Getting a new energy tariff - or not

Who did what?

UK Power networks are the people who bring the volts to your door (possibly more than one company for the whole UK but it's them around here). They are the people you call when you have a power cut, nothing to do with billing. You can call them on 105. They then send out chummy with his van to fix the outage.

Exactly, a monopoly and you only pay the higher price!

That doesn't seem to square with wikipedia - it appears EDF Energy is owned by the French EDF (Electricite de France). EDF Energy controls the nukes. EDF Energy also has retail accounts of 5.7 million customers.

EDF Energy Networks was the distribution arm which was sold to a company owned by Li Ka Shing (of Port of Felixstowe and Three mobile, among many other interests), and renamed UK Power Networks.

UKPN is the Distribution Network Operator for much of southern England, but doesn't have retail customers. They trade as UKPN, not EDF-something.

So if you get a bill from EDF the power may be generated by EDF nukes but delivered along UKPN wires (if you live in the SE), and it's UKPN you call if you have a power cut.

Seems like it also had the distribution rights of London Electricity, SWEB, and Eastern Electricity. I think that if you never switched and are in the London, SE or Eastern regions, you would have ended up at EDF.

Theo

I'm currently paying that way with the monthly DD taken in advance but the amount is based on the annual consumption figures I entered. In the previous year I ended up in credit but mainly due to house improvements that resulted in me using less energy. A quick email and the credit was refunded back into my bank account.

You may argue that paying in advance and with a fixed amount I'm lending money to the energy company but (for my consumption) I'm probably paying a couple of hundred pounds less that any deals that the OP is being offered with his method of payment or even from EDF with DD. The Cheap Energy Club currently cannot offer me a cheaper deal. I don't necessarily chase the cheapest deal but this year I seem to have got lucky with taking out a new fixed price contract around 30 days ago (but signed up 60 days ago) with the same supplier before they increased prices in line with other suppliers.

I really don't mind which DD method they bill me but but for some people having a fixed monthly bill suits them for financial management purposes.

The context of the thread (AIUI) is that OP is suggesting the tariffs he is finding involve a monthly fixed payment with adjustment later, which is why he wanted a cheque/cash option. .

Ah - that's what you meant! :-)

But aren't Ofwat criticised by the water companies for keeping their prices down and making them pay up when they've done something naughty? In fact, we're all getting small rebates every year for the next few years since our water company was caught out:

I think there is a legal requirement to inform you before changing any amount taken on a variable DD hence a monthly bill[1]. However the time between being informed and the DD going through may be short. It also means that those who have signed up for paperless billing have to make the effort to go on-line at the appropriate time.

With my energy supplier the DD is a fixed amount every month and in advance. To meet the DD rules I probably only have to be told this once at the beginning of the contract because the amount doesn't change. Perhaps this saves in admin costs and allowing the bill to be any day from the 10th to the 15th of the month.

Last year, due to long periods without rain, I used 35 m^3 on the garden. That's around £70 worth of wastewater charge. What is annoying is that Southern Water won't allow an adjustment online. I have to phone them up and give them the meter reading. So far nobody has been round to check it, but I assume they will one day.

Plusnet take variable amounts by DD each month (due to call charges and random discounts) they do send an advance notice.

And what is wrong with profit? If you have a private pension this is mainly what it paying for it. The profit also pays for all the money that HASN'T been borrowed from the tax payer.

There seems to be a some myth that these industries when Nationalised had cheap prices, provided great customer service and invested in the future (or even invested in ongoing maintenance).

Even now Royal Mail seems to have woken up (20 years too late) to the fact they are losing a lot of business to their competitors and are now considering Sunday deliveries for packages.

Wasn't the reason for privatising water a sudden realisation that very little maintenance had been done on a 100 year old system and a massive injection of cash was required. Much better for a regulator to try and beat up a private company to sort out the problems rather than beat up the UK tax payer.

Many comparison sites have a cash/cheque/BAC/quarterly filter options.

First find the top prices using the filter options to include all methods of payment and then change the payment option to cash/cheque on a quarterly basis and all the available suppliers with those options will show prices £200 to £300 higher than the best in market.

I get the impression that most energy companies don't need that type of customer and will therefore attempt to price them out.

In other words, fixed DD benefits the supplier. On top of that, if the monthly sum is exaggerated the supplier benefits from the account credit, which AIUI was the point OP was making in the first place. The concern seems to be that suppliers can benefit by holding the customer's money. How would you propose to remedy this within the framework of a fixed DD?

I'm aware of this - I was only making the point that Octopus have an TV advertising campaign based only on Which? recommendations rather than prices.

Exactly what I did with Avro two years ago - I cancelled one contract (no exit fees) and signed up for their cheaper deal. This was at a time of falling energy prices.

This year MSE failed miserably - they didn't show any deals from my current supplier which actually had deals comparable with the cheapest suppliers in their list. Even when I switched to a new deal with my current supplier I couldn't select the tariff I'm on in the MSE list. It's only in the past few days they seem to have rectified this problem.

It looks as if you are going to be stuck with the tariff type you current are on and spending maybe £200 extra to make sure that you are not spending a few pennies too much by overpaying on DD.

I don't have problems with my DD because the amount taken over the year closely matches my usage. Even in the year where I reduced my annual energy consumption the excess was paid back quickly when requested.

Common sense comes into play. If you check your bills and find that the DD amount taken is excessive just email the company and request that the amount is reduced.

I'm with EDF and my account is currently in debit. They haven't increased the amount as they know it will pull back in the summer months. That happens when your agreement starts in the autumn as mine did.

They are better than United Utilities whose water bill forecasting is all over the place.