Downloadable letters for your energy company
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There was a light at the end of the tunnel for customers of one of the big energy companies last week. Scottish and Southern Energy indicated that it could lower its gas and electricity prices early next year if wholesale prices continue to fall.
For its 8 million customers that may sound like a step in the right direction, but so far Scottish and Southern is the only energy company hinting that our bills could be reduced, and it hasn't said by how much.
Since the start of 2008 average annual gas and electricity bills have risen by 42 per cent. The big energy companies blamed it on the rising cost of wholesale gas, electricity and crude oil. Wholesale gas prices did hit a high in July 2008 but gas prices for delivery in December have dropped by about 40 per cent. Meanwhile the price of crude oil, which affects the price of gas the big energy companies buy from abroad, is now worth just over a third of its value in the summer. So when are we going to start seeing reductions in our bills?
We asked the other five big energy companies if they were going to follow the lead of Scottish and Southern and give an indication about when prices would drop. They said the following:
British Gas: "Wholesale gas prices are still high, but they are falling. If that continues, we are hopeful that we'll be able to reduce prices for our customers next year"
EDF Energy: "When we announced our July price rise, we made clear at that time we were only passing on some of the rise in wholesale energy costs which had increased by up to 70 per cent in the first half of the year. In order to minimise the price change effect on our customers, we buy our energy supplies many months in advance. As a result, we would need a much longer period of sustained lower wholesale prices to be in a position to reduce retail tariffs. At all times, EDF Energy's prices are continually under review. We continue to provide competitive prices, deliver excellent service and first-class choice for all our customers across the UK."
E.on: "We continue to monitor the wholesale market and will remain competitive. We have no current plans to change our residential prices at this time."
NIE Energy:
The situation is very different in Northern Ireland in that, unlike in GB, the price of electricity to households is strictly regulated by a price control overseen by the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator. Slightly higher electricity prices would be expected in Northern Ireland as Ireland is highly dependant on imported fuels, with higher transportation costs than GB.
Price comparisons with GB are not straightforward. 60 per cent of NIE Energy customers pay less than the standard rate as they get discounted electricity, either through Keypad or paying by direct debit.
A comparison closer to home is that of the Republic of Ireland, and NIE Energy's household electricity prices are comparable with domestic tariffs in the Republic, with a further price increase expected in the Republic to be effective from January 2009.
In response to the review of electricity prices in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator announced on 24 November 2008, NIE Energy also said:
NIE Energy welcomes this timely review of electricity prices. I would like to assure our customers that if, as we hope, lower fuel costs are realised, NIE Energy will pass on any benefit to customers as soon as we can.
[Update from Watchdog: NIE Energy has reduced its prices. Read the full story.
npower: "If there is a significant and sustained fall in wholesale energy prices we will look to review our retail prices. The reduction in retail prices would depend on the size and the sustained nature of falls in wholesale energy prices. Gas wholesale prices remain 135 per cent above the price at the beginning of 2007, while our retail gas prices have only increased by 27 per cent during that time. Which means we have provided and continue to provide significant protection to our retail customers."
Phoenix Natural Gas:
Phoenix Supply Ltd is regulated and subject to a price control unlike gas suppliers in Great Britain. Prior to making any change to our tariffs we are required to complete a period of formal consultation with the NI Utility Regulator, Consumer Council NI and the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment. As part of the Price Control, any savings made by Phoenix Supply in respect of wholesale gas costs are passed on to consumers in full and the margin of Phoenix Supply is capped at 1.5 per cent.
In 2008 Phoenix Supply was consistently the last major UK gas supplier to increase prices, sometimes up to four months after other suppliers.
On 24 October 2008 the Utility Regulator in NI announced that a review of Phoenix Supply Ltd prices had commenced and that this process was expected to run until an announcement of new prices in December to take effect in early January 2009. Phoenix Supply Ltd cannot speculate regarding the outcome of the review.
