Energy companies' stranglehold

Elegran good thinking!

My problem is that I don't trust the energy companies or the politicians (and I don't just mean Milliband).

Well, my monthly energy direct debit has just doubled and, given that I'm retiring this week it is a real concern, especially as they are probably going to put the price up soon as well. Something has to be done in one way or another because how can we plan ahead financially if we don't know how much we will have to pay in the future?

Doubled! That is outrageous tegan - did you have a series of estimated readings that were on the low side or anything?

Ruddy hell 100% increase!

Is it rude to ask which supplier that is Tegan?

Tegan 100% increase? Something is wrong to say the least. I've always found I've been overpaying on DD but it's always been adjusted. One way for energy companies to have free working capital

There are various fixes available so at least you'd have a better budgeting idea. Have a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com for some impartial advice. Apologies if I'm stating the obvious

Need to look at the bill in more detail. I was paying very little but am a bit concerned given that I haven't had the heating on for months and I don't do much cooking. It was £48 a month but is now £99 [which doesn't sound a lot but will be when I'm on a very limited budget starting tomorrow!]. I'm sure I gave them a reading not long ago when I stopped the Economy 7. I do find energy bills confusing to say the least. Am with N Power. Need to speak to them to see if I'm on the best tariff [for starters, at least].

Why did you come off Economy 7 - did you get rid of storage heaters?

There is an excellent article in October's Which magazine. Lovely clear writing.
When electricity was privatised the companies were not allowed to be both generation and distribution companies. Then "they" were allowed to become "integrated" and that is apparently why there is such a miserable amount of competition in the electricity market.

There's no such thing as competition if a few big players dominate the market and follow each other's lead where price rises are concerned.

I am now reading my meters monthly and EDF send me a revised bill within the next couple of days. This is a way that I can keep a handle on what is happening.

I had mega problems with EDF when I first switched about 9 months ago- EDF thought that I should pay a miniscule amount of money each month but we now appear to be in agreement re the direct debits.

Tegan read your meters around the same date each month and hopefully you should not run into debt.

Bill said I was £13 in credit .

I have just had a letter from my energy supplier to say they are reducing my costs. They have just one tariff which was based on the basic tariff of the local big six. Now it is going to be less.
Miliband is being blackmailed by the big six. If you do not like this, change to Ecotricity. Of course, you will not do this if you do not like wind turbines as that's where their profits go. However, at least your money is not going to shareholders who could not care less about climate change.

I'll check that out.

tegan - why did you stop the economy 7 (pm me if you want)
That is not very clear jendurham - you seem to be making a lot of points in your post and it has left me confused.

Elegran "Fit a dynamo to your exercise bike?"

Just a thought, but given all the stuff about children becoming obese and playing computer games/watching too much TV, how about connecting them to an exercise bike? Pedalling away for X amount of time, which would then allow them Y amount of computer/TV? 2 birds, one stone, sorted!

Or treadle sewing machines converted to power laptops - I like it.

Sorry, JessM. Did not mean to confuse.
I get my gas and electricity from a company called Ecotricity.
They base their prices on the standard tariff of your local electricity supplier, which here is NPower, and your gas on British Gas standard tariff.
Any profits that they make go into building wind turbines and researching alternative fuels. They are researching wave power and green gas at the moment as well as building wind turbines. If you live anywhere near Swaffham in Norfolk, you can climb their wind turbine there.
I believe in alternative technology anyway, and I work on the principle that, as I have to pay for gas and electricity, I would rather pay a company that does what I believe in, rather than have my payments diverted into the pockets of shareholders.
On Monday, I have to give them an electricity reading because they have now decided not to mirror the Big Six companies and are reducing their tariff. They only have one tariff now anyway.
I can give them my reading online, or I can phone their customer service reps. The phone will be answered straight away, by someone who knows what is going on.
www.ecotricity.co.uk for anyone who wants to find out.
If you are with the Big Six and do not like their blackmailing of the Labour Party's attempt to cut their profits, it seems a no-brainer to me to change to Ecotricity.

I wasn't using the nightime rate, Jess; tumble dryer wouldn't switch on from a timer and I use gas to heat my water. With Economy 7 the daytime rate is higher [I believe] and that's when I was using most of the gas/electricity. Someone else has told me about Ecotricity today [at least it was a supplier beginning in E so I assume that's what it was!].

Ah so no storage heaters in the plot tegan - why on earth were you on E7 in the first place then? (being nosy now)
We get ours from Good Energy jen

Don't have a combi boiler and have always had a large immersion heater so we used to heat the water overnight for the next day. Always planned to use the washing machine, dishwasher and tumble dryer at night but never did. Only recently realised that it made my daytime rate higher [and, of course, when my heating packed in last year I was using electricity to heat the water again for a while] and didn't realise that it was a simple process to stop it. May be that my energy bill dropped last year because I had no gas for ages and was, in fact, freezing cold for quite a long time. Mind you, as a nocturnal person, now I'm retired [hurrah] I might revert back to sleeping all day and regret switching. But, not being at work also means I may have to keep the house warmer during the day. Better buy some thermals methinks....

Good Energy sounds okay as well. I particularly like the idea of them building Delabole windfarm instead of a nuclear power station.
Checked it out and Ecotricity is cheaper for me. My last bills were cheap anyway because I was in hospital for 3 weeks, then went to stay at my son's for nearly three months. I do not feel guilty as I bought their combi boiler and they haven't paid me back yet.
Tegan, you've just reminded me that my boiler needs servicing.

Delabole was the first wind farm I ever saw and I found it an amazing sight, although the original ones were very noisy I believe and it would have driven me bonkers if I lived there [I used to live not far away at one time]. Delabole also used to have the best fish and chip shop in the world until it changed hands. Going to check out Ecotricity; daft question but I assume it's still the same process if you have, say, a gas leak?

Of course, N Power give you so much money back each year so, if you switch from them you have to make sure it's just after you've had it. Crafty they are.

Interesting comment on 'Your Money' today (BBC). Freeview 80.

They had as their guest a woman called Anne Robertson or Robinson from U.Switch.

She said she couldn't understand why Labour have said they would freeze energy bills for 20 months, why, because you can freeze your bill right now and for a longer period of time than Labour have announced. What an excellent point. She said in her opinion competition is best for the market. I didn't think about that.