What Gas/Electric Company????

I could really use some advice.  We are using eON and I think we are not getting great service.  I cannot figure out our bill and we are getting a huge bill.  It really makes me feel stupid for not understanding the ins and outs of how they work. 

First, of who do you use and are you happy with them?  Do you feel you are getting value, customer service, and can you understand the bill?

Second, we found this company that seems fair and easy to understand.  Does anyone use them?  http://www.ebico.co.uk/html/home.php  If so do you like them, do you think the billing is easy to understand, and what region are you in i.e. Wales, Scotland or England as it depends upon region you are in who supplies your utilities. 

First, of who do you use and are you happy with them?  Do you feel you are getting value, customer service, and can you understand the bill?

Im in Scotland and use Scottish Power.
The rest, i cant really answer... i pay by direct debit and never think about value or customer service.  I have leccy... that's all i care about.   Slightly embarrassing, perhaps, but i never look at the bill.  I dont even open it when it comes in the post.   As long as my direct debit does not increase, i will probably continue to ignore the bill.

Without seeing your bill I'm assuming you're getting your bill quarterly.  I'm with eON with their online service - they email me and I put our meter readings in myself before our bill is cut, but we pay by monthly direct debit. Are you paying your bill in full monthly or quarterly or do you just pay by direct debit each month?  You pay x amount set up between you and the provider and they use that to cover your usage each quarter - its kind of complicated to explain it and this may be how you're paying if you're having difficulty reading your bill. Its done this way so you're paying the same amount all year round, but usually use more electricity & gas in winter, but its kind of like putting your money in "savings" with your provider to cover your winter bills - it ends up equalising itself in the end.

Usually every provider lists their prices per quarter (even if you pay monthly).  You pay one rate for the first so many kWh, then the price is lower once you go over that quarterly limit.  I'm looking at my eON bill and its quite easy to read, but then kWh's make no sense to me. I just go by usage.  If you're using a lot of high energy items in your house or not switching items to standby your bill will go up...  On your bill it'll also give your meter number (you'll be able to see it on a little plaque) - you may want to just double check that they're giving quotes for your meter & not your neighbor's.  (When we first moved into our house and switched from British Gas to Powergen they ended up switching our neighbor's power over, but were sending the bill to us and the only way they found out was when I read the meter # out to them once I closed account with them.  But we've since gone back to them and are happy with them, but need to reassess our bill just to make sure we're getting the best deal for us.)

Have you checked to see if your property is Economy 7 (different rates for daytime from evenings)?  This may also make your bill harder to read.

We tried Scottish Power, but their prices just got to be outrageous because they quote you their rate, but conveniently forget to mention their daily surcharge for the privledge of being their customer.   

If you look at your bills they'll tell you what your starting meter reading was and your closing meter reading for x amount of time.  If you're billed quarterly just split your bill into thirds to get an average monthly usage.  You'll also want to figure in how much you pay each month as well...  Then you'll probably want to check with sites such as uSwitch.com or Money Saving Expert, Which? etc. just to see if another provider would be cheaper.    

Sorry for the long rambling post.  If you need me to clarify just let me know.   

Thank you Genau for your information.

Criostin,

I am like you we get our bill quarterly but pay monthly by direct debit.  We have been putting in our meter reading on line.  I spent what can only be described as customer call centre hell trying to tell the eON guy that yes we use more in the winter but I did not need to change my direct debit as much as he wanted because come end of April/May we would drop drastically.  We have not been in the house a year yet but once the warmer weather comes we will start spending all our time outdoors and not even use most items in the house.  We cook outdoors and spend all our time out there till it starts to get dark.  So the more I tried to explain to him that it will even out the more he just would not listen.  Our first bill was between June to September 2007 for approximately £ 55.00.  I know that is what we will average starting in the middle of April till about the end of September again.  It could even be less since we will not be having any major construction like when we first moved in. 

I took our last bill and compaired it to the new company and found a savings of approximately £ 13.00 a quarter.  That is not a huge amount but it is something to think about since I received a letter from eON stating that they are going to increase by about 9%.  Given my council tax has increased by 4% only god knows how much my car operating costs have increased by any savings is better than nothing.   

