Utility Bills

[Cazza1]

Up until moving into a care home mum did use quite a bit of gas and electricity to keep the house warm, it a very old and draughty. Now she has moved into the care home the usage has dropped to almost nothing. We have a couple of timers switching lights on and off to make it look like the house is occupied and the thermostat set at 5° for frost protection. Ideally we need gas and electricity tariff without a standing charge.

Dealing with First Utility has been a nightmare, just getting them to acknowledge the power of attorney has taken months before they would talk to us and then have offered one alternate tariff; it still has a standing charge and they will only accept a minimum of one year contract. We need to sell the house to fund the care home so this is not ideal.

We have tried the comparison web sites but it seems like they don’t seem to accommodate our situation, or maybe, the kind of tariff we need is not available. Are there companies offering tariff’s that better suit our needs?

Thank you

Carol

P.S. - In contrast; Yorkshire Water was brilliant – they seemed to understand what we are going through; no need to send power of attorney, direct debit cancelled all in just one five minute phone call,. They left the water connected so we could use the loo or make a drink.

 

[la lucia]

Hello and welcome to Talking Point.

I've never had utilities without a standing charge but our current (ahem) supplier doesn't charge us much for this. I don't think I can say their name because it may sound like advertising. They've also got brilliant customer services.

I didn't have to show the POA because our new supplier did the entire change over and the direct debit was coming from the same account as the previous suppliers. It was absolutely painless.

The only thing I had to do was supply a meter reading. I've been so happy with them. They're really transparent and they're amongst the cheapest so I have just signed up for another year.

A one year contract is the norm but I'd ring and talk to companies first and see if they can help.

 

[Beate]

I'm pretty certain that you can mention that energy supplier as it's a personal endorsement:

3.4 Messages containing personal endorsement of products and services that may be of benefit to our users, may be permitted. Messages, usernames and profile information deemed to contain commercial advertising, and unsolicited messages for the purpose of advertising a product or service, are not permitted

 

[la lucia]

Great thanks Beate. I won't be offended if the mods have to delete the post.

It's Flo Energy. They only have one tariff at a time it's always named after animals. I phoned them and explained the situation and that my mother had dementia and asked if they wanted my POA. They said no problem we don't need it.

They just didn't make a drama out of it. We went from 2 suppliers for each utility to having dual fuel with Flo and they organised everything from ending the previous suppliers to transferring it all. I didn't lift a finger.

And I have committed for another year because they're still a good deal and they've been spot on with really clear email bills they send to me even though the direct debits come from my mother's account.

Now I do sound like an advert

I'm pretty certain that you can mention that energy supplier as it's a personal endorsement:

3.4 Messages containing personal endorsement of products and services that may be of benefit to our users, may be permitted. Messages, usernames and profile information deemed to contain commercial advertising, and unsolicited messages for the purpose of advertising a product or service, are not permitted

 

[scattysue]

Don't know if this would be helpful but I have a friend whose usage of gas and electricity is very low - we found a company Ebico who seem ideally suited to someone in that situation as there is no standing charge for either utility. Might be worth having a look at this supplier.

 

[Cazza1]

thank you for your reply's. I'll have a look at both Flo & Ebico

Carol

 

[Grable]

As for the year contract, it's possible that the company will waive that in the circumstances. That's what happened to us with the BT standing charge and with Mum's house insurance - not a standing charge, that one, but we paid annually, cancelled after one month and got most of the money back because of our situation. They were very sympathetic.