lose it

[alan_m]

And if you pay by Credit Card they become responsible for refunding deposits or payments on goods that are not delivered if the comapany goes under.

[alan_m]

In the many years that that these companies were operating they were forced to pay various levies into industry funds by the regulator. Part of these funds is to protect customers credit. The same was not true with MFI. However may customers did get their money back from the CC companies.

[alan_m]

You mean like what happened to car/house insurance 30 years ago when being able to buy directly over the phone and a bit later on-line cutting middle men and the need for multiple offices.

I believe that being able to operate with little financial backing was tightened up many years ago when a few suppliers originally went bust.

[alan_m]

It worked for 10+ years.

All the suppliers want the price cap removed so that they can charge the going rate. If one of the big suppliers goes down and the Government takes over I wonder if the price cap will disappear overnight.

[John Rumm]

So it seems...

MFI traded for 44 years

Energy suppliers are not actually the energy suppliers though. They are just the retail intermediary between the energy wholesale market, the consumer and the actual supplier; National Grid.

Hence all the parts need to operate under framework of regulation that makes the whole system work. Otherwise an energy company could go bust, leaving the consumer still connected to the national grid, the energy generator still supplying energy, only never getting paid for it, and having no contractual relationship with the consumer and so no way of recouping their costs. This might seem like a good deal for the consumer, but it would not make for a sustainable supply industry.

So Ofgem ensures that consumers remain connected to a viable retail supplier, and that credit and debit amounts are transferred to the new supplier if the original one is unable to continue trading. This keeps most people happy apart from the investors in the defunct energy company and the staff that worked for them.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

yip parasites off the good suppliers...

[John Rumm]

By "good" you mean the ones that have very poor customer service, and charge premium prices for that poor service I presume?

[tim...]

because it's the right thing to do

[alan_m]

Some of the remaining suppliers have many years of very large churn rates from dissatisfied customers.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

why?...you take a gamble you lose ...

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

totly

[alan_m]

Even if I had lost my credit I would still have been £1000s in pocket over all the years I've been switching compared to some of the expensive suppliers who you claim have been charging the market rate and are also holding on to approx £1 billion of customers money for energy yet to be consumed!

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

cheapskate...no wonder the country is fecked...race to the bottom

[tim...]

but you don't get a choice not to gamble

there is almost no leccy company offering "deals" for post payment

they all insist that if you want the best deal you have to pay monthly.

[tim...]

you obviously have a large leccy bill

for my usage, the difference between the best and the worst is about 60 quid a year

it would take 3 years for that to save me 1000s

[mechanic]

'leccy' - good grief!

[Dave Plowman (News]

Still claiming your free food parcels, Jim?

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

they were great they gave me a insight into the benefit society .... and how great it must be to get everything for nothing...

[Fredxx]

Do you work for your current income? Or do just think everyone else is bad for living off others' backs?