I use nPower and they suck. They had two accounts for us for a long time for gas, we'd get two bills. After many calls and much crap, they finally figured out which account I should pay and told me to ignore the other. But then they kept taking money by direct debit for the other -- I canceled DD after that! They took months to refund the money, and then I started getting harassing letters asking why I hadn't paid the account (the duplicate one that was supposed to be closed! The other account was paid in full, on time, every time.) Now they are starting crap with the electric account. I would switch, but I have so little confidence in any UK power company, and none in nPower, that I fear it would be a huge stressful mess. We're hoping this is finally winding down and may be cleared up soon.

but then kWh's make no sense to me

It's quite simple.  One unit is equivalent to 1 kilowatt-hour.  So if you run a 1000-watt heater for exactly 1 hour, it will use 1 unit of electricity.   A 500-watt heater will run for 2 hours on 1 unit, while a 3kW appliance, such as the typical immersion heater for water, will use 1 unit in just 20 minutes (or if you prefer to look at it the other way, if you ran it for 1 hour it would use 3 units).

Here's a scan of the appropriate section from one of my old bills, which happens to be from Powergen/e-on:



This is on the Economy 7 tariff which offers cheaper rates at night, hence the two sets of readings.  The previous readings are deducted from the current readings to show how many units have been used during the period in question, in this case 1043 at day rate and 619 at night rate.

In this case, the first 239 units of day usage were billed at 17.2 pence each, with the remainder at 10.31p.  Night rate units are a flat 4.65 pence each. 

Thank you Genau for your information.

Criostin,

I am like you we get our bill quarterly but pay monthly by direct debit.  We have been putting in our meter reading on line.  I spent what can only be described as customer call centre hell trying to tell the eON guy that yes we use more in the winter but I did not need to change my direct debit as much as he wanted because come end of April/May we would drop drastically.  We have not been in the house a year yet but once the warmer weather comes we will start spending all our time outdoors and not even use most items in the house.  We cook outdoors and spend all our time out there till it starts to get dark.  So the more I tried to explain to him that it will even out the more he just would not listen.  Our first bill was between June to September 2007 for approximately £ 55.00.  I know that is what we will average starting in the middle of April till about the end of September again.

They increased our direct debit in the fall by about £10 per month, but they said that they'll re-assess it in 6 months time (we were over our allowance for the year)...  Alternatively you can ask them to just charge you x amount each month in direct debit and then once you receive your quarterly bill pay the remaining balance (if there is one).  Or if you just continue to pay your direct debit and are still in debt pay the balance at the end of the quarter...  They should reduce your direct debit then after seeing your usage & payments - hopefully.   

£13 per quarter works out to £50 savings a year.  Treat yourself instead.     Unfortunately I think all provider's prices will increase - I think ours were only locked with eON for a year and that's now run out.    However, you do get Tesco club card points with eON & you get Nectar points with NPower...

We have EDF (we're in Southwest England) and I'm not sure whether they're good or not.

They messed up a bit with our first billing cycle (they gave us a bill for 1 month, then the next bill covered 6 months), but they've generally been helpful.

It's expensive (we pay £110 a month right now), but from what I've found in research, it's about right. We use a lot of electricity (two people who are at home and working on computers most of the day, with TVs on all day, and all sorts of other usage), and the rates in this area are horrid. (We've compared with others who are on different companies and we're running roughly the same.)

The biggest bonus for us is that we get Nectar points, and they give hundred of bonus points for things all the time.

We have Southern Electric for both. 
Electric Bill -usually about 75 pounds every 3 months
Gas Bill -average this winter 180 pounds every 3 months

I wanted to thank everyone for your assistance.  Especially Paul as I have this nagging belief that there is nothing you do not know!

After three long winded phone calls to e-ON I have everything sorted out.  I am going to change to the other company and log a complaint with e-On.  The first guy I spoke to increased my direct debit after I told him not to.  I told him several times that I would look into the matter and then get back to them on how I wanted to handle the bill.  The last customer guy I spoke to gave me the name of the guy who increased the direct debit and I am going to lodge a complaint.  Poor guy was trying to smooth things over but I just think that is not right.  I called my bank and canceled the direct debit.  e-ON needs to improve it's customer satisfaction. 

If you are thinking of switching then this site is useful to compare prices
http://www.uswitch.com/

There are other comparison sites as well