Scottish Power: "Thankfully there has been a short-term reduction in wholesale energy costs - but the wholesale gas market remains exceptionally volatile. As our approach is intended to help protect customers from volatility, there will always be a lag between movements in wholesale costs and customer prices. Our future prices will continue to reflect the medium to long-term trends in the wholesale energy market and customers will not lose out - as has been proved to be the case to date."
Downloadable letters
There's still no word about when the big energy companies will reduce gas and electricity bills for all of us. So, if this is something you feel strongly about - print the letter off, send it to your current energy supplier, and who knows... Maybe they'll be the first to break ranks, cut their prices, and show us how competitive they really are.
Click on the relevant letter in the list below and the letter will open in a new browser window. Add your details and simply print them off.
[Note from Watchdog: the downloadable letters have been taken down since this report was written.]
- Letter to British Gas
- Letter to EDF Energy
- Letter to E.ON
- Letter to nPower
- Letter to Scottish and Southern Energy
- Letter to Scottish Power
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Comments
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Can you please, please, please, change the above letters from pdf format to a format that people who can easily edit it, such as .doc, or .rtf Thank you
[Note from Watchdog web team: Thank you for your comment. We are looking into your suggestion. Best regards, web team]
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I would just like to say that Scottish and Southern Energy charge EXACTLY the same for gas prepayment customers as those on a nil service charge credit meter. The only difference between the customers on a pre payment meter and those on a credit meter is the 5% discount available if a credit meter customer pays by direct debit. Essentially the tariffs are exactly the same and saying that ALL of the big six overcharge is surely nothing less than slander.
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What about N.I.E. ??
(Northern Ireland electricity)
[Note from Watchdog web team: Thank you for your comment. We are looking into your suggestion. Best wishes, web team]
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Funny that when the oil prices were rising it had immediate impact on gas/electric prices, yet now that oil prices are falling we are told that supplies are bought in advance and prices cannot be brought down straight away. We have already raised this with our provider and could not get an answer.
Karen
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I have got so sick of the Big Six energy companies keeping prices artificially high that I have set up a website to try and do something about it. I'm hoping to form a kind of cooperative of domestic customers who will combine to form a large contract which can be offered to every energy company, large or small. It's called [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]and quite literally everyone on the list will switch to the energy company which offers the best deal. More info on the Big Six and their rather dubious practices can be found on the website.
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I'm with British Gas and back in August the gas statement I received was £94 in credit, My recent statement shows I have used £171 (actual reading) worth of gas and I'm now £154 in credit.
So not pleased they want to increase my direct debit from £77 to £83 a month.
I intend to ring and suggest I keep it the same!
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The letter to the Gas companies is a great idea - but why is it in a pdf format? You have to type it out again with your name, address etc on, as you can't alter anything in pdf file! Please can it be in Word??
[Note from Watchdog web team: Thank you for your comment. We are looking into your suggestion. Best regards, web team]
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I am and have for 10 years been on a prepayment meter and this is the first time and i hope the last time if they do something about it it as got so mutch publicity lets hope that they sort it out and if not the goverment do it for them
heres a link to a pertition on the goverments web site asking them to sort it
[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
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I would just like to tell you the Eon put our monthly direct debit payments up by over 60% last July, and they've now 'reviewed' it and decided to put it up yet another £10 a month as from December! Bringing our monthly DD payments up to £117 where it was only just over £75 less than a year ago!!!
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I have today received a letter from Southern electric and Gas that they will raise gas prices by 29.2% and electric by 19.2% at the end of this winter period and not from 25 Aug 2008. The reason being that my husband and I are their energyplus Care customers. Why are they still raising the prices when they should be bringing them down?!
