My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?
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I just submitted my meter readings for June to Octopus. To my surprise, a £66 government support payment was credited to my account on 29 June?
I had only received 5 of the 6 payments, had kind of expected one in early April, but then assumed that the first one had gone into the previous account holders account (it's only been in my name since October).
I had only received 5 of the 6 payments, had kind of expected one in early April, but then assumed that the first one had gone into the previous account holders account (it's only been in my name since October).
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
My friend got an assistance alert yesterday - 40 mins late - as she was away from her phone.
When she visited her elderly mother it turns out she'd been up some wobbly steps trying to take a photo of the meter reading and had accidentally pushed the button ...
It reminded me to submit a reading today ...
When she visited her elderly mother it turns out she'd been up some wobbly steps trying to take a photo of the meter reading and had accidentally pushed the button ...
It reminded me to submit a reading today ...
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
This is a pretty horrific story of utter incompetence at the hands of Eon. Hopefully the woman sues the fuck out of them for lots of damages.
www.theguardian.com
‘Unbelievable’: E.ON’s rogue legal action ruins family’s finances
An error by the energy supplier resulted in a reader being unable to switch mortgage or use an overdraft
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
CH1 - you asked why your unit costs are higher than the Octopus ones quoted by gentlegreen. First, you need to look at your Shell's standing charges, these could be a lot lower and therefore higher unit costs, that should balance out for the 'average user' usage in your region, trouble is charges do vary in different regions, the 'headline' price cap is based on the average cost across the nation.
Otherwise, it could be that Octopus is actually cheaper than Shell, the price cap is the maximum a supplier can charge, so there's still a little variation across the various suppliers. If you know your annual usage, unit cost & SCs, you can work out how much you are paying with Shell, then you can put your usage figures into the Octopus*
website to get their quote, and decide if you want to switch.
* Edited link, if anyone is thinking of changing to Octopus, use that link for a quote, and we will both get £50 off our bills.
I am guessing there could be a very small saving, because on my combined usage, Octopus quoted £73.09pm and Shell quoted £74pm, so a saving of almost £12pa with the added benefit that Octopus is the only supplier recommended by 'Which?', they seem to have the best rated customer service and the lowest number of complaints per 100k customers to the ombudsman, and that's amongst all suppliers. Personally I would switch from Shell to Octopus on those figures.
* I've just noticed that Octopus charges a little less for people with smart meters, which I do, and don't know if Shell or OVO do, so that's another variable.
Otherwise, it could be that Octopus is actually cheaper than Shell, the price cap is the maximum a supplier can charge, so there's still a little variation across the various suppliers. If you know your annual usage, unit cost & SCs, you can work out how much you are paying with Shell, then you can put your usage figures into the Octopus*
website to get their quote, and decide if you want to switch.
* Edited link, if anyone is thinking of changing to Octopus, use that link for a quote, and we will both get £50 off our bills.
I am guessing there could be a very small saving, because on my combined usage, Octopus quoted £73.09pm and Shell quoted £74pm, so a saving of almost £12pa with the added benefit that Octopus is the only supplier recommended by 'Which?', they seem to have the best rated customer service and the lowest number of complaints per 100k customers to the ombudsman, and that's amongst all suppliers. Personally I would switch from Shell to Octopus on those figures.
* I've just noticed that Octopus charges a little less for people with smart meters, which I do, and don't know if Shell or OVO do, so that's another variable.
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cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
After my ombudsman complaint against OVO was settled, I did look to get online quotes from a few suppliers with the view to switching, but at the time they clearly wasn't very interested in taking on new customers, with the price cap going up every 3 months, so would only quote by phone and I couldn't be arsed with that, but that has changed now.
Plus, OVO pissed me off again, by not sending e-mails with the new tariffs from the 1st July, on their forum it was pointed out there's no legal requirement to give advance warning of tariffs going down, but someone replied with a screenshot of the OVO contract, which stated they would give advance warnings of ANY tariff changes, so yet another example of their lazy level of customer service.
I had on mind Octopus, for reasons listed in my last post concerning the best customer service, and Shell seemed to be rated in second place, so Octopus quoted £73.09pm and Shell quoted £74pm, and I calculated staying with OVO equals £74.05pm, so...
It's fuck off OVO, and hello Octopus!
Took about 5 minutes on the Octopus site to arrange the switch, but OVO managed to piss me off one last time, hopefully*, they hadn't registered my smart meters on the UK industry databases, despite them being fitted about 10 months ago, so I had to manually input them on the Octopus site.
*Assuming OVO doesn't find some way of fucking up the switch, I'll be a Octopus customer from Wednesday!
Plus, OVO pissed me off again, by not sending e-mails with the new tariffs from the 1st July, on their forum it was pointed out there's no legal requirement to give advance warning of tariffs going down, but someone replied with a screenshot of the OVO contract, which stated they would give advance warnings of ANY tariff changes, so yet another example of their lazy level of customer service.
I had on mind Octopus, for reasons listed in my last post concerning the best customer service, and Shell seemed to be rated in second place, so Octopus quoted £73.09pm and Shell quoted £74pm, and I calculated staying with OVO equals £74.05pm, so...
It's fuck off OVO, and hello Octopus!
Took about 5 minutes on the Octopus site to arrange the switch, but OVO managed to piss me off one last time, hopefully*, they hadn't registered my smart meters on the UK industry databases, despite them being fitted about 10 months ago, so I had to manually input them on the Octopus site.
