their website this £2.50 charge has been takin into account when calculating the respective savings.

Ahh, I get it now. I'd done the math myself using SP's 'official' prices, then added the £2.50 per month on top, as that's how it appeared to work. I can now see that the difference in the capped and uncapped unit prices equates to the £2.50 .

It's not very clear either on their website, or the comparison ones. Either that or I'm just stoopid. Ok, let's not go there!

I actually signed up this morning for the uncapped, but as the premium is now down to a more reasonable 8.33% I'm now back to the original dilema. Do I phone up in the morning and ask to change my application to capped? Mmmm...

dalepearson

I am thinking of moving to Scottish Power, so do I go capped or uncapped. I spoke to them on the phone and they told me there was no fee to become capped, and no fee to become uncapped or leave. Whats the real deal?

I was just looking at the uncapped option, as this provided a £100 more saving based on todays pricing.

Gambler

dalepearson wrote:

I am thinking of moving to Scottish Power, so do I go capped or uncapped. I spoke to them on the phone and they told me there was no fee to become capped, and no fee to become uncapped or leave. Whats the real deal?

I was just looking at the uncapped option, as this provided a £100 more saving based on todays pricing.

£100 more, as far as I can see the uncapped for both fuels costs £2.50 per month, i.e. £30 per year to protect against increases.

Gambler

Nemo wrote:

PS. The thing that got me looking at changing again was getting a leaflet for this:- http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/VIRGINWINES/

Do you have to phone for the voucher??

Nemo

Gambler wrote:

Do you have to phone for the voucher??

Nope. I got the leaflet in with a box of Virgin wine. There's no voucher code or anything on it to make it unique. The terms on the back of it are the same as the ones on the URL link.