[Misc] Gas/Electricity provider recommendations

[Wozza]

https://twitter.com/MartinSLewis/status/1552333029951131648

[tweet]1552333029951131648[/tweet]

 

[LamieRobertson]

I've been with Ovo for a few years - always happy with their service. I'm on a fixed until October...I'll let you know what I think about them when I see their offers then!!!! We have extra fleeces in the wardrobe.

Likewise with OVO (customer service i have no issues with) …my two year fix ends in November

Even worse news today …Macdonalds putting their prices up….cheeseburger by 20p to £1.19 shocking!

 

[raymondo]

Likewise with OVO (customer service i have no issues with) …my two year fix ends in November

Even worse news today …Macdonalds putting their prices up….cheeseburger by 20p to £1.19 shocking!

20% increase!! More expensive to take on those warmth calories now !

 

[worthingseagull123]

Fix while you can.

I fixed for 2 years with OVO back in April.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Fix while you can.

I fixed for 2 years with OVO back in April.

Fixes all now way above the Cap, so not now ...

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Having worked in the energy industry for a number of years, it's all absolutely Farked. Going with a fixed makes absolutely zero financial sense at this point - whereas before it made a bit of sense due to prices steadily rising, right now you'd need to be Mystic Meg to prophesize what's going to happen in the next 12 -18 months (and if you can, it's probably financially easier to get the winning lottery numbers anyway).

I decided to go with Octopus late last year - of the energy suppliers out there they seem one of the more tech savvy and stable (They've had half a billion pounds worth of funding from Al Gore's climate change fund), their CS team are great, the app works nicely, and their TOU and EV tariffs, once this has all blown over, will be incredibly good. They seem to be the only energy supplier out there trying to commit to staying as close to the price cap as possible. My advice is to go with them or one of the big 6 - although that boundary in and of itself is changing drastically, and certainly within 5 years I can see Octopus being the largest supplier in the country.

Honestly, there's never been a worse time to switch suppliers, and it's really just a case of which one you hate least at the moment - all of the tariffs out there right now are bloody horrific. But stick on a Standard Variable tariff if you can - it's really the only way you'll see any downturn in price quick enough. I am still gobsmacked that I'm saying that, as to have said that even 18 months ago would have seemed crazy.

Best of luck.

I agree, the whole energy market is up the creek. I worked in the industry for 25 years and I’ve never known it so bad.

My tale of woe has gone through the CAB, the CAB Extra Help Unit, the manager at the EHU, and the Ombudsman.
We had gas & electric with Pure Planet.
We were away in France for two weeks. My husband had a glance at some emails on his phone whilst we were away. There were two from PP, saying they were sorry to lose us! You only get 5 days to stop an erroneous transfer, and we were too busy enjoying the beach, restaurants etc
We emailed them immediately, they told us it was our broker who changed us to a firm called Pozitive Energy. We haven’t got a broker.

We found an email address for Pozitive who, it turns out, only supply gas to commercial properties. They admitted it was erroneous and gave us an ID number.
Pure Planet put an erroneous transfer into motion. It normally takes 12 weeks to reverse, but one month later Pure Planet went bust.

We had to wait to see who Ofgem were going to assign our electricity and were told to contact the new firm to action the ET.
By now it was January. Shell Energy supply our electricity, we have an account number and I rang them to ask to claim our gas supply. We emailed them copies of bills and emails proving our case. We heard nothing.

At the end of March tariffs changed (I had been taking monthly gas readings) and I got bak to the CAB.
This was escalated to the Extra Help Unit, of the CAB.
June - Pozitive Energy sent a letter to our address addressed to this commercial company threatening a warrant to disconnect us.

Now, the warrant has been stopped, but we are still classed as commercial on Ofgem’s supply, Pozitive still want to charge us at commercial rate, and won’t release us until it’s paid. The manager of the caseworker is invoking the Ombudsman and threatening PE with losing their licence.

Nightmare.

