... As you've probably guessed, we switched to EDF, hence this review.
Who are EDF?
EDF stands for Electricite de France, a French company that bought London Energy, Seeboard Energy and SWEB Energy, making them suppliers of energy to people living in Southern England. They are quite "green" ... Read review
EDF stands for Electricite de France, a French company that bought London Energy, Seeboard Energy and SWEB Energy, making them suppliers of energy to people living in Southern England. They are quite "green" in that they are one of the largest developers of off-shore wind-farms in the UK, and of course they import nuclear power into Britain from their nuclear power stations in Northern France.
...first heard of EDF through Nectar. I received an e-mail from Nectar which offered 5000 Nectar Points (worth £25) if you took out a dual-fuel (gas and electricity) deal with EDF. Nectar send out these e-mails quite regularly, and I signed up through one of them. I did it online, clicking the link from the Nectar e-mail, filling out my details including setting up the direct debit, and giving them by Nectar card number.
Like most people, we've been feeling the pinch of the soaring gas and electricity prices. I tend to procrastrinate and leave things, but even I had to act when Southern Electric put their prices up by 19%. As you've probably guessed, we switched to EDF, hence this review.
Who are EDF?
EDF stands for Electricite de France, a French company that bought London Energy, Seeboard Energy and SWEB Energy, making them suppliers of energy to people living in Southern England. They are quite "green" in that they are one of the largest developers of off-shore wind-farms in the UK, and of course they import nuclear power into Britain from their nuclear power stations in Northern France.
How do you sign up?
I first heard of EDF through Nectar. I received an e-mail from Nectar which offered 5000 Nectar Points (worth £25) if you took out a dual-fuel (gas and electricity) deal with EDF. Nectar send out these e-mails quite regularly, and I signed up through one of them. I did it online, clicking the link from the Nectar e-mail, filling out my details including setting up the direct debit, and giving them by Nectar card number.
If you don't get Nectar e-mails, you can sign up by going to www.edf-energy.com - they give you the £25 sign-up bonus for dual-fuel off your bill if you don't want the Nectar points.
Service
Service was very prompt - by return post I'd received a welcome pack from EDF, which included a copy of the contract I'd filled in, a booklet explaining the layout of the bills, how to read meters and other helpful hints on energy saving, and a letter advising that they would do all the administration of the switch-over which they said would take up to 8 weeks. This duly happened, and I had to contact them with the first reading and then I was off.
The telephone service was also very good - I got through almost straight-away, they were polite and efficient and didn't make any mistakes. The telephone number is 0800 096 9000 (i.e. you don't pay for the call).
Once you've set up the account, you manage it online. EDF pays you Nectar points to put in your readings each quarter online. You register with their read-reduce-reward scheme, that you want to read your own meter, and EDF then send you an e-mail 10 days before your quarterly bill is due prompting you to submit a meter reading. You then click on the link taking you to their web-site, input your meter-reading and they give you 250 Nectar points per fuel every quarter that you submit a reading this way. You can check your energy-usage each quarter using their online Energy Tracker, which creates a graph for you. If you reduce your energy from one year to the next, they give you a further 1000 bonus Nectar points for each fuel.
They also give you 200 Nectar points per fuel per quarter if you pay by monthly direct debit.
If you don't have a Nectar card, they give you a discount off your bill for the same value as the Nectar points.
Their tariffs
I found their electricity tariff considerably cheaper than Southern Electric's. The gas tariff is similar to British Gas (though cheaper when you take account of the Nectar points).
My conclusion
I like them - in terms of tariffs, ease of looking after the account online and never having to bother with estimated bills ever again, I would recommend them. My only quibble is with their web-site - I think they could have done more to make it easier to navigate; it took me some time to find the page for registering on the read-reduce-reward scheme. However, to be fair, they do have a site-map, and I should have used it, rather than try to work things out from the tab headings.
I hope the above helps someone. Thanks for reading.
Advantages: Good Prices, Variable Tarifs Offered, Great Customer Services Disadvantages: I have experienced none to date.
...can't speak highly enough of EDF Energy. Firstly let me emphasize that I am not an employee of EDF and have absolutely no connection (if you excuse the pun) with them whatsoever apart from being a domestic user of their energy. They have been my supplier for both Gas and Electricity in the last two properties that I have lived in. What are their good points then? 1. I have found them to be competitive on price with them in general being near the ... ...against them. 2. EDF are keen to actively promote more cost effective tariffs and price packages to their customers. For example they are currently promoting a deal to get 20% of all electricity that is consumed after 9 p.m. on week days and all day Saturday and Sunday. It involves having a different meter fitted which they did for free for me. You also have to sign a new 12 month contract. The tariff is called Eco 20/20 and is being advertised on ...
bella6789 02.03.2009 (03.03.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of EDF Energy
Advantages: Good customer service, online bills, plenty of nectar points Disadvantages: Price increases
I notice no-one has reviewed EDF recently so I thought I would add my thoughts.
We switched to EDF over 2 years ago when we moved home, and I'd used a couple of price comparison websites and EDF/SWEB came up top every time, so I thought it was my only option.
We decided to go for the dual fuel thing and pay by monthly direct debit, at least this way we knew exactly what we were going to be paying each month. They chose the payments first based ... ...people living there etc), and after a few months they reduced the payments in accordance with what energy we had been using, which I thought was marvellous, and it turned out that they had reduced our gas to £11 a month, and electricity to £20 a month, which I thought was extremely cheap and I was really happy with this!! They also debited our account with money we had overpayed.
The customer service is excellent, they always explain things clearly ...
Keelar 31.07.2008 (01.08.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of EDF Energy
Advantages: Brilliant customer service!! Disadvantages: None what so ever they are a brilliant company!
EDF Energy are a brilliant company to be with when it comes to electricity and gas, i have been with them for nearly a year and i am glad that i did switch and go with them. I used to pay my bills via payment cards each month which where good and i paid the rest of my bill when it arrived!! When i moved flats the previous people used pre-payment card and key (luckily they was with EDF)...i was unsure and first and couldnt be bothered to get someone ... ...then before...
Well with EDF energy you get a really good customer service, they are really friendly and excellent...I didnt realise i had a problem with my gas card, you would have thought i would of notice something was wrong when it took the counter person 10 times to get my card to work, i received a letter in the post from EDF saying that there was a problem with my card and could i contact them asap, so i did just that and they were really ...
melliebird 04.04.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of EDF Energy
Advantages: One of the cheapest energy suppliers at the moment Disadvantages: No branch network / Shops etc
...you prefer but I feel safer with the human touch. In the event the switchover went fairly smoothly.
Overall I have to say I am most impressed with both the service and the price of EDF and of course I am also impressed with the money that I saved. ...
Mister.Shades 26.06.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of EDF Energy
Not only do EDF energy offer great customer service and reasonable rates, they are also the only electricity and gas company that give you nector points, so as your paying your bills in a way you are saving money!
When I recived my first EDF energy bill I registed my nector card with the number on the bill and recived 300 ponits straight away!!
They also do this great scheme called Reduce reward and what you have to do is submit your meter reading ... ...much energy you are using, which can help you reduce how much energy you are using, this is a great idea because you can also save money by using less energy! (and you will be doing your bit for the enviroment)
Another great part to this aswell is they will give you 250 nector points every time you give them your 3 monthley readings!! and if you manage to reduce energy they give you a further 1000 nector points!!!!!!!!!!!! ...
bah85 30.06.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of EDF Energy
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