EBICO customers be aware.

tghe-retford

Just got the letter telling me of the significant increases from October 2. It goes to say that wholesale prices rose by 190% for electric and 230% for gas (between Feb 08 and Jul 08).

What made me think was that the letter states that they kept the impact to the minimum. Considering the rises, I would dread to think what a maximum impact would have been. :eek:

1carminestocky

Ebico has been leading the way in cutting household energy bills since 1998. As a not-for-profit company, our core aim is to put people before profits – and to provide affordable energy for every home.

The claim in bold I have a real problem with, if truth be told. This is actually a nonsense when Ebico's electricity in particular is so crazily expensive! EVERY HOME?? Nonsense. They may be a not for profit company but it seems they are not averse to the 'Big 6'-type economy with the truth...:rolleyes:

If they were being entirely honest they would state that they are affordable for people with VERY low usage and/or for people who pay in 'unusual' ways. Only problem being that would stop the very people applying who I would suspect 'subsidise' the afore-mentioned target audience and lead to prices going up even more.

Jesthar

tghe-retford wrote: »

Just got the letter telling me of the significant increases from October 2. It goes to say that wholesale prices rose by 190% for electric and 230% for gas (between Feb 08 and Jul 08).

What made me think was that the letter states that they kept the impact to the minimum. Considering the rises, I would dread to think what a maximum impact would have been. :eek:

Well, I heard on the news this morning that gas and elec bills in the UK have increased by double the amount they've increased in mainland Europe...:mad:

Even with the price rises, I'm still switching to Ebico today, as it will save me around £125 a year over my current British Gas dual fuel setup. Why? Because my useage is so low - over the last 12 months I've only used about 6,300 kWh Gas (which covers all my heating, hot water & cooking) and 950 kWh elec.

Why will that save me money? Well, most energy suppliers use a two tier charging system - you get charged a higher rate (Teir 1) for the first x amount of kWh you use per quarter (this varies with the seasons), then once you pass that useage mark you get charged a much lower price for whatever else you use (Tier 2). Because I use so little, most of my useage is charged at the higher Tier 1 price.

What Ebico do is only have one flat rate, which is somewhere inbetween the Teir 1 and 2 rates of regular companies. Looking at my latest British Gas bills and the Ebico website, for example, currently gives me the following kWh charges:

British Gas: Gas Teir 1 = 7.259p
British Gas: Gas Teir 2 = 3.688p
Ebico: Gas Flat rate = 3.77p

British Gas: Elec Teir 1 = 24.111p
British Gas: Elec Teir 2 = 11.443p
Ebico: Elec Flat rate = 14.87p

Which is going to save me quite a bit!

As to providing affordable energy for every home - I'd say that is an 'aim' not a 'claim'. I 'aim' to get bullseyes ever time I shoot in archery, but goodness knows I don't achieve that aim! :rotfl:

~Jes

1carminestocky

Nice one, Jes! Whilst i accept that I'm sure Ebico could claim that's what they mean, for a supposed ethical supplier I think having to justify such a thing by semantics does them no favours. I have absolutely nothing againt Ebico, btw, if you remember I wholeheartedly recommended them for you and your usage.

norfolkshops

ebbico is brilliant also going through s electric but add a bit of a hassle to get ebicos rates but i am on it now

Jesthar

1carminestocky wrote: »

Nice one, Jes! Whilst i accept that I'm sure Ebico could claim that's what they mean, for a supposed ethical supplier I think having to justify such a thing by semantics does them no favours. I have absolutely nothing againt Ebico, btw, if you remember I wholeheartedly recommended them for you and your usage.

Heh, I remember! I'd written most of that before you posted, I just happened to spot it on preview refresh and couldn't resist!

I think it's very hard for a company to avoid semantics at some point when it comes to long term aims/mission statements, there's always going to be something to quibble with at the time! Anyone remember Microsofts 'a computer on every desktop' mantra of years ago? Took a fair while to reach that stage, but *looks around office* yup, pretty much...

~Jes

Ken68

Don't kill Ebico, Carmine, they are the only decent part of UK energy industry left.
The rest are money grubbing, tariff fiddling shower.

alared

Must agree with Ken68,I for one will be sticking with them.
Must also say that Southern do a great admin job for Ebico.

Premier_2

1carminestocky wrote: »

The claim in bold I have a real problem with, if truth be told. This is actually a nonsense when Ebico's electricity in particular is so crazily expensive! EVERY HOME?? Nonsense. They may be a not for profit company but it seems they are not averse to the 'Big 6'-type economy with the truth...:rolleyes:

If they were being entirely honest they would state that they are affordable for people with VERY low usage and/or for people who pay in 'unusual' ways. Only problem being that would stop the very people applying who I would suspect 'subsidise' the afore-mentioned target audience and lead to prices going up even more.

How much more open do you want them to be?

How the EQUIGAS / EQUIPOWER scheme works (illustrative figures)

Say EBICo has 100 customers. Of these, 20 are customers using pre-payment meters who would normally be charged £400 each year for their gas, and 80 are customers who would normally be charged £300 each year for their gas. Total payments in the year would be:


20 x £400 = £8,000
plus
80 x £300 = £24,000
Total = £32,000

In this example, what EQUIGAS does is to ask everyone for the average payment which, in this case, is:

£32,000/100 = £320

Thus, the direct debit customers in this example pay £20 per year more than they would do otherwise, but the pre-payment meter customers pay £80 per year less.

http://www.ebico.co.uk/downloads/Introducing%20Equilux.doc

..Not only is our tariff system unique, but as a not-for-profit company, with no shareholders to reward, we are uniquely placed to keep our rates as low and competitive as possible for all consumers. Our not-for-profit ethos means any surplus is used to increase benefits for our customers.

However, even those who make less significant savings choose to stay with EquiGas, because they prefer to pay rates that are fair to all consumers...

http://www.ebico.co.uk/html/g_pricework.php

1carminestocky

Woooahhhh...no way am I trying kill Ebico :eek: I've made it clear in the past that my very low usage father, on my recommendation, is with them for gas (VERY few people should be with them for leccy, btw). But this is a money saving site so it's only to be expected that their 'uncompetitiveness' for medium to high users will be commented on, surely. It cannot be right that someone using the 'average' leccy consumption of 3300kwhs per annum can save as much as £123 per year by using one of the awful, greddy Big 6...can it? That's approx a saving of 35%!! You would need to be using less than 1250 kwhs per annum to be better off with Ebico (certainly in the yorkshire area)

And I'm not quite so misty-eyed about them, tbh. Reason being ALL ebico customers, whether they like it or not, are contributing to the profits of one of the dreaded Big 6 suppliers, anyway (SSE).

PS Premier, why not pay that £1 and have a look at their accounts?