Energy Suppliers

[enigma27]

Hi.

Quick question.

end of this month my fixed rate comes to an end. SVR being offered looks a much better option as their new fixed rate they want to offer me is 800 pound a year more than my current rate. SVR estimate still looks less than what I pay now in direct debits.

Question is those that are on a SVR tariff and pay by Direct Debit how does the payments work? do you just have to keep an eye on the amounts being charged and change the Direct debit or does the company do it for you?

 

[MissChief]

Hi.

Quick question.

end of this month my fixed rate comes to an end. SVR being offered looks a much better option as their new fixed rate they want to offer me is 800 pound a year more than my current rate. SVR estimate still looks less than what I pay now in direct debits.

Question is those that are on a SVR tariff and pay by Direct Debit how does the payments work? do you just have to keep an eye on the amounts being charged and change the Direct debit or does the company do it for you?

The company sets the amount, usually far higher than your usage in my experience. The only real way to pay for what you use is to be billed quarterly and pay the bill when you receive it.

 

[enigma27]

The company sets the amount, usually far higher than your usage in my experience. The only real way to pay for what you use is to be billed quarterly and pay the bill when you receive it.

Thanks.

I am already paying over their estimate for SVR (2,200 vs 2,100) so will be interesting to see what they try and up it to.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Which you’ll typically get charged more for the privilege of paying quarterly following a meter read.

 

[robj20]

How is it going to save money when it will cost a couple of grand for the stove and install? That's the conclusion I came to. I can even get free logs from friends/inlaws but still doesn't make much sense

£1,795 all in, will be enough to heat the whole downstairs.
Even started looking at linking it in to the central heating somehow, possibly a burner with a back boiler.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Octopus not doing online quotes atm

 

[PiKe]

Octopus not doing online quotes atm

Phone them up if you want to join, I did yesterday no problem, even got on the SVR.

I need Octopus because they seem more competent when it comes to smart meters, last two providers never managed to get around to installing them for me.

I need an outgoing tariff for my solar panels too.

 

[BigBoy]

I'm going a bit mad with my situation..

I moved to utility point literally a month, maybe less before they went pop.

So now I'm allegedly with EDF.. that was about 6 weeks ago... They said don't do anything, wait for your account number etc etc.. usual stuff I gather.

The issue I have is I've no idea what I'm paying EDF, I supposedly can't or shouldn't leave until everything has been migrated and blah blah.. I called EDF and got a shrug, they can't talk to me about my account because I haven't got one etc. I pointlessly debated this with the person at EDF.. basically that I'm now a hostage.

All the while I'm conscious prices are going up and I'd quite like to at least know what I was paying and be able to change... I'm apparently on welcome variable which I'm going to guess is a pretty expensive tariff.

Instinctively I do wonder if when presented with a socking great bill by EDF they have any sort of leg to stand on in collecting, I never asked to be one of their customers, I wasn't given a choice of being one of their customers, I wasn't given a choice of tariff or the tariff rates beforehand so can't possibly have agreed to anything.

I get supplier of last resort and all that but I think this should be a far quicker process, Utility Point had about 200k customers, this cannot be a 2 month job.

But either way.. contracts being what they are surely you have to have a right to cancel or a right to change or at least the right to pay what you were expecting to pay before the move if you have no say in where you end up? Has anyone heard whether any of this is enforceable? I'm going to pay the bill and thank god I can afford to weather all of this but plenty out there can't and it feels stinky!

Also am I right in saying prices are pretty much constantly rising so there's little to no incentive to EDF to hurry up right?

Just WAIT! if you kept your DD setup with Utility point you will still be paying at the rate they had set, EDF WILL contact you, the process takes time. EDF has a specific team dealing with onboarding SOLAR (Supplier Of Last Resort) customers, they are working like mad to work through over 800,000 new customers we have accrued from the four providers we have taken on in the last year. The amount of work that goes into one account is staggering and still there are issues that hit Field Ops (like me) because accounts are not merged or aligned properly, its a daily phone call from me to accounts to get one thing or other straightened out. No the system is not streamlined or automatic, as each supplier uses a different system for managing customers, making the handover a painstaking task of manual entry in some cases.

As for prices and what tariff then I haven't a clue as that's nothing to do with me! Oh and no point badgering EDF's customer service staff either online or phone as until you account is set up they CANNOT HELP YOU!!!

 

[b0rn2sk8]

This ^^

You’ll be put on the SVR which is fixed until April so no, prices are not rising daily. They will next change in April 2022 which is 5 months away…

The SVR is the CHEAPEST tariff available by far, they are literally selling the energy to you at a loss which is why all the other companies went bust. The last thing you want to do right now is switch as there is nothing to switch to, most suppliers want you to fix at rates way higher than the SVR because that’s how much the energy costs right now. By all means switch but you’ll be paying more than just staying where you are.

Read the money saving expert advice pages, that will cover everyone of the points you have made. Read the ofgem advice, take a chill pill and don’t worry about it because there is nothing to worry about.

If you cancelled your direct debit then put the money aside for when you need to pay your bill. It will probably be about 20% more than what you would have otherwise paid at utility point.

 

[PiKe]

Looks like it'll be March before edf get through all the customers they've on boarded from Utility Point.

