OT: Switch power provider recommendations

[AnthonyL]

I want to get away from the supplier that I foisted upon me when my provider (Powershop) sold up.

The supplier resembles a sixth form college exercise gone wrong.

I'm not expecting any good deals but just want:

1) Accurate billing based on my monthly readings 2) Payment on receipt of bill, preferably credit card 3) Opt-out of repetitive smart meter bombardments 4) Customer support staff who focus on accurate information rather than being nice with emojiis etc, though I'd hope not to have to need to use services in the first place 5) Preferably dual fuel with E7 & Daily treated as one tariff 6 Likely to be around for a few months yet

Pointers please.

[Andy Burns]

I got switched to EDF, who I'd never used before, other than being quite a drawn-out process, they haven't actually managed to f*ck anything up so far, and to be fair they did have to move over a large number of customers.

I'm sure there are no good deals right now, but maybe just maybe some less worse ones will appear before the new cap kicks in, or if they don't you can decide if you want a 1 year fix and avoid another price cap rise in october?

I kept my monthly "annual average" direct debit, I don't think EDF would offer monthly payments based exactly on monthly readings, because they say they only want a reading every 6 months.

they do have a "no smartmeters please" option on the website

you mean you have an E7 meter, but you want night rate to use day prices? I thought they could all offer that as a way of "not really" being on E7, must be lots of people for who the overnight usage doesn't make it worthwhile.

Personally I'm waiting a bit ...

[Martin Brown]

Dream on.

That rules out most of the decent tariffs worth having. You pretty much have to go DD to get any sort of decent price contract. I'm very glad my fixed price term has nearly another year to run.

Never going to happen until you get one.

What planet are you on?

Annoying for those of us who cannot have dual fuel since gas is not actually available in many rural villages. We are in the danger zone of one of the UK's high pressure pipelines though!

Any of the real electricity or gas supply companies that actually have production of electricity and/or gas distribution within their control.

Not some daft fly-by-night paper billing operation with a fashionista name like "Demented Aarvark" or Zog (real example!).

I'd avoid NPower though - their billing is truly incomprehensible but the rest are all much of a muchness. I'm presently with SSE.

[Dave Plowman (News]

If your supplier can last that long, while losing money?

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

SSE/OVO seem the lowest cost provider generally ATM.

It may depend on your E7/day useage split e.g if you have storage heaters, in which case Utility Warehouse may be cheaper due to their night rate of 7.56p/kWh (when I last checked).

I have no connection with either company and I am in much the same situation as yourself, as I have been shunted over to BG but when I am allowed I will be heading over to one of the above. (Of course it may all change after 1 April when the, new 'Price Cap'sic, takes effect)

[alan_m]

As I understand it, if you were moved to a new supplier as a result of your old supplier going bust or if your fixed price contract with your current supplier ended you were moved to their variable standard rate contract(s) where the prices are currently capped.

If you now want to move to another supplier they will not accept you on a standard variable rate (price capped) contract so you have to move to one of their other contracts such as fixed price for a year. The tariffs on these contracts have already factored in the current and future predicted wholesale rates which is equivalent to factoring in the April and October increases in the price cap plus a bit. This is why the recommendation is id to stay with your existing supplier at the current time.

[John Rumm]

I got shifted from Avro who used to have a flat rate price for all units used regardless of which register on the meter recorded it, to Octopus, who run a split rate.

When I looked into it they do have a flat rate tarif, but on doing the sums I was actually better off on the split rate one, even though I

*don't* have storage heating etc. Night time use is probably 1/3rd to a 1/4 of day time)

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

Not necessarily so, there are still variable rate deals available that are not price capped, although these will no doubt see price increases very soon.

The tariffs

[Martin Brown]

That is why I specified one that has *real* generating capacity and isn't just a brain dead billing utility company reselling a random commodity that they buy in on the spot market and do not understand.

People making electricity are not in any great danger of going bust.

[David Wade]

Try Octopus. They will bug you to take a Smart Meter as the government bugs them. I liked my Octopus smart meter. The historic usage stats were really great. I moved to EDF because they still had a reasonably priced fixed deal.

I don't believe they accept credit cards.

They will do monthly billing.

Dave

[alan_m]

A supplier that is generating electricity but then making a loss selling the same to it's own customers can go bust.

[Martin Brown]

They are only making a loss selling it to some of their more savvy domestic customers. The bulk of their consumption is profit making.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

No the Russians should stop harrasing Ukraine and start up an energy company. Putin Power kind of rolls of the tongue. Brian

[Nick Odell]

Yebbut - are you sure you'd want a bill dispute with them?

Nick

[PeterC]

I'v been with Octopus for about 3 years now. Never has a S(mart)tupid meter been mentiond. Very helpful a couple of times. I don't know about credit card for the actual bill; used one only for paying any deficit. My fixed tarriff ends this month; the e-mail warning was sent late January, so plenty of time. The alternatives in the e-mail had no fixed tariffs as links and there weren' any accessible on the site - warning re. fixed exceeding variable by so much that it would be a bad choice. DD gone from £50 pcm to £106 PCM :-(

[alan_m]

Aren't they making a loss on all customers who still have an ongoing "old" fixed price deal and all of their customers who are on the price capped variable rate. It's was often stated that the majority of customers were never off the (now heavily capped) standard variable rate tariff.

[newshound]

Although EDF (France) are now being bailed out by their government because they were required by them to sell below cost to competitors!

[newshound]

The boys will come round to "check your meter".

[Theo]

I was keeping an eye - in Jan there was a 'Loyal Octopus' tariff which I could switch to via my online account. eg for London: Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed January 2022 v1 Eco 7 Electricity Day unit rate: 37.2 p/kWh Night unit rate: 21.99 p/kWh Standing charge: 23.38 p/day Electricity Unit rate: 32.49 p/kWh Standing charge: 23.3 p/day Gas Unit rate: 9 p/kWh Standing charge: 26.1p/day They recently posted an update on the price cap from April: https://octopus.energy/blog/energy-price-cap-february-2022/ with figures which are *not* the new tariff, but the new cap: Direct Debit: Electricity (single rate): 29.63p/kWh Standing charge: 27.72p Gas 7.51p/kWh Standing charge 27.22p So unless you use almost no units a day, the capped tariff is probably cheaper. (and may be cheaper still, when they announce their actual numbers) Of course the cap could go up even further in October, and maybe the 12 month fixed tariff will work out better then.

Theo

[Andrew]

They are if they use coal to generate the electricity.