 

[Cotton Socks]

I took what I thought was a risk fixing in Oct last year. I waited 2 days to make sure I didn't get any early exit fee's and the price had increased by £30pm (I work out per kwh & standing charge etc, not by DD payments). I count myself very lucky to have got that fix until Oct '23, I know that when Oct '23 comes it's going to be a big shock, as unless something drastically changes my bill is going to be 50% of the cost I pay for the roof over my head. Someone mentioned the standing charge costing more than the gas/elec used, so it appears that even if you turn off the gas & elec at the meters some people still won't be able to afford their bill because of the standing charge. I don't know what the solution is but this can not be allowed to happen to so many people.

 

[Worthingite]

Thanks, that's interesting.

I think I'll take the hit for a couple of months on a fixed rate as I am using virtually no gas and electricity at the moment. I'll reconsider when I turn the heating on and see how things are then.It is shocking how fixed rate costs have gone up over the last month, at least I'm tied in if they keep going up and are eventually cheaper than standard rates

Is this scaremongering or a genuine warning?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/oth...sedgntp&cvid=d902827b67a74b69a03c54e8a6470d4e

Very genuine sadly. I read the Cornwall insights this evening and I genuinely wanted to cry. Honestly thought we'd seen the worst of it - but not in the slightest.

I still stand with my earlier statement of trying to stop on a standard variable tariff- but only just. I still believe that some intervention has to come to deflate the market, but I don't know how and where it's coming from. I actually don't really know what on earth Kwasi Kwarteng does for a living, because it sure isn't what he's supposed to be doing.

 

[Springal]

[tweet]1552539736086020097[/tweet]

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I agree, the whole energy market is up the creek. I worked in the industry for 25 years and I’ve never known it so bad.

My tale of woe has gone through the CAB, the CAB Extra Help Unit, the manager at the EHU, and the Ombudsman.
We had gas & electric with Pure Planet.
We were away in France for two weeks. My husband had a glance at some emails on his phone whilst we were away. There were two from PP, saying they were sorry to lose us! You only get 5 days to stop an erroneous transfer, and we were too busy enjoying the beach, restaurants etc
We emailed them immediately, they told us it was our broker who changed us to a firm called Pozitive Energy. We haven’t got a broker.

We found an email address for Pozitive who, it turns out, only supply gas to commercial properties. They admitted it was erroneous and gave us an ID number.
Pure Planet put an erroneous transfer into motion. It normally takes 12 weeks to reverse, but one month later Pure Planet went bust.

We had to wait to see who Ofgem were going to assign our electricity and were told to contact the new firm to action the ET.
By now it was January. Shell Energy supply our electricity, we have an account number and I rang them to ask to claim our gas supply. We emailed them copies of bills and emails proving our case. We heard nothing.

At the end of March tariffs changed (I had been taking monthly gas readings) and I got bak to the CAB.
This was escalated to the Extra Help Unit, of the CAB.
June - Pozitive Energy sent a letter to our address addressed to this commercial company threatening a warrant to disconnect us.

Now, the warrant has been stopped, but we are still classed as commercial on Ofgem’s supply, Pozitive still want to charge us at commercial rate, and won’t release us until it’s paid. The manager of the caseworker is invoking the Ombudsman and threatening PE with losing their licence.

Nightmare.

WOW!! A nightmare indeed!! How on earth can this sort of thing be allowed to happen!

Hope you manage to get it sorted ASAP ... and so that you're not financially disadvantaged!!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

WOW!! A nightmare indeed!! How on earth can this sort of thing be allowed to happen!

Hope you manage to get it sorted ASAP ... and so that you're not financially disadvantaged!!

We’ve put money aside, and the manager of the CAB EHU is very good. We felt as though we were banging our heads against a brick wall for months.

 

[mikeyjh]

Get a big fat wire across the incoming live and outgoing live free electric.

#justicemoneysavingexpert

Surely safer and more cost effective to swap the incoming and outgoing and make your meter go backwards? Some may argue that this carries a level of risk but in for a penny eh!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Surely safer and more cost effective to swap the incoming and outgoing and make your meter go backwards? Some may argue that this carries a level of risk but in for a penny eh!