*Assuming OVO doesn't find some way of fucking up the switch, I'll be a Octopus customer from Wednesday!
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cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
If anyone is thinking of switching to Octopus, use the link below to get your quote, and we will both get £50 off our bills!
octopus.energy
Octopus Energy
Octopus customers pay less: Cheaper than price-cap prices, rewards for using less when the grid is stressed, and smart tariff savings for your home, car or battery
octopus.energy
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Well, that was quick, it took under half an hour for this message to be displayed on my OVO dashboard -
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
There's not a lot between them on price, is there?
Will probably stay with Ovo for now because we're grandfathered in on getting interest on our balance, which it seems no-one does for new customers any more. That would probably cover the £1 difference going to Octopus. That being said, if I'd had your level of service Cupid, I'd be out too. It's why we will never, ever be with British Gas again. It just seems the old, pre-merger Ovo customers get taken care of better than the SSE ones.
Will probably stay with Ovo for now because we're grandfathered in on getting interest on our balance, which it seems no-one does for new customers any more. That would probably cover the £1 difference going to Octopus. That being said, if I'd had your level of service Cupid, I'd be out too. It's why we will never, ever be with British Gas again. It just seems the old, pre-merger Ovo customers get taken care of better than the SSE ones.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
I seem to get loyalty rewards from Octopus now and again - not sure exactly why, but might be because I originally signed up to Coop energy who were then taken over by Octopus. Its only 2 to 4 quid each year but better than nowt.I read somewhere that they had stopped paying interest in the UK, and I've never seen any 'reward credits' on my bills, even when I was hundreds of pounds in credit.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
co-op energy still exist (it's part of midland counties co-op) but it's some sort of partnership with octopus.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
Ta. wonder if it's a dividend I get then. I had to join that coop when I signed up so I guess it might be.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
It looks like Octopus brought Co-op Energy, because they got into financial trouble, but there's some deal that means the Co-op Energy brand continues, with customer accounts operated by Octopus, while Midcounties Co-op retains responsibility for acquiring new customers, I guess they get some sort of commission on new customers.
Same here with chrome, very unprofessional of them.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
No need to switch to a new supplier cupid_stunt , just get yourself one of these new daytime/nighttime solar panels and unplug from the mains forever
(either that or find a way to harness the inexhaustible energy of the contributors to the anti-car propaganda thread!)
(either that or find a way to harness the inexhaustible energy of the contributors to the anti-car propaganda thread!)
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
No need to switch to a new supplier cupid_stunt , just get yourself one of these new daytime/nighttime solar panels and unplug from the mains forever
It's interesting tech, but I think it has a long way to go before you could unplug from the grid.
'Night solar panels' are able to generate enough energy to charge a phone.
Is that thread still going? Jesus.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
As I think I have mentioned on this thread it is hard for me to monitor if my electric is going up because I have a meter which has a key which I charge with credit at a local post office.
There are no indications on the receipt as to how many electric units I have bought so I can't tell if that has changed, and on the other hand the length of time £50.00 in credit seems to last also seems similar to before but it could have reduced I have no way to tell.
There are no indications on the receipt as to how many electric units I have bought so I can't tell if that has changed, and on the other hand the length of time £50.00 in credit seems to last also seems similar to before but it could have reduced I have no way to tell.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Don't you have an online account with your supplier? I assume that would show all the details you need to know about their charges and what your payments are, per KwH.
The good news is pre-payment customers are no longer charged more than other customers, despite the higher cost to suppliers in administrating the system including payments to the post office or other outlets where you can top-up, about the only useful thing this hopeless government has actually done.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I don't have any online relationship with the supplier.
When I pay to charge the key I just get a receipt which basically says I paid X for electricity.
There is no mention on the receipt of how much electric I have bought, nor any web addresses.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
You must know who your supplier is, go to their website, register yourself and get access to your account, should be simple enough.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I will have a look on my next receipt.
If anyone is thinking of switching to Octopus, use the link below to get your quote, and we will both get £50 off our bills!
Octopus Energy
Octopus customers pay less: Cheaper than price-cap prices, rewards for using less when the grid is stressed, and smart tariff savings for your home, car or battery
I will do. The quote claims I'll be paying £60 a month rather than £100. Is it really easy just to switch (I'm currently with e.On)?
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Are you saying, you don't even know who your supplier is?
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Bloody easy, took me about 5 minutes.
And there's no interruption in service?
Edit: Oh and can I keep using the smart meter E.on gave me? Which is fucking great btw. No idea why people on here are anti them.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
No interruption in service.
Depends how old your smart meters are, mine are less than a year, so what they call a version 2 one, that works with any supplier. Most version 1 meters can have a software update to make them work with a new supplier, those that can't will be replaced for free by the new supplier.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I think it's Eon.
It changed some time back.
When I get my next receipt (I don't keep them anymore) - probably next week - I will confirm Eon and take a look at their website.
Ranbay
The same rules apply
If anyone is thinking of switching to Octopus, use the link below to get your quote, and we will both get £50 off our bills!
Octopus Energy
Octopus customers pay less: Cheaper than price-cap prices, rewards for using less when the grid is stressed, and smart tariff savings for your home, car or battery
Trouble is most people in debt now , best time switch is before the winter just before you out heating on.
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