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Cheeky fuel suppliers

(12 Posts)
whitewave Thu 16-Mar-17 15:09:06

I have a dual fixed price from N power. I pay £65 pm DD. This month I was informed that it had gone up to £131 pm.

Initially I "chatted" on line to ask why the over 100% price increase and was told it was due to inreased usage. I hadn't at that point checked and compared Year on year. She offered to reduce my bill to £96.

I then extremely laboriously went through past statements. The company's site is soooooo slow. However established that in fact my usage had gone Down!!!

I then phoned and spoke to a person who offered to put it back to the original. I asked what the price increase will be and from when? Told it was nearly 10% from today. I asked him to change my direct debit to £71.50. That was that.

However I have just discovered that the price rise doesn't cover fixed prices!!!! So he must have known this. Bloody Hell!!!!!

I am now going to look at other suppliers. They are so cheeky and how many people are accepting without question.

whitewave Thu 16-Mar-17 15:52:57

Just switched to a little Italian Company and now paying £62 pm. Cheapest I can find.

Tizliz Thu 16-Mar-17 17:39:41

N power is the most expensive, obviously to pay all those well trained service agents ?

Takingthemick Thu 16-Mar-17 17:46:18

I get so fed up of this nonsense, every time something comes up for renewal we have to spend hours comparing deals. So much for competition! How difficult it must be for people still working.

whitewave Thu 16-Mar-17 17:47:13

tiz the reason I started this thread was because I was reading last week that the vast majority of people never switch, so I reckon the fuel suppliers are getting away with millions.

Tizliz Thu 16-Mar-17 17:52:02

On one hand I cant believe how many dont switch but on the other hand it is so time consuming and confusing. I have just taken a 3 year fixed tariff, hopefully I will be better off in the long run but the bonus is that I am not going to look again for three years.

Chewbacca Thu 16-Mar-17 18:02:14

I was with British Gas for many years and always paid by monthly direct debit. Every year I haggled with them when they increased their prices. A young couple moved in next door and told me that they used a company called First Utility and couldn't be beaten, and so I called them. My monthly direct debit now, 3 years later, is still not as high as I was paying to British Gas. First Utility send me an email at the beginning of each month, asking me to provide a meter reading and they contact me to let me know if my usage has been extra high and whether that will exceed their annual usage forecast. I pay £41.00 per month for both gas and electricity and am very satisfied with them.

vampirequeen Thu 16-Mar-17 18:08:29

You have to stay on the ball with everything these days. I joined the AA last year for £11 a month. This month I got a renewal letter telling me what a valued customer I am and then saw they'd increased the monthly payment to £31. Apparently they value me so much that they want me to pay almost three times for the same cover. Needless to say I shopped around and found it much cheaper but as a matter of interest I got another quote from the AA as a new customer and surprise surprise it would cost £11 a month. So I rang the AA to ask why they were increasing my payment by so much. The answer was because I was no longer a new customer. So I asked if I could cancel and be a new customer again but that's not allowed however she said she would work out a better discount. First she reduced it to £24 a month and then when I still wasn't happy it went down to £19 a month. When I pointed out that I could still get it cheaper elsewhere and told her the price she simply said that she couldn't match that. So come the end of April I will be moving to another auto rescue company with exactly the same cover but instead of paying £372/£300/£228 per annum I will be paying £63.

whitewave Thu 16-Mar-17 19:05:40

I am going to do exactly that inJune when our roadside recovery is up for renewal with the AA.

mcem Thu 16-Mar-17 19:25:45

Although Sainsbury's fuel is linked to British Gas I find they are significantly cheaper. Switched in November and am a couple of pounds in credit. A reasonable position to be in in March.
£70 pm seems to be covering it well.
Found npower very inefficient. Took 18 months to get back on track after my electricity meter was changed and somehow the change wasn't put into the system.
Lost count of the phonecalls and emails to them!

Parklife1 Sat 25-Mar-17 11:54:53

We switch fuel suppliers regularly. It's a faff, but important when you need to keep costs down as much as possible. I switched my bank account to one that isn't fee paying and gives interest. When that runs out, I'll switch again. I switched house insurance after the price increased considerably.

My income isn't going up, so something else has to come down.

Charleygirl Sat 25-Mar-17 12:54:43

I live in a 3 bedroom house and I have recently switched from EDF to Octopus and now only pay £49 a month.

I am like Parklife1 I am forever checking and changing if necessary.