I remember a chap in London wiring his meter, and was electrocuted. His young son went to cuddle him and was also electrocuted.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I've been with SO Energy for 2 years ... my current fixed rate ends in 9 days

I've been paying £90/month which has put me in credit over the year and a couple of months ago I voluntarily increased my payment to £150 to get myself ready for the price increase shock!

Based on my energy usage over the last 12 months SO have said that based on my usage and the variable rate I will move onto, my new payments will need to be £148. I haven't looked to see if they've allowed for the fact I'm currently just over £400 in credit ... and I guess we've got the £400 rebate to come at some point.

I'm also aware that that £148 will no doubt go up again very soon when the new price cap comes into play ... and then the next one ... repeat, repeat!!

 

[Gabbafella]

Lucky for us we're saving a bit money as we had our boiler serviced by K&T Heating yesterday and they ****ed it up so we've had no hot water for 24hrs.

 

[Eeyore]

[tweet]1552539736086020097[/tweet]

Mind you, even if they put the profits back into bills, after taking what they need for company reserves, it would make very little dent in bills. £59 million is dividends is peanuts.

The key issue is profit margin. It's certainly less than 10% before re-investment.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Mind you, even if they put the profits back into bills, after taking what they need for company reserves, it would make very little dent in bills. £59 million is dividends is peanuts.

The key issue is profit margin. It's certainly less than 10% before re-investment.

Yeh, a £59m dividend out of £1.3bn?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Mind you, even if they put the profits back into bills, after taking what they need for company reserves, it would make very little dent in bills. £59 million is dividends is peanuts.

The key issue is profit margin. It's certainly less than 10% before re-investment.

The shareholders have seen their shares double in price over 2 years in the midst of various economic crisis. So only right they get a dividend as well while the rest of us see fuel prices go through the roof. I see Shell posting record profits too. #together.

 

[Springal]

The shareholders have seen their shares double in price over 2 years in the midst of various economic crisis. So only right they get a dividend as well while the rest of us see fuel prices go through the roof. I see Shell posting record profits too. #together.

Yes might have doubled over 2 years - but Centrica was a 5 year high of 205p, crashed to 32p with covid , and only now trading at 87p.

 

[Worthingite]

I agree, the whole energy market is up the creek. I worked in the industry for 25 years and I’ve never known it so bad.

My tale of woe has gone through the CAB, the CAB Extra Help Unit, the manager at the EHU, and the Ombudsman.
We had gas & electric with Pure Planet.
We were away in France for two weeks. My husband had a glance at some emails on his phone whilst we were away. There were two from PP, saying they were sorry to lose us! You only get 5 days to stop an erroneous transfer, and we were too busy enjoying the beach, restaurants etc
We emailed them immediately, they told us it was our broker who changed us to a firm called Pozitive Energy. We haven’t got a broker.

We found an email address for Pozitive who, it turns out, only supply gas to commercial properties. They admitted it was erroneous and gave us an ID number.
Pure Planet put an erroneous transfer into motion. It normally takes 12 weeks to reverse, but one month later Pure Planet went bust.

We had to wait to see who Ofgem were going to assign our electricity and were told to contact the new firm to action the ET.
By now it was January. Shell Energy supply our electricity, we have an account number and I rang them to ask to claim our gas supply. We emailed them copies of bills and emails proving our case. We heard nothing.

At the end of March tariffs changed (I had been taking monthly gas readings) and I got bak to the CAB.
This was escalated to the Extra Help Unit, of the CAB.
June - Pozitive Energy sent a letter to our address addressed to this commercial company threatening a warrant to disconnect us.

Now, the warrant has been stopped, but we are still classed as commercial on Ofgem’s supply, Pozitive still want to charge us at commercial rate, and won’t release us until it’s paid. The manager of the caseworker is invoking the Ombudsman and threatening PE with losing their licence.

Nightmare.

That's horiffic- I don't envy you at all. The Ombudsman SHOULD be able to untangle that for you - it's whats the EOS was set up for in the first place. Best of luck with it