MSE Poll: What puts you off / frustrates you about switching energy?
Comments
-
On comparison the rates & standing charge are cheaper than what we're on and I've entered actual readings for the year, but the new monthly amount shown is £143 when we normally pay £90. We have just come out of a fixed & are currently on standard rate, but Last Bill was £50. It will be more in winter, but worried switching will cause DD be set at £143??0
-
Switching may involve different methods of paying for energy usage (e.g. Monthly direct debit, pay quarterly bills etc ), the advantages of which are not clearly understood. Energy companies appear to to encourage dual fuel contracts, and may offer one of the services at an attractive price (e.g. Gas, or Electricity) only to increase the prices soon after!.
The Energy companies seem to be operating like cartels, where every year they all follow each other in determining/fixing energy prices (usually upwards!). Every year the Energy companies take turns on which one leads the price increases, and then the others follow.
One wonders what the advantages of switching are. It would be better if the Energy watchdog took on the Energy companies head-on to stop this practice. Unfortunately the main Energy companies are foreign owned, and the power of the watchdog may be somewhat limited.0 -
one thing that puts me off is that my family emphatically Do Not Want a smartmeter and most of the switching deals want to do that as default- my mum feels a smart metre could be more expensive for us. I haven't really researched into how...0
-
One BIG problem is that comparison sites don't check through all possible options to get you the best deal: you have to do a comparison for Gas Only, another for Electricity Only, and a third for Dual Fuel. Phew ! You have to be quite an anorak to get this far. And that's before all the complications of Exit Fees and asking your Crystal Ball whether to risk a Variable Rate, 1 year Fix, 2 Year Fix etc.
But you're still not finished. If you have an Economy 7 meter, it might actually be cheaper to be billed at just one rate. (You don't have to have the meter changed, most suppliers will happily just add the day and night readings together.) So you have to do comparisons 4, 5 and 6.:eek:
No wonder that people like Brenda from Bristol yearn for the days of popping into the Gas Board or Electricity Board shop in the High Street !
Why can't comparison sites do all the donkey work for you and just tell you the combination that's cheapest?0 -
I'm with E.ON on Economy 10 energy tariff which comes on at 3 periods per day for a total of 10 hours for use with my electricity-powered storage heaters. I was previously on Economy 7 "with Heatwise" tariff which alongside the 7 hours cheap electricity overnight also had periods through the day where storage heaters would come on.
Most other energy providers, even ones that offer Economy 7, don't support 'Heatwise' for storage heaters and most comparison sites don't specify which providers do Economy 7, never mind 'Heatwise' or Economy 10.
I've stopped looking as I feel well and truly stuck with E.ON.0 -
I do switch regularly between suppliers. I have always found the process to be straightforward.
However, every time you switch, you end up on a different meter reading cycle - this makes it virtually impossible to compare bills between comparable periods to monitor energy useage ( Irefuse to install 'Smart' meters - but that's another issue).
In the 'old' days I was sble to read the meters on Quarter Days (ie every 91 days give or tae a leap year day) and directly compare our energy useage.0 -
I have had terrible problems will the final bill when switching. Twice now I have been told I had money left in my account, reclaimed it and then was told I needed to pay more. NPower were very aggressive citing that I would be taken to court and credit score would go down if I didn't repay £28 immediately - just did to avoid the aggro. Sainsbury's / British Gas very kindly customer Service did try to explain why I needed to repay the £248 I received back and spent several phone calls and hours to try to get to the bottom of the issue. Eventually I did get the refund of £248 but it took a lot of effort and would have been very easy to believe that they were right and I owed it them instead of the other way round. If I had not been on the ball I think I would be £248 worse off.0
-
I agree that the smart meter issue is a big factor in moving. Since I've had a smart meter, I'd never want to go back to not having one. It's not just the hassle of having to take the readings, it's having to remember to do them in time to get an accurate bill. Furthermore, if you forget and then get an estimated bill, you can suddenly find you're either paying too much or too little.
When I moved to my current property, the house was supplied by British Gas with a smart meter. Fortunately at the time, Sainsbury's Energy was one of the cheapest deals, and that just happens to be provided by British Gas. So fortunately the smart meter still works.
I'd love for the comparison sites to be able to advise which other firms your smart meter will work with. I suspect (rightly or wrongly) that many of the deals offered to me would lose me smart meter functionality, and so I ignore them.0 -
Many electricity suppliers including E.On, British Gas, Sainsbury's, Iresa, and Places for People Energy give [FONT="]FRAUDULENT[/FONT] quotations, but Ofgem couldn't care less.
If you have an Economy 7 meter, instead of asking for your Day and Night kWh figures, they ask only for your total electricity consumption and then make a totally unjustified assumption about the percentage used at night. This means that their so-called 'quotations' cannot possibly be accurate.
Having told E.On's website that in the Seeboard region I use 2527 kWh (of which 24% is used at night), they then ignore this and say they are assuming 55% night usage. In fact, they assume an impossible 78% for which they mis-quote £280.35, but the true cost of their E.ON Saver Fixed 1 Year v13 tariff would be £403.06 !
I flagged up these scams to Ofgem's CEO Dermot Nolan at a meeting at the IET last September. He agreed that the practice was unacceptable, but he has done nothing about it.
Can MSE make a fuss about this deliberate misrepresentation? Not only are customers being ripped off, it bankrupts honest electricity suppliers (such as GB Energy) who provide truthful quotations.[FONT="][FONT="]
[/FONT][/FONT]0 -
My main gripes about switching, which I do from time to time, are:-
(1) It seems to take ages to get the refund of credit balances
and
(2) Once the switch has completed, the old supplier continues to take monthly direct debits. Paying two suppliers at the same time may cause financial problems for some.
Whilst suppliers always "recommend" leaving the DD in place until they get round to closing the account, they never explain WHY they recommend it. Although the reason is pretty obvious, suppliers won't admit that it is rarely, if ever, necessary.Warning: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards