Click Energy 6 is born…

British Gas, it seems, has played a final trump card in the battle of the energy giants. And it’s a move I’m not best pleased about.

No sooner had my household switched to Click Energy 5, when the supplier raises its rates and introduces Click Energy 6.

The new Click Energy 6 tariff, while still being the cheapest online tariff, is more expensive than Click Energy 5’s original price. Click Energy 5 was previously priced at around £845 a year for the average household, but the move from British Gas will now see Click Energy 5 customers’ (like me) bills increase to around £1,150.

And the price of new online energy tariff Click Energy 6 is only marginally cheaper, at £1,057 a year for the average household dual fuel bill.

Click Energy 5 is no longer available to new customers, and any existing customers on the tariff will see their bills rise by an average of £305 a year. What an absolute pain!

British Gas are now, let’s be honest, not my favourite supplier in the world. My housemates and I will now have to wait until the switch from npower to British Gas is complete, and then switch again from Click Energy 5 to Click Energy 6, which could take another six weeks.

During that time we’ll be being charged the higher Click Energy 5 rate, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

I think it’s fair to say, I’m more than a little annoyed…

  British Gas continue to fight for the title

Following on from my last blog post, the battle of the giants has reached a standstill, with neither newcomer npower or reigning champ British Gas refusing to back down.

After my household switched its energy supplier from British Gas to npower, British Gas began fighting for our custom, offering us a 15% discount if we signed back up with them.

Since then, my housemate emailed npower; giving them details of British Gas’ proposed 15% discount in the hope that npower would retaliate with an even bigger discount.

Our efforts were wasted it seems though, as npower have yet to respond.

We have received a letter from British Gas, confirming the termination of our contract, and requesting a final meter reading, so that they can bill us to the exact date.

Unlike fellow Consumer Choices blogger Olivia’s switch with E.ON, ours has been really quick and easy.

Because of the deal offered by British Gas though, we are now unsure of whether to continue with the switch to npower or not. With their Click Energy 5 tariff, and the 15% discount we’ve been promised, our bills would be a fraction cheaper with British Gas, according to the EnergyChoices comparison service, but we’re worried that if prices rise again, British Gas may end up more expensive than npower.

We could sign up to a capped tariff, to fix our prices at a set rate. This would mean we’d avoid any future price increases, and Olivia certainly recommends it, but what if energy prices drop?

What should we do? Any suggestions?

   Will npower come back with a vengence?

After a few very turbulent weeks, it seems the dust may be starting to settle around the energy market battlefield. Gordon Brown has promised an energy efficiency plan to help combat fuel poverty, supermarkets are lowering the price of unleaded at their petrol pumps, and children are being encouraged to ‘Green Up’.

Battle is still raging in my household though. And I’m not talking about the battle for the bathroom in the morning…

Oh no, this is much bigger. It’s a battle of the “giants” no less, with reigning champion British Gas clinging on for dear life, while npower, the competitive newcomer, claws its way in to our home, with promises of cheaper gas and electricity, and paperless billing.

It all started a few weeks ago. The news of price increases and bigger bills was a much talked about topic, in the press and in our household.

Naturally we were keen to see how much we could save by switching.

Using EnergyChoices comparison service, we decided that our best bet would be to switch to npower, who promised to save us up to £400 on our annual bill. Hurray!

Switching was really easy; we did it there and then online, and it only took a few minutes.

A welcome pack from npower a week later told us everything we needed to know about the switch. Our household was one of happiness and relief – we had managed to avoid the price hikes! Double hurray!

But our happiness did not last long… A week later I received an email from my housemate:

Yo Becca,
I had phone call from British Gas today and they asked me why we left.
They want to give us a better deal - 15% off!
They also said that npower had a price increase a few weeks ago, and now British Gas is only 3% more expensive than npower. Please can you check this?
If this is true… what do you think we should do?
Should we go back to British Gas?

Evidently battling it out for our custom, British Gas is trying to win us back with its own promises of cheaper gas and electricity. It’s no surprise really – until the npower switch day, we had been a long-standing loyal customer, always paying our bills on time and in full. And like many households, we hadn’t even considered switching, or thought about how much we could save by changing suppliers.

So, what to do? Well, after much deliberation, we decided to email npower with British Gas’ proposition, asking whether they could match it, or offer us a better deal. If they can’t then we may well switch back to British Gas, and opt for their Click Energy 5 tariff, an online tariff which allows you to input your own meter readings.