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
i have 2 prepayment meters, the one for gas has no debt on it, so i phoned and asked if i could have a normal bill and pay monthly by direct dedit, they said would have to do credit check, and if a poor rating (as i have) i would have to pay a £200 deposit. so i told them not to do check as this would damage my rating further. so i still have to pay over the odds for the gas even though i owe them nothing. i am being punished for having bad rating even though i pay my bills arghhhhh
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Since being with E-on (2006), operating my account on-line and paying by direct debit, I have remained well in credit. Despite increases, my last bill (30 October) showed I was still in credit - although much dwindled. However, purely by chance, incidentally, I discover that they intend to increase my monthly payment from December by £23.00 per month! Cannot make sense of this at all. E-mails to them have brought a curt response from them informing me that my consumption exceeds my payments! Can anyone explain this to me?
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"Can you please, please, please, change the above letters from pdf format to a format that people who can easily edit it, such as .doc, or .rtf Thank you"
I agree, not thought out at all, so nobody will be doing this challange for awhile
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brilliant letter that you have done.glad someone is on the consumers side
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i have a prepayment meter and was never told by british gas that i would pay more this way. it is all one big con to get more money of low income people at least we pay for what we use at the time. OWE no bills yet get charged more than anyone else
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Southern Electric promised to charge at the old rate on the final bill but charged at the new higher rate. Just as carelessly treated as we were by British Gas who tried to charge for estimated use for three months, five months after we moved house 150 miles away.
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I have noticed that Scottish and Southern Energy's half year profits are down 54 percent on the previous year. Watchdog's obsession with attacking energy companies on their prices appear to be blind to facts such as this. No redress to appear on the programme I assume.
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me and my partner have a 7 month old baby and cant afford the energy bills,I am registered disabled this affects all on benefits.The energy companys are looking after share holders and probably pass cost of leaking gas main on to us also! Maybe if if we stopped using gas so that the profits went down ,where possible,I am sure the cut in fuel bills would come down quicker (supply and demand)or even we all join a single energy company to put all other companys out of business,can watchdog pass on idea and we will see how the energy companys like it when there pockets are affected. THANKS ALLAN EDF CUSTOMER
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I know other people have already made this comment, but who's daft idea was it to upload these letter as pdfs?! The template has space to enter our details, so why put it on the website as a non-editable pdf?! Don't the editorial staff at Watchdog have any common sense?!
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The energy companies are hiding behind the term "volatile markets".
Their hierarchy should be summoned again to meet the select committee of MPs, and told that energy prices for gas and electricity consumers, must be reduced IMMEDIATELY, not next year, and if they do not fall into line, action to reduce energy prices, will be ENFORCED upon them.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
have started this cold sp[ell by staying in longes in the mornings, have c. h on 1.5hrs in eveningthen going to bed @9.45 in between wrapped in a fleece blanket. was better of in london in the war and in the services. what a way to spend the your later life cheers to the fuel coms hope you have a happy christmas i shall be thinking of you nice hot meals in anice warm house. cheers
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Doesn't look like British Gas plan to lower their prices too early in 2009 since they have just upped our montly direct debit from £53 to £120 despite being in credit. There was no 'enclosed leaflet' supposed to accompany the notification of increased payments, and so we have no idea how they have reached our new figure. Not impressed.
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just had an email from British gas saying Oil and gas prices have reached an all time high and they are putting up my click energy 5 tarrif from 30 september! by 42% Hello we are in November! Why tell me 2 months later? Oil prices have fallen dramatically over the past months so why try to dress this issue up they just want more money off us. Why send this email out now when there is more contrerversy about prices. Surely people read these emails through before they send them.
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With the PDFs if you select all from your top menu, then copy, go to your word, open office or the one that you use then open word pro and paste, now you can edit as you wish then print out and send.
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Strange that with the drop in wholesale gas and electricity prices I've just received an email from Scottish Gas advising that my Click Energey 5 prices have been raised by 42%. Effective 30th September. 6 weeks ago. Something seems very wrong here.
