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Yet Another Energy Company Down The Tubes

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Canary42 | 16:35 Mon 22nd Nov 2021 | News
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Pity, it's my current supplier, and I found them very good at Customer Service.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59373198
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If I remember correctly, emmie, you believed you could use as much gas and electricity as you like for a fixed monthly sum paid by direct debit - is that right?
It’s mine too.
no that's not correct, i am single householder and use roughly the same everyday, i know prices go up but we had an agreement on a particular tariff and i pay up by DD every month, if i was using a lot more gas/electric then i wouldn't complain. But i am not. No central heating, and little use of high end appliances. So the computer according to the EDF churned out a figure and that was the bill i got this month. I still don't pay a lot all in all, but i told the man that with that increase in mind something else in my pension allowance would have to go. He did say that the prices are going to go up again, oh good.........
I'm with Octopus Energy and have found them extremely good in all areas. They have raised prices minimally but not for fixed rate customers. I would recommend them.
Shame the cost per unit wasn't fixed, emmie. My fixed rate ends on Christmas day and my monthly direct debit is going to triple.
chelle, Octopus never was cheap for me (I check prices regularly) and now they are not taking new customers at all. This is their website's front page:
Right now, energy prices are at record highs, and most homes will be better off staying with their current energy supplier for the winter.

If your fixed term is coming to an end, don't choose a new tariff or switch supplier.

Instead, let your supplier automatically move you to their default tariff, so your prices are protected by the Government's Energy Price Cap.

Would you like an email when prices fall?
as i believe will a lot of people's bill go that way. I was surprised by the increase
I wasn't - it has been in the news for months.
//…how so NJ.//

Because energy companies cannot charge their customers as much as it costs them to buy the energy.

//That cap was raised in August.//

Quite so, Danny. But in September and early October energy prices rose enormously Figures vary from 60% to 400%) and the increased price cap was nowhere near sufficient to cope with that.

//Hardly "the destruction of almost an entire business sector." is it?//

Depends how you look at it. The idea of competition in the energy sector was to allow smaller suppliers to enter the market and offer competitive deals. Because of the recent problems over half of them have gone to the wall with undoubtedly more to follow. It is unlikely that many more than the “Big Six” (plus perhaps Octopus and “Bulb” – recently effectively nationalised) will remain when it has all played out. Only these very largest companies have the financial resources to endure long periods of selling stuff for a lower price than they pay for it. Eventually customers will have little choice but to use one of them and between them they have little incentive to be competitive. The switching organisations such as USwitch have been unable to offer any tariffs for a month or more and millions of consumers have recently been switched away from their chosen suppliers who have gone into administration. So whilst the entire sector may not have been destroyed, a large part of it certainly has and customers will ultimately be the ones to suffer the fallout.

The principle of the price cap is preposterous. It’s rather like telling petrol stations that they can only sell fuel for a price lower than the wholesale price they must pay for it. Shell, Esso and BP (along with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) would get by but any independent fuel retailers would soon hit the buffers.
// It is unlikely that many more than the “Big Six” (plus perhaps Octopus and “Bulb” – recently effectively nationalised) will remain when it has all played out.//

I'm with Shell (ex First Utility) - not one of the "big six" but would the parent company let that name go down?
//I'm with Shell (ex First Utility) - not one of the "big six" but would the parent company let that name go down?//

Who knows, dave? The shareholders of Shell will not be too happy if they spend too long flogging gas and leccy for less than they have to pay for it. I notice that Shell Energy says it provides "100% renewable electricity (wind, solar and biomass). Leaving aside the biomass deceit, I'm not sure how Shell achieves this. I assume it gets its electricity from the National Grid and the NG does not provide 100% renewable electricity. In fact, even as I write, 52.5% of the Grid's demand is being met by gas and 3.5% by coal. Probably similar "accounting manoeuvres" to those used by Drax.
emmie, you need to contact your supplier as a few weeks ago you said your prices were fixed for two years. Your cost per unit should not go up
Barry, fair enough, I get a monthly update from MSE about prices and Octopus have always been in the top 3 cheapest for me.
A few suppliers have that message on their site as it is in the customers interest. You can still sign up with them if you really, really want to :)
Shell Energy have said "we aren't going anywhere!" & have taken on customers from a couple of the failed companies.
Barry My contract comes to an end in Jan, so they increased it some months early i guess. I wasn't best pleased.
emmie, they really are not allowed to do that. Contact them and tell them if they don't rectify it you will be reporting them to Ofgem.

If they estimate that your current payment will not meet your cost/usage then they will seek to increase it. It doesn't mean that you tariff (cost per KWH whatever) has changed.
dave, my monthly payment seems to go up or down every couple of months because their computer says I'm paying too much or too little as my usage has fluctuated; that is common practice and acceptable.

emmie seems to be saying that her cost per unit has increased causing her direct debit to increase.
British Gas have actually reduced my monthly payments and given me a rebate. How about that then;-))
//emmie seems to be saying that her cost per unit has increased causing her direct debit to increase.//

I think she would have been told if her tariff had changed (could check on line?) but she hasn't said that's so.

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