Scottish Power

THE PROLOGUE
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I have been going to do this review for a while now but wanted to see if there were any problems which came to light first . Looking at the previous reviews on some internet sites , Scottish Power seem to have been a bit of a disappointment to many . Not so to us however . Let's hope it stays that way .

A LITTLE BACKGROUND
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Before the government in it’s wisdom decided to deregulate the fuel industries , consumers had little if any choice in who supplied their gas and electricity . Once the rules and regulations were lifted most of us were inundated with door to door salesmen trying to persuade us to change or suppliers . Hubby and I decided to stick with either of the tried and tested British Gas and our local YEB , Yorkshire Electricity Board .We settled on YEB for both our gas and electricity .

Somewhere along the line , and I am not quite sure how , this evolved so that we were receiving our fuel through Npower . For quite a while we had no complaints , until late last year that is . We have always payed by direct debit , and in so doing have received a yearly discount .

Once a year the suppliers look at your account and decide if they need to increase your payments . Late last year they did just that and came up with a ludicrously high figure . This was based on the fact that their prices were set to rise and it seemed as if they were edging their bets . After much tooing and froing we said our goodbyes to Npower and set about changing supplier .

We researched the internet at the time and looked around and decided on Scottish Power . Of course once we had decided to swap supplier , and sent of the details , Npower began inundating us with deals and promises designed to make us change our minds . Ever the stubborn ones we went ahead with the swap . If you decide to swap it may be worth noting that you can often get a cashback payment if you use an internet site to do so ( something like greasy palm ) . However we just did a straight forward swap and what we have found up to now has been fine .

SO IF YOU WANT TO SWAP TO SCOTTISH POWER HOW EASY IS IT
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I have to say it is very easy . We looked them up on the internet and initially contacted them by the phone number supplied . They contact your previous supplier and do so fairly quickly . However you do need to keep paying you previous gas and electricity suppliers bills until the transfer goes through .

What you may find , depending on the time of year is , that if you have been paying by monthly direct debit , after the swap you may get a bill from your previous suppliers . Once you are with Scottish Power you will receive a notification letter asking for your meter reading . Around the same time we were asked by Npower for our final readings and then within a short time received their final bill . This can be a bit of a pain as you will have started paying your Scottish Power direct debits now . However at least you will start with a clean slate and Npower gave us the option to pay our final bill over a short period of time .

The starter pack you get from Scottish Power has all the information you need and we did really feel supported and as if they were doing all the work for us . As we chose the on-line account I cannot comment on their other billing and meter reading reliability .

WHAT SCOTTISH POWER OFFER
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When you join Scottish Power there are quite a few different schemes you can opt for :-

Gas & Electricity - One bill and meter reading with a combined discount of up to £15.75 .

Electricity - Receiving Electricity only

Gas - Receiving only Gas . When we swapped the savings against British Gas were huge , I don’t know if that is still the case .

Online Energy Service - This is the one we plumped for . We manage our account on-line for which we receive a discount . There are no paper bills and you receive an e.mail when your meter reading is due . If you forget about the reading you get a couple of reminders and eventually an estimated reading , until you supply the details . As of yet we have had no problems but obviously if the computer goes up the Swanee we will no doubt have a few . However there is a customer service available and the end of a phone line if needed .

You can sign into your account at any time and amend details such as payment methods , amount of payment , the type of energy account , enter a meter reading or just check out the current state of your account .

PriceFall Energy - This has a maximum set price for your energy and the prices are guaranteed not to rise above this until November 2008 . If prices fall your price still falls so you should be in a win win situation .

Green Energy Options - There are two of these-
Green Energy Fund -This is supposed to be a fairly cheap rate and each year you can donate your discount to a green energy fund . No matter how little energy you use Scottish Power will also donate £10.50 on your behalf .
Green Energy H2O - However much electricity you use the same amount is put back in to the electricity grid with electricity from clean Hydro Power .

Standing Charge or No Standing Charge - This option lets you choose whether to pay a standing charge or not .If you opt for no standing charge a certain amount of energy used is at a higher rate , and then it is lowered .

All of the above are more fully explained on Scottish Powers website were I have taken this information from in part .

OUR EXPERIENCES
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We are pleased we have swapped supplier . Having found it such a straight forward task I would not leave it so long again if a better deal came up . However we have just been notified that Scottish Power’s prices are coming down on 15th June 2007 so hopefully we will have no need to .

The site where you manage your account is really easy to use and seems very safe . The fact that there is a helpline , albeit at the end of an 0845 number is comforting . So many on-line services leave you stranded if suddenly you have no computer access . We did get confirmation paper work initially so we have a means of checking and contacting Scottish Power .

Reading the meters ourselves saves the hassle of a meter reader calling . Always a pain when you work shifts and have two dogs .

RECOMMENDATION
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I have no complaints at all regarding Scottish Power but of course it’s still relatively early days . They do seem to have a good variety of accounts to suit most people and although other suppliers prices have come down are still very competitive . We are paying about £25 a month less than with Npower and are still on target to remain in credit this year so for us it was not only a good move but a cost effective one .

Thanks for reading
Copyright Eiley2007

4 /5 until we have had more time with them .