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Rather than reducing prices British gas are actually putting them up. please see the attached message from British Gas:
World oil and gas prices have been reaching record highs – this is an issue facing all energy suppliers. This means the cost of energy has been going up and will probably continue to rise. As a result of this, we had to increase our standard energy prices on 30 July but we delayed increasing your Click Energy 5 prices for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, we had to increase your prices on 30 September 2008. So for a home with average usage, Click Energy 5 gas prices have risen on average by 42% and electricity on average by 21%
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With Reference to Comment number 5. It would seem that something like this needs to be set up to give power back to the client. The government will not do anything because it is completely reliant on monies coming into the treasury from taxing the profits these companies make. The watchdog that is supposed to keep costs down is completely powerless to make the companies play fair and lower prices as quick as they raise prices even when the companies are paying less for wholesale gas than they were when the prices to the consumer went up.
I would like to know the name of the website that has proposed this idea and if possible an investigation by watchdog on the proposal would be ideal.
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Referring back to post No10, I have received the alternative letter from Atlantic Electric and Gas telling me that they are backdating the average rise of 29.2% (gas) & 19.2% (electric) to 25th August. I have sent off the Watchdog specimen letter to the CEO with some personal additions and after correcting a couple of grammar mistakes. Keep up the pressure Watchdog.
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I just do not understand why the energy companies are not taken to court and fined heftily for the fact that they are overcharging us. Why are they allowed to get away with it and for so long?
Can anyone fully understand their British Gas bill and if so can they please explain it to me? Mine is broken down into 3 sections, with the first 2 sections each broken into 2 different pricing rates and the last broken into 3. There is no explanation as to the particular breakdown in charges and how they estimate usage - no transparency whatsoever.
They have also DOUBLED my direct debit payment even though I am in credit by £120!!! They assured me that they would keep my current debit plan until December and that they would only increase it by 37% (only?! it's a not very funny joke, is it?) but I found out this morning that they have gone ahead with the 100% increase in my direct debit payment. Just think of all the interest they are earning on our payments...
Want to try to claim any overpayment back? Try it and see how difficult they make it for you.
My life is stressful enough without trying to deal with British Gas and something has to be done fast to put the energy companies firmly in their place.
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Can you please provide a letter for Southern Electric? Many Thanks
[Note from Watchdog webteam: Southern Electric is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy so you may wish to contact them. Best regards, web team]
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British Gas wanted to increase my direct debit by 75% (far more than the proposed increase to bills) so I challenged them about it, especially as I am more than enough in credit to cover the next 2 quarterly bills. Initially British Gas refused to back down, but I didn't give up, and also told my bank that any DD increase was not authorised by me. Eventually British Gas agreed to leave my DD unchanged, subject to review after the next bill. If energy companies are holding £millions belonging to customers in credit,they must be making a small fortune in interest, and we must also be subsidising those who are in debt. What a rip-off!
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Why do the feel the need to make our lives miserable? I work for an energy supplier and things like this is just making lives harder for us. As everyone is aware the wholesale market goes up an down all the time. If we raised and lowered our prices on a daily basis then don't you think there would be more problems than there are now.
We lowered our prices twice last year and did anybody say thank you - no. Everyone is in the same boat so please stop taking it out on the advisors.
We will lower the prices when we can, it's in our best interest to keep the customers happy as well.
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If only the supermarkets would sell gas and electricity. After all petrol prices tend to only go down once the supermarkets put their prices down first.
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On 7th Oct I received a letter from Southern Elec . It was dated Sept and advised that from 25th Aug the elect price would rise by 19.2%. 31st Oct received a bill under estimated by 733 units. I phoned and advised the units used. They were unable to back date to the cheaper rate. despite my day to day readings.
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people seem to think that when they come through to an energy advisor, that we can just change your prices! well we cant, we have to wait til the directors have agreed a price decrease and then we will advise you of it. We get so much abuse from customers. next time you call, please think about it. what has that poor 21 year old girl done? dug for oil herself? increased the prices herself? we pay bills too, we are in the same boat! have some consideration rather than ruining our day by shouting and screaming at us for something thats out of our control!!! I am now going to disconnect this call..........................
