Economy Seven Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Further angles to consider

No company gives away free credit, so in one way or another customer will pay.

I have noted that other utility companies (even some of the big boys) are doing a similar thing by splitting the DD for winter and summer.
In a way, it makes sense. If you want to get the cheapest deal then you cannot expect those companies to also offer free credit as well.
Assuming that suppliers forward buy their fuel and then a large number of customers join just before the winter period that only pay monthly averaged direct debits, then clearly they will be incurring losses over this period . This will force them to look at addressing their finances.
This may be what happened in the case of E7E but I think that their reaction was somewhat heavy handed. After I made a complaint they have agreed to look at revising their figures.

I think that irate customers should sit back and consider these points; otherwise they may well be shooting themselves in the foot.

1 You most likely chose E7E because it was the cheapest deal for your usage and unless there are radical changes it is likely to be so over a 12 month period.

2 If you pay higher charges in the winter and lower charges in the summer, your fuel bill will still be the same and remain the cheapest over a 12 month period.

3 If you need the credit offered by an averaged DD in order to level your finances, then it would be necessary to perhaps move to a supplier who will guarantee that; but I suspect you will pay a lot more over a 12 month period.

One may liken it to BT rental charges. Pay a year upfront and it will be significantly cheaper.
Conversely, pay monthly and it will cost you more.

Only the individual can make those decisions. I would add however that it is in your own interests to record all your monthly readings to give yourself some idea of your varying usage and will enable you to present a factual case should the need arise. It does not take much time for what possibly could save you £100- £300

I take the view that one should sit back, keep tabs on what is still a volatile market, because I always have the option to change WITHOUT penalty when it suits me.

Many of the big boys do not offer these terms and their service often leaves a lot to be desired.
My son rets a property where the exiting tenant used Npower. It took 2 months to get any sense from them and on one occasion it took 4 hrs, yes 4 hrs, to get connected to a service agent. Good job it was a 0800 number, but having said that the cost of these calls to the supplier are all factored into your bill.

I too received a notice of higher DD. Beware their estimate is not what they say it is (a rebalancing of the payments over the year). In their note, they also increased my estimated annual energy usage by approx 25%. This doubly hikes the winter DD and does not reduce the summer DD enough. If they have done the same with every customer, they will take in a huge amount of cash in advance of supply. I hope they don't go bust with all that spare cash sloshing around.

That is not the only problem I am having with them. Their website won't let me log on to do anything at all (even change my password). Their excuse is that they are "waiting for industry information to filter through." Utterly meaningless phrase. I have sent my gas and electricity meter readings by email to them.

Their cyber-security procedures and software is rather weak. I raised a Data Protection concern with their DP officer in another company of the group. They acknowledged receipt. I don't see that anything has improved in the last month.
As a precaution until they fix the weaknesses, I recommend customers use a long and very random password not used on any other website. If/when a criminal hacker breaks into their system, they will get a random password not used anywhere else. I hope they are keeping my important financial information more securely than my account password.

Stay away from [EMAIL="FWD.katd5nh8vsgd@opayq.com"]Economy Seven Energy[/EMAIL]!! Within days of joining they 'upped' their charges. Then, a few weeks later, they announced they were unilaterally changing the Direct Debit charges. The email stated:


"As part of our obligations as an energy supplier and in accordance with Ofgem’s guidance, we are required to do all we can to limit the risk of customers accruing a debt on their account."



Apparently we were to pay more in the winter and less in the summer. My new DD was to be £251 (Oct to Mar) & £107 (Apr to Sep).



Great, but they failed to consider I/WE CAN NOT AFFORD £251 p/m!!! If they implement this it is game over for us as we just can not afford it, plain and simple..... Things were tough before but this will be the killer blow...


Before all you Haters fire up your keyboards, yes, my wife and I both work!! Her 12 hour shifts (7pm to 7am) and I am Postman. But with extortionate Private rent etc, etc we struggle every month....



I can not believe companies are allowed to change contracts like this!! Re-Nationalise the lot I say!!