In the words of the ever authoritative John Anderson: “Contender ready! Gladiator ready!”

Let the battle begin…

 We’re pulling rabbits out of hats…

In response to the deluge of mail we received regarding the complexity of submitting meter readings to British Gas, here at Consumer Choices we are pleased to announce we’ve cracked the code.

For the inside track on how to successfully submit a meter reading at britishgas.co.uk/meter, take a look at the latest instalment from our very own Consumer Spy, Becca Talbot.

Having liaised with British Gas itself, Becca has constructed a step by step guide to help you through the process, designed with newcomers to the world of online energy tariffs in mind.

So stop tearing your hair out, hitting your head against the wall or, worse still, thinking about reverting back to paper bills, and use Becca’s guide to take the sting out of online account handling.

The Consumer Spy - Meter Reading Made Easy

 This is the easy bit….

*UPDATE* Find out how to input your Click Energy 5 meter reading by following our guide.

It’s been drawn to my attention by many Consumer Choices subscribers that manually inputting meter readings on the British Gas site is at best confusing, and at worst virtually impossible.

Here’s a selection of the comments I’ve received:

• “I have gone to britishgas.co.uk/meter and can not find where you add the reading”

• “Need to give British Gas a meter reading, can’t find where to put it. beginning to wish I hadn’t bothered”

• “I have tried to give you my first meter reading but it seems that whoever is responsible for this website has omitted to make provision for clients to use”

• “I am trying to submit my first meter reading but cannot find a way through the minefield”

• “Come on British Gas sort out your system, I see I am not the only one having this problem”

Damning indeed, and sent in the kind of volume that suggests there is a genuine problem here.

As an E.ON customer myself, I’ve not had any first hand experience with the British Gas Click Energy 5 online account management system. If anyone does know of a direct solution to this problem, please leave a comment below.

Having had a look at the ‘your account’ area, I would strongly suggest that you log in before attempting to submit a meter reading. It should make the process a whole lot easier.

One final note, and I really hope I’m putting two and two together here and making five, but I noticed the following in the Click Energy 5 terms and conditions:

“Click Energy 5 is for customers who agree to manage their bills online and take paperless billing. We reserve the right to transfer you onto our current standard variable rates if you fail to sign up to online account management and paperless billing within the first 6 weeks of coming onto supply with us and/or signing up to the Click Energy 5 product from us.”

British Gas wouldn’t be making it deliberately hard for you to input your meter readings would they?

 Another one bites the dust

Ok, a quick round up of a few happenings in the world of energy that occurred during my absence last week:

(1) The FA Challenge Cup, sponsored by E.ON, was deservedly won by Portsmouth on Saturday. It finally hit home for me why E.ON has spent the best part of £35 million on sponsoring the event this year; it’s all about the final isn’t it? E.ON hoardings, E.ON blimps, E.ON giant sized foam hands, even E.ON emblazoned ribbons on the cup itself.

Did I see ‘We won this cup thanks to the power of E.ON’ type flags being waved by the victorious side, or were my eyes deceiving me? Presumably ‘We won this cup thanks to a dodgy penalty at Old Trafford and some astute dealings in the African transfer market’ didn’t fit.

(2) I’ve had a number of aggrieved npower customers write to me this week in response to this story:

npower slammed by customers

One such complainant reported being told by an npower door to door salesperson his monthly electricity bill would not exceed £40, only to receive a first quarter bill for £600!

My advice, if you’re having no luck with the customer services department of your provider, is to complain about corporate miss-selling through Energywatch (the utilities watchdog). There are two ways to do this, either tell your story to Energywatch, and they will complain on your behalf (adding credence to your complaint), or use their online ‘letter wizard’ to construct a hard hitting and concise written argument.

In fact, I’d suggest tackling both.

(3) Finally, a strange week for British Gas, who surmised the strong possibility of further price rises during high summer (a price hike that’s been anticipated within the industry for some time), then cut the cost of their Click 5 online dual fuel tariff.

Again, I like to throw in my two penneth worth, but this is a no brainer. Take advantage of the cheap energy while you can, get yourself online, and sign up for Click Energy 5. It may not last forever, but Click Energy 5 is currently the cheapest way to buy your fuel.