Is your gas and electricity supplied by Scottish Power? Annoyed by their recently-announced price hikes - 19 per cent for gas bills and 10 per cent for electricity - but don't want to pay their costly exit fees for leaving? Well, you don't have to. I've found a loophole.
Not only did I have to go through the baffling process of switching to move to Scottish Power a few months back, unimpressed with their newly announced price hikes,I face switching again - in order to leave. And to make matters worse, I have to pay a £50 exit fee.
An exit fee isn’t something buried in the ts&cs; gas and electricity companies make exit fees quite clear when you switch to their service.
The fees are typically £20 per fuel but prices vary between suppliers and even between tariffs offered by the same supplier. Scottish Power’s exit fee for my particular online tariff is £50.
But not all is lost as it turns out there is a way to avoid getting stung by these exit fees as you turn your back on energy price rises.
How to avoid an exit fee
Scottish Power had been supplying my energy for less than one month when the rises were announced, so a bit miffed to say the least, I set about leaving and getting them to cancel this exit fee: I was prepared for a fight.
I called the firm’s customer service line and bombared the polite adviser with reasons for why I wasn’t prepared to pay it. When I finally drew a breath I was told that I didn’t have to pay if I switched before 1 August.
“Oh”, I said, stopping in my hot-headed consumer tracks. “That’s good then.” But a few questions later it transpired that it’s not so simple as a fee waiver.
A hasty move might cost you
According to the adviser, the way to avoid the fee is to call or email Scottish Power and say specifically that you’re leaving because of the price rises.
If I hadn’t called Scottish Power and had just gone ahead and switched, I’d have been charged to leave.
This is great news for anyone looking to get cheaper bills but I have a feeling that its not very well advertised – if at all. And despite our best efforts to contact Scottish Power on a number of occasions to verify this, they failed to respond to our requests.
So if you're not happy with a price rise, call your supplier and inform them that this is the reason you wish to leave, that way when you switch, you shouldn't have to pay an exit fee.
Make sure you use a comparison site accredited by consumer watchdog Consumer Focus like Confused.com when shopping around for a new gas and electricity supplier.
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