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i think you all have the wrong supplier!!!
steer clear of the big six, the smaller companies are much more reliable and have more time for you as you are not treated like a number. you are treated like a customer.
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I HAVE JUST GOT MY NEW BILL FOR 85 UNITS ,THE COST TO ME IS £50 POUNDS,MY LAST BILL WAS FOR 78 UNITS AND COST ME £37.00 POUNDS THE NEW BILL IS A BIG RISE FOR JUST 7 UNITS MORE !!!!!.
SOMEONE LEFT A BLOG SAYING GAS PRICE WAS REDUCED LAST YEAR ,IF IT DID WHY DID MY BILL GO UP NOT DOWN AND HAS CARRIED ON GOING UP.THERE IS JUST ONE WORD TO EXPLAIN IT ,ROBBERS! OR EVEN CON MEN, ANY EXCUSE TO GET MORE MONEY IN THERE POCKETS AND THEY KNOW IT.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
i have a gas pre-payment meter and also an electric one with British Gas. I have a debt on each of £6 a week.
What I cannot understand is my gas meter always runs out before my electric and the only gas appliance I have is the boiler for hot water and heating, everything else is electric.
I cannot afford to heat my house and keep my children warm as well as feed them. I rang British Gas who told me that my tariff was correct and that if it was cheaper for me to use the emmersion heater for hot water then use it! What about keeping my kids warm?
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JEANCEE: it works both ways, if you had paid 733 over, you would get the credit back at the higher rate.
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Best of luck with your campaign to get enery prices reduced sooner rather than later. I wrote to my electricty company - Southern Electic - earlier this year in response to a price rise they imposed retrospectively, pointing out that this was in stark contrast to when they lowered the prices early last year. Their letter at that time stated that "Southern Electricity will cut your gas and electricity prices within the next few months". Strange how they can give ample notice of price reductions but no notice at all when they rise!
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Honestly, i don't think the BBC have thought this through. I look forward to your article in a couple of months time where customers complain that they aren't being served properly because the energy companies claim all their time and money is being taken up opening junk mail containing the same template letter over and over again...
Thankyou Watchdog for another knee-jerk reaction instead of any suggested, supportive assistance!
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I fail to see the Scottish Hydro Electric name in your list of letters could this be added, please?,
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Hello. Even though the letter is in a pdf format, it is still quite possible to highlight the text of the pdf, copy and paste it into a new word document. you may have to slightly reformat but it works and saves the extra typing if that is a bother!
On energy, what is the site that you used on the programme this evening to compare energy companies, prices etc.
Thanks.
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my bills are with atlantic elec and gas do you have a letter for them the only problem we owe them £350 for gas they said we have used
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I use 'Foxit' instead of 'Acrobat' and therefore can't download any of your letters. Can this be looked into please.
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I was with Scottish Power, they managed to ramp up £400 in credits on my account before offering to reduce my direct debits. This is outrageous.
I switched to Utility Warehouse, they are great, the price was lower and the bill much easier to understand.
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'Lack of Daylight' robbery bt the elctricity suppliers to keep the high tariffs until the winter is over
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this is really silly i am with npower i have prepayment metres for both gas and electric, my electric is fine but my gas i use to put £20 on and that would last a fortnight not it only lasts a week it is silly i have a 16 month old son my heating has to be on full as my house is cold otherwise i am defo thinking about changing to one of the independant energy companys
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NEVER FORGET the millions of young men who sacrificed their lives at a time of national crisis 1914-1918. NEVER FORGET the energy companies which refused to help in a time of national crisis. Oil prices falling again but no help for consumers or businesses to save jobs.
NEVER FORGIVE or FORGET those energy companies.
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