General Chat

Has David Cameron broken his promise to force energy companies to put everyone on the cheapest tariff?

In October last year David Cameron promised to deal with energy suppliers raising prices while making vast profits, he said he would force them to put everyone on the cheapest tariff.

It appears from the article below, that all that will happen is that the energy companies will be made to reduce the number of tariffs that they offer the consumer. This does not appear to do anything about soaring energy prices:-

Households could end up paying tens of millions pounds more for gas and electricity bills under new proposals designed to improve competition in the energy market, a leading consumer watchdog has warned.

Energy tariff reforms from OFGEM could mean higher costs for more than 3.4 million households as they struggle to identify the cheapest energy tariffs, according to research by Which?

http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/energy-bills-families-face-paying-millions-more-1-2904229

Not sure about this, OFG. I saw all these so-called promises to put people on lowest tariffs, but am surprised if DC meant that companies would be forced to do more than clean up their act and publicise their cheapest tariff.

Reason for that is DC is a typical old-school Tory who believes the market (ie us) can sort out prices and keep profits acceptable.

When I did that exercise a couple of months ago showing how people could minimise their energy bills, I was surprised how difficult it had become. I suggested that we chose 2 large suppliers (out of 6) and 2 small suppliers (out of 13 currently). Then phoned them, had a conversation with them and asked them how they applied their standing charges and what was the price per unit thereafter.

I phoned E.On, SSE, First Utility and Dove myself. Had evasive answers from big two - all sorts of complicated offers and free gifts. But got there eventually. Very easy to get price off two smaller companies.

And, guess what, both small companies had one tariff and it was at least 10% cheaper than the lowest tariff of the two big companies!!

The official announcement by Ed Davey before Christmas was very much in line with maximum 4 tariffs, clear communication of lowest tariff. Trying to bury what DC said off the hoof in October.

Think companies are trying their best to meet Davey's plan - but we must remember that most of the Big Six are foreign owned and British managements have to explain major changes like this to foreign owners and many foreign shareholders including worried pension fund managers.

My own energy supplier has emailed me twice in 2013 and told me what tariff I am on and what their other tariffs are and do I want to transfer.

I have always been of the opinion that the Tariff system used for the pricing of services was simply a way of making MORE profit as apposed to giving the consumer choice and the best deal,..... "Bullsh*t baffles Brain" syndrome

Business uses bulk buying "purchase power" The more you buy the cheaper it gets as a way to reduce costs/price and increase turnover whilst maintaining profit margins.

The tariff system is simply a list of prices and has no bearing on the quality or quantity of the product/services that the consumer buys/uses, It appears to be random and treats every customer/consumer as an individual one off customer

Roy

Probably not a good example, but if I go into a shop to buy tins of soup it shows me the price on the shelf as 85 pence per tin, so I buy six tins it will cost me £5.10.

So why can they not just charge gas and electricity at a single amount per unit, do away with all this converting units to kw etc, standing/daily charges, and the first units at one rate and the rest at another rate :-S

The promises by politicians to curb excessive profits and astronomical bonuses for company bosses is no more than pie in the sky talk. If I were a swearing man I would say "Taurus Excreto" ( which is latin for brown stuff that comes out of the backside of a male cow).

Politician's promises are no more than condescending tokens that they use to keep the peasants in their place.

When their turn for retirement comes the politicians will be rewarded by the big companies with jobs at inflated salaries or invitations to give lectures at £20,000 a time. Blair has made millions since he left parliament by doing just that.

StaffyKnot - I am glad that you have the same high opinion of politicians as I have :-D :-D :-D

One foot in the grave - I certainly do, and it does not matter if they are Tory, Labour or Lib-Dem. Even if the UKIP and other parties get in they will also fall for the bribes of big business.

This country is becoming as corrupt as Asia and Africa.

There have been several reports of "Flying Pigs" over number 10. :-(

Just had an 18.9% price increase from my energy supplier effective 1st June, 2013. So my days of boasting how cheaply I was getting my energy will soon be over.

I am pleased they have been so open about the price increase and they are applying it AFTER this very cold and expensive winter (and only E.On of Big Six delayed price increase till at least half of winter was over).

And my supplier still promises they will be cheaper than the Big Six lowest tariffs. And they appear to be correct. I can only find a couple of slightly cheaper suppliers (and they are both very small companies). But I will have to do my calculations again in next couple of weeks and transfer to another company if I can do better. 18.9% increase in major bill and wages frozen and pension up about 2%. Result - misery :-( :-(

agrees with Merlin

looks up to the sky :-D :-D