You will be paying the new higher rate from when utility point requested your closing meter reads, you are not still paying the fixed tariff you previously had, the previous two replies implying this are incorrect.

From the 18th September, you are paying roughly 20p/kwh electric and 4p/kwh for gas, canceling the DD with UP has absolutely no bearing on it.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Looks like it'll be March before edf get through all the customers they've on boarded from Utility Point.

You will be paying the new higher rate from when utility point requested your closing meter reads, you are not still paying the fixed tariff you previously had, the previous two replies implying this are incorrect.

From the 18th September, you are paying roughly 20p/kwh electric and 4p/kwh for gas, canceling the DD with UP has absolutely no bearing on it.

Not sure if you are referring to me or not. I clearly didn’t imply they would be carrying on the old prices in fact I said the opposite. I clearly said it would be about 20% more than the old prices, assuming they were around 15/16p for electric and 3-3.5p for gas at the point they went under which is roughly where all the small providers were prior to the SVR going up to it’s current level.

It shouldn’t need explaining that the new prices apply from the day utility point went bust, they no longer exist as an energy supplier so it should be pretty obvious.

 

[matt100]

Just WAIT! if you kept your DD setup with Utility point you will still be paying at the rate they had set, EDF WILL contact you, the process takes time. EDF has a specific team dealing with onboarding SOLAR (Supplier Of Last Resort) customers, they are working like mad to work through over 800,000 new customers we have accrued from the four providers we have taken on in the last year. The amount of work that goes into one account is staggering and still there are issues that hit Field Ops (like me) because accounts are not merged or aligned properly, its a daily phone call from me to accounts to get one thing or other straightened out. No the system is not streamlined or automatic, as each supplier uses a different system for managing customers, making the handover a painstaking task of manual entry in some cases.

As for prices and what tariff then I haven't a clue as that's nothing to do with me! Oh and no point badgering EDF's customer service staff either online or phone as until you account is set up they CANNOT HELP YOU!!!

Thanks for the detailed response!

Fwiw I haven't cancelled anything so yeah I'm just waiting. I hadn't really thought of the SVR thing so all the panic in the press was nibbling away at the back of my head lol.

 

[DarkBahamut]

The real issue with accounts taking so long to merge over is you have no account management in the mean time. So if you had a low DD on a fixed tariff, the new tariff is much higher but you can't adjust your DD, so in the months it takes an account to be setup you slip into debt on your account. No issue with the new charges as they're the capped rate, but not being able to actually increasing your DD payments to something sensible to avoid getting a large inital bill (and likely a large 'compenstated' DD after the fact) is somewhat frustrating.

 

[dlockers]

The real issue with accounts taking so long to merge over is you have no account management in the mean time. So if you had a low DD on a fixed tariff, the new tariff is much higher but you can't adjust your DD, so in the months it takes an account to be setup you slip into debt on your account. No issue with the new charges as they're the capped rate, but not being able to actually increasing your DD payments to something sensible to avoid getting a large inital bill (and likely a large 'compenstated' DD after the fact) is somewhat frustrating.

Put the cash to one side yourself? You've already past the first straight face test by acknowledging there is an increase.

 

[413x]

How do you go about getting a refund from your old supplier who went bust?

 

[Simon]

How do you go about getting a refund from your old supplier who went bust?

Funds will move to new supplier

 

[LeeUK]

I'm with Bulb, I'll only switch to another company who doesn't add themselves to my credit file. Made that mistake a few years ago with British Gas. Hate my credit files getting messed up unnecessarily.

 

[BigBoy]

I'm with Bulb, I'll only switch to another company who doesn't add themselves to my credit file. Made that mistake a few years ago with British Gas. Hate my credit files getting messed up unnecessarily.

Then you will be without energy as all suppliers perform credit checks, its the depth of the check that makes the difference (Hard check or soft check), most are soft checks and they have very little impact on your credit file, the same as searching for car insurance or a new current account without an overdraft. Hard checks stay on your file for 3-5 years after they have been closed.

 

[MissChief]

Provided Octopus with a meter reading, around six weeks since I joined them. They asked for £92.26 upfront and I’ve made another payment last month and a payment is due in the next few days. After the readings have been applied I’m £142 in credit still, although I did get a £50 referral credit. When my next payment is made my account will be £230 in credit. Ridiculous IMO although I’m sure I’ll use more gas as it continues to get colder but I still reckon I’ll be in credit.

 

[413x]

Provided Octopus with a meter reading, around six weeks since I joined them. They asked for £92.26 upfront and I’ve made another payment last month and a payment is due in the next few days. After the readings have been applied I’m £142 in credit still, although I did get a £50 referral credit. When my next payment is made my account will be £230 in credit. Ridiculous IMO although I’m sure I’ll use more gas as it continues to get colder but I still reckon I’ll be in credit.

Scottish Power are taking 150ppm from me. I'll let it slide for a couple of months but even with the hikes it's not going to be that month.

Energy companies are (obviously) trying to sneak in heft DD rises. Every customer 500 pounds in credit. Thats a big buffer.

In water sector I don't think companies were allowed to earn interest on in credit balances. Probably not case in energy!