My mother’s 2-year fix with Octopus will end in January. She’s currently paying £115 per month but, based on her past 12 months usage, a new 1-year fix will be £325 per month! I’ve told her to let it default to their SVT which is protected by the cap.
Seems like you just stay with them then so you don’t get smashed for exit fees.
I really don’t know how any of the dedicated energy switching companies are going to stay in business because of the price cap thing.
I never thought I’d say it (again!) but I’m so glad I’m with British Gas.
Is your Mother on Smart Meters?
I know we mentioned this before, but if on Smart Meters, I reckon it’s far better to be on monthly variable direct debit rather than paying goodness knows what amount an energy company wants to set the monthly direct debit at. I certainly wouldn’t now touch a small energy firm with a barge pole that didn’t allow monthly billing on variable direct debit. The potential for them collapsing with huge amounts of customers money sat on their books which might take weeks or months to get back, doesn’t float my boat.
Yes, don’t be tempted to switch - it just complicates things at this stage. You obviously won’t have to pay exit fees when the SoLR takes over and there will be no exit fees if you want to switch away from the SoLR. There’s no point doing this under the current circumstances, anyway, because you’re not going to get a better deal than the current capped SVTs.
(and if somebody is offering £stupid-low for a fixed tariff they won’t be around for long)
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This all sounds like wise advice. 
Yes and no. She has British Gas very-early SMETS1 meters which don’t work with anybody any longer. I don’t think they worked particularly well when they were installed because they used Vodafone, which has barely any signal where she lives.
It doesn’t really matter because she’s very good at giving monthly readings to Octopus and I constantly keep an eye on her direct debit and adjust as necessary to keep her less than a month’s-worth in credit. She actually likes having a bit of credit on her account!
I agree in general with trying to get a variable DD where possible, but many suppliers will give you a better deal if they know you can lend them some of your hard-earned cash with a fixed DD.
To be fair and depending on whether she’s fussed or not, she could or you could if she preferred, just ask Octopus to replace the meters with SMETS2 meters.
I admit, this tariff I’m on with British Gas, is the first I’ve ever been on that is variable direct debit. I had years of arguing with previous energy companies who attempted to take the piss by trying to set my direct debits far too high. I always won my case by making a complete nuisance of myself and by providing weekly or monthly meter readings to back up my case. It became unjustifiable for an energy company to charge me 3 times in excess of my actual monthly usage.
You still get that option once you’ve built up a certain amount of credit, unless something has changed recently. I requested a refund this way in August.
Double-check as many SMETS1 meters have been upgraded to SMETS2 via a software update.
When I got Octopus to install new SMETS2 meters, I was under the impression I didn’t have any smart meters already. Coincidentally, after arranging their installation but before my appointment, Octopus issued a bill based on a smart meter reading. Turns out, the electric meter Scottish Power installed when my house was built was a SMETS1. Me placing an order for smart meters seemingly triggered an update and Octopus picked up a reading from it!
These are too old for enrolment and adoption into the DCC (which is what SMETS1 meters are currently undergoing). They are old pre-2009 Ampy meters (before Ampy became Landis+Gyr). Octopus did actually offer to replace them with Secure SMETS1 meters (like mine) because SMETS2 was not yet working in her area but she declined.
Incidentally, my Secure meters are still awaiting E+A.
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It might be that your Mother will need her gas smart meter replacing soon anyway. Evidently, as explained to me by both BG Engineers who have installed SMART meters at both my former home and more recently my brand new home which had to have the gas SMART meter replaced because it didn’t work, the internal battery is non replaceable and SMART gas meters have to apparently be replaced every decade or so.
Will your smart gas meter suddenly die at Christmas? | This is Money
Personally, I’d just ask for them to replaced now rather than later.
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Yes, my gas meter has a non-replaceable battery which is supposed to last around a decade. They had them fitted a few years before my dad died, so they must be at least 15 years old. I’ll have a word with her.
All this talk of meters has got me looking at my own meters again this morning. There’s actually nothing wrong with either of my SMART meters, both are SMETS2 and they are both reporting meter readings correctly according to my online British Gas account. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the British Gas App which is from my own user experience, utter crap. My App hasn’t given me any information since the iOS 15 update, I just get the spinning wheel of death within the app. I’ve now deleted the App because it’s just garbage.
But going back to my gas SMART meter, I had to have that replaced just a few weeks after I moved into my new build home because it just wasn’t reporting anything, indeed, it wasn’t even connected to the DCC and had never been registered. This forced British Gas to have to replace it themselves because the original had been installed by a third party and they just never bothered registering it and no trace could be found of it. When the replacement meter was installed, it took almost six weeks for it to be registered on the DCC. I had a right old row with British Gas customer services who claimed the BG engineer had installed a SMETS1 meter and it needed an update. I ended up calling the BG customer services rep a liar on the phone because my gas meter has SMETS2 clearly emblazoned on the the meter itself and rudely informed her that she didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Funny old thing, exactly 5 days later, the meter was reporting correctly. It’s truly dangerous sometimes when you’ve got some non technical employee sat in a comfy chair at home who seems to be making stuff up as they go along.
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Do you ever think that they’re just doing a job and are perhaps misinformed rather than lying to you? Big companies with many staff aren’t exactly known for the cohesive nature of their customer service connections, after all
Also, if you’d have called me a liar over the phone I’d have promptly blocked your number and said you were too rude to service. BG have a responsibility to ensure staff aren’t verbally abused.
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I’m sorry, calling her out as a liar wasn’t verbally abusing her. You weren’t privvy to the conversation. She wasn’t listening to a word I was telling her, she just kept talking over me all the time. I don’t like being spoken to like a 5 year old by a customer services rep thank you. I’ll give back as good as I get.
I can tell that regardless of what she said on the phone, she isn’t paid enough to be insulted over the phone (no CS workers are). I’ve hanged up on people for far less
Again, we’re going to have to agree to disagree. You of course are only getting my side of the story, but my Wife was present and she heard the way I was being spoken to. When you tell a Customer Service rep something that is fact and they out and out tell you that you are wrong, then calling them out as a liar is not being rude, it’s being straight to the point. And I’d also like to point out, I didn’t call her, she called me in response to an ongoing issue of which I and the BG engineer who had attended to change the meter, had both reported to BG. The whole episode was in my view, unacceptable. As it also further happens, the BG Customer Services rep actually a week after the issue had been resolved, sent me an email wishing me well and pleased that the issue was finally resolved, so clearly, she wasn’t that phased by the whole thing.
Don’t think this has got anything to do with transparency. It’s damage limitation.
Even if you click through, they simply won’t provide you with a quote:
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Oh bugger… there goes my provider - Pure Planet.