Energy price cap increase and meter reading advice

[AllyCat]

Hi,

We have exactly the opposite problem, trying to get disconnected from the gas supply.  A house with Economy 7 heating where the only use of gas is the "convenience" of a gas hob (not even any pilot lights) so the total consumption over the last 10 years has been literally only a few units.  Now, the standing charge is over 50p a day for effectively nothing, so numerous requests have been made to quote for the gas to be "disconnected".  Occasionally an informal quote has been provided (the first one was actually "no charge") but every time a disconnection is specifically requested, they suddenly discover that their previous answer was "wrong" and the price rises.  It's now reached £700 !

There are currently no suppliers who offer even a reduced standing charge (and/or they wouldn't accept a consumer who uses no energy), so it appears that the only solution is to transfer just the electricity (currently a it's dual-fuel contract) to another supplier and then to cancel the gas Direct Debit.  Obviously they can have no threat to "cut us off" but we don't really want to be on the wrong side of any Debt Collectors. 

Cheers,  Alan.

[Paul H]

We have exactly the opposite problem, trying to get disconnected from the gas supply.

Octopus did it for free two years ago, might be worth checking if they still do, and if there's a minimum time to be a customer before they will. 

[felstedrider]

Ovo's process seems to work.   Monthly DD came out 5th Oct.  £66 paid back 7th Oct.

It does seem a little......inefficient.   I suspect it's the best way that their systems can work with it.

[robgul]

. . .  looks like it's all hit the fan with the truncation of the "price fix" cap time by the new money bloke 

[felstedrider]

. . .  looks like it's all hit the fan with the truncation of the "price fix" cap time by the new money bloke 

I read it more as 'under review'.   A couple of things, though :-

- The spot energy price has actually been pretty low.   It has been mild and windy and demand is low.   Whilst this doesn't effect the Q4 price which is already fixed and the Q1 has stayed strong, prices for next Summer onwards are lower.   This could be a gamble on there not needing to be any price support next year.   That said, you could leave the mechanism in place and just not use it.
- The hint was to see which people really need it.   I was quite critical of the lack of mean testing but the industry and the regulator said it would have been difficult to implement quickly.   They now have the rest of the Winter to get a process in place and implement it in time for April.

[Adam]

Hi,

We have exactly the opposite problem, trying to get disconnected from the gas supply.  A house with Economy 7 heating where the only use of gas is the "convenience" of a gas hob (not even any pilot lights) so the total consumption over the last 10 years has been literally only a few units.  Now, the standing charge is over 50p a day for effectively nothing, so numerous requests have been made to quote for the gas to be "disconnected".  Occasionally an informal quote has been provided (the first one was actually "no charge") but every time a disconnection is specifically requested, they suddenly discover that their previous answer was "wrong" and the price rises.  It's now reached £700 !

There are currently no suppliers who offer even a reduced standing charge (and/or they wouldn't accept a consumer who uses no energy), so it appears that the only solution is to transfer just the electricity (currently a it's dual-fuel contract) to another supplier and then to cancel the gas Direct Debit.  Obviously they can have no threat to "cut us off" but we don't really want to be on the wrong side of any Debt Collectors. 

Cheers,  Alan.

That's shocking!  Last year I got a quote for disconnecting an unused gas meter from SSE, and they wanted about £260. 

[Paul H]

Ovo's process seems to work.   Monthly DD came out 5th Oct.  £66 paid back 7th Oct.

It does seem a little......inefficient.   I suspect it's the best way that their systems can work with it.

Just had the British Gas payment, DD paid on the 12th, £50 back in the account yesterday.  Only £50 because that's the DD and apparently they can't pay out more than they take, the other £16 gets credited to the account.

[De Sisti]

Octopus Energy deducted £2 via direct debit (£69 usual direct debit - £67 government help).

[Jurek]

Well, That's (kind of) interesting.
I'm with Octopus.
Previously my monthly cost for Gas and Tizzy was around £83.00
Around 6 weeks ago it shot up to around £133.00 - I think this may've been thanks a duff meter reading by your's truly - which I'm not unduly worried about, as that will self-correct over a couple of months.
Octopus have just advised me that my my monthly payment will now be £67.00 thanks to the Government Energy Bill Support Scheme.
Which is not entirely what I was expecting.
For the present, I'm not complaining.

And BANG!
It's about to go up to £169.00 monthly 

[felstedrider]

Family decision was made to give the £400 support to charity as it comes in, sine we shouldn't really be getting it anyway.

Donation made to the local Foodbank this morning.

[De Sisti]

Octopus Energy deducted £2 via direct debit (£69 usual direct debit - £67 government help).

They want more now.

[rogerzilla]

Somehow, EON owe me £250.  Mind you, it's stupidly warm out and I haven't used the CH at all.

[felstedrider]

Demand has bern low and supply plentiful.  We had negative power prices last night.

Of course due to Ofgems resilience testing and the requirement for hedging none of this is a benefit to the supplier or gets passed to the consumer.   Forward prices remain well supported.