You've missed the boat !! (Amerada Energy)

Member Name: upton66

Product:	Amerada Energy
Date:	25/03/03 (346 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: None

Amerada are no longer accepting new customers directly since they have been absorbed by Powergen. Powergen prices are no where near as competitive. There should be no problems for existing Amerada customers and hopefully we will continue to benefit from their preferential tariffs for many months to come.

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Amerada’s prices for domestic electricity and gas are amongst the most competitive available. Their cheapest tariff is their on-line account, which means no paperwork involved, no bills in the post and paying by continuous direct debit either by bank or credit card. The only possible drawback is that you can only contact their customer service by email, otherwise it is £1/min by phone, but you should never need to ring them.

Moving your energy supplier is nothing to worry about, you won’t be chopped off as the new supplier arranges the switchover from your existing supplier and by law they are not allowed to leave you in limbo with no supply. The only difference you’ll notice is who sends you the bill. Switching from your existing supplier to any new supplier is very easy but you must establish one important factor; failure to do so seems to be cause of most people’s aggravation:

If you are still with your very original, pre-privatisation, supplier eg British Gas and for eg Southern Electric, you will have no hiccups. If however your premises have already been switched to another supplier then things are more complicated. Once that first switch has been made you will have a contract with that supplier and before you can change you have to give them formal notice. Your new supplier cannot do it for you. So establish your situation first before attempting to make any switch.

All the alternative suppliers offer the world in savings, but their comparison will always be against your original pre-privatisation supplier for your area, which is why they ask for your postcode, and anyone
217;s illustration of savings will look really attractive. So don’t agree to do anything outside the supermarket; Virgin, British Gas, nPower they are all at it, and they are all a con.

Amerada’s rate for gas is of £0.01991p per KWh and there is an annual charge of £28.36. For Electricity it is £0.05295 per KWh and £
43.11/yr standing charge. All these prices include VAT. There is no discount for having both with them but overall you will find Amerada will beat your existing suppliers of energy, they are the cheapest available. (Atlantic Electric and Gas are very marginally cheaper by couple of pounds per year but I have no experience of them). Even if your existing supplier, or the man who collars you outside the supermarket promises no standing charges and dual fuel discounts etc etc, you will still find Amerada on-line the cheapest option.

To switch supply and sign up you need a bill from your existing supplier to find your meter reference details. Go to the Amerada site, click on Select your Services, select Gas on Line and/or Electricity and Apply Now. You will then be taken through step by step, name, email address, postal address etc, choose a login and password, meter reference numbers, choice of payment and so on, very straightforward. When it comes to payment go for continuous direct debit as it is the cheapest tariff and you suggest a monthly amount. Use one of your cashback credit cards, and then you’ll be getting another 1% of your total energy bills back on your credit card.

If, as mentioned above you are not with your very original energy suppliers then write a letter to them giving them notice at the earliest opportunity that you intend to switch to Amerada; they will then get in touch with each other for you. You then just have to wait.

Eventually you will get an email from Amerada advising you of an intended start date and requesting a meter reading. You may or may not get a letter from Am
erada confirming your account number etc. You can log in to your new account at any stage and they will show your progress of your application to transfer energy supply to Amerada. You may get a begging letter from your existing supplier telling you how wonderful they are and how sorry they are to lose you, which you can politely ignore. Any
credit with your existing supplier will either be transferred across to Amerada or some suppliers may send you a cheque. Any amounts owing will be transferred across to Amerada and they may adjust your suggested monthly payments to catch up the amount owing.

You will receive an email once every three months or so advising that a new bill is ready to view. So long as you are paying buy continuous debit there is absolutely nothing to do. The gasman, or electricity man, will still call to read your meters once every four or six months or so and send the reading to Amerada. You can log in to the website and your account at any time to view your account transactions. These details are slightly confusing as you need to read the account upwards, backward Chinese style, ie most recent transactions are at the top. They split out your energy usage and standing charge at VAT separately, but your direct debits are clearly shown. Negative figures in the far right total column are what you owe them, which should slowly reduce as your direct debits are set against them. If you have just gas or just electricity with Amerada then the Account Transactions webpage is the same as clicking first on Gas or Electricity and then selecting transaction history. If you pay both electricity and gas then the Account Transactions is a wonderful mixture, which isn’t worth struggling to decipher. You can View your Statement at any time and this gives you a summary of payments made against money owing, too confusing and sometimes out of synch with Account Transactions so you can ignore this as well.

One useful feature though at th
e top of the Statement page is Metering Information, this will tell you your current and previous meter reading and you can enter in a current reading at any time. You can also view all meter readings since opening your account and see which were actual official readings, customer entered or estimated. From this statement page you can also check a
nd amend your current payment arrangements.

If you do need to contact Amerada do it by email, it is free and, though their responses are slow, they will eventually answer your question. To get to the secure email service click on Answer Centre, type anything in text search, click on any answer and only then will you get to the Submit a Question tab, type it in and send; even then they will try and get you to read their answers, but just submit your question. They will respond with an irritating automatic response saying they will contact you soon, but that may take up to a month, and they refer you again to the Answer Centre.

Any problems I have had have been due to not realising that an existing energy supplier was not the original pre-privatisation supplier. If your transfer does seem to be going all pear shaped, don’t panic, you won’t be cut off so long as you set up a valid direct debit. I have been with Amerada for gas for over two years and I have transferred the rest of the family without too many hitches within the last year or so.

Summary: