I switched from Powergen to Atlantic Electric and Gas. I don't know why they don't show up too often on price comparison sites - I personally feel it's because that their prices are quite cheap already, and cannot boast of high percentage cuts in prices ("25% cheaper!") - but I've found them to be very good.

When I switched to them from Powergen, they took the annual consumption of gas and electricity and worked out that I would have to pay 20 pounds for gas and 26 for electricity. I stuck with them and got a 13th month free, then reduced my direct debits. In that time I requested two refunds from them totalling a hundred pounds, so the extra 46 went towards reducing my bill further. I then reduced my DDs to 16 for gas and 20 for electric, but the last time I checked (a week ago), I was ahead in my electric bill by fifty pounds (since October) so I intend to lower it to about 15 pounds a month..

I've gone from paying over a thousand pounds with Powergen, and will be paying 16 pounds for gas and 15 for electric - 31 pounds per month. Over a year, that's 373 pounds - a massive saving.

I recently did a price comparison check and Scottish Power did fare slightly better to the tune of a couple of pounds. But the service from Atlantic Electric and Gas is really good, I feel - you call and don't have to wait for a long time, you can request bills at any time by sending in readings online, and the customer service staff always do what you request - no messing about.

This story is similar to my problems.....I had subscribed to Powergen capped duel fuel deal until March 2010. But I only realised, when powergen sent me a letter stating they are increasing my direct debit from £65 to £135 a month, that when I moved house a year ago, they accidently reverted me to the old standard rate....and not using the duel fuel deal.

Looking back at the old bills, I noticed that May-Sep time, some of the old standard rates were lower than my rates. When I enquired why my charges are higher, they said that my capped tarrif was not moved down as I would be benifiting of the capped charge in the future years, and that by reducing my "capped" rate would be unfair advantage to my account.

I did try and explain the difference between capped and fixed to them with no avail.

Also, as I had reverted back to the capped rate, they had charged me an extra £50 as this is a capping charge that they didn't apply during the year when I have moved house. So, with that, and the £27 I calculate that I feel being "short changed" as my rate didnt lower, I am quite annoyed.

i cant beleive that u paid 80 pound a month with powergen! to me that is cheap i am with powergen and i pay 40 pound a WEEK for duel fuel (ga and elec).  i only live in a small terraced with gas central heating and a small gas cooker.  however me and my partner are out all day and only come home in eve with my son so do not use a lot of gas or electric.  i am young and i feel they are using my confusion as a step up towards conning me!!  what can i do they claim i owe them 200pound but i pay every week so i dont know how i can they say its  estimated meter readings i think its them laughing at my expense whilst taking my money!!!!

Hi thanks for your responce to my posted letter, I am glad someone else feels the same way as I do at this time, the accounts dept has ammended my readings to what I gave them on the day of my reading them and has said that they will send an ammended bill out to me but as yet I have not recieved it so I do not as yet know what outstanding amount if any is still owing but it will be a lot less than they said on the estimated bill, my readings were 2000 different to theirs as I have been away for 4 1/2 weeks over the Christmas period which I was not last year at the time of the large bill so it was obviously wrong, it was not the accounts office who demanded this large hike it was some ignorant young woman in the debit office who was demanding this hike of £125 or a minimum payment of £90, as I have never been in debt with them over the many years that I have been with them I felt this was totally wrong for if I owed more than I had paid in D/D payments that was upto me to agree to pay the outstanding amount and certainly not for someone to demand more on the D/D from me and as such I decided to cancell my d/d payment to them and have found another company to which I will be switching to which is Atlantic energy as they are the least complained about amongst all those to which I have looked at, anyway thanks again for your responce, by for now. Helen

okay, but don't forget the very long timescale in getting the £30 cashback.......................



when I swithced broadband to BT I got my £80 cashback offer paid WITHIN 10 DAYS !!!!!!!

Helen Ann,
You have hit the nail on the head by deciding to switch supplier and show Powergen that you are voting with your feet, and taking your business elsewhere where you will be treated as a person rather than a captive customer, just because it shows on their records you have been with them for years.
I am just switching to Scottish Power online energy savers 2 (from Powergen) which you can get a quote and apply for on this site and also qualify for a £30 cashback from Moneysupermarket.com on top of the savings.
You manage your account online provide your own correct readings so are content in the knowledge they are accurate. One word of advise when you provide final readings to Powergen to pay off the final bill, have a friend or someone witness the readings so there can be no argument from Powergen at a later date asking you for more money. Incidentally I was paying £80/month DD electric & gas to Powergen, large 3 bed semi with central heating, someone at home all day. This has gone down to £67/month with Scottish Power so I will eat my hat if you can't make a worthwhile saving from switching. ...... Good Luck.

okay..........understood


just one final important point.....................you should get your meter checked as for its accuracy, since even changing supplier will not correct a problem meter..................you will be in the same situation again otherwise.................

No I am not an online customer as I usually do catch the metre reader who is always a different person when calling, it seems because of the very bad weather this person who comes at that time of the year was the same one who created this problem last year, yes I agree with your comments that it should sort it self out on real readings but the damage has already been done by there demands for this excessive hike which I am not agreeing to, they were not prepared to wait until the next quarter and wanted to increase my debit immediately and tried very hard to badger me into agreeing and thats a no no, so at this time I am looking for a new supplier who is cheaper and so far I have realised that there are a number who are quite a bit cheaper than Powergen, so a change is on the cards after all these years, as for checking with a similar property that is not possible for they are all houses around me and apart from a few other bungalows further down and not knowing those people who live in them I have no other check for other peoples costs and even if they were willing which I would think that they would not be in my asking about private matter from them, anyway I am glad that you seem satisfied for the time being and I hope that you never run foul of the person who I have at Powergen for she is not very helpful at all, again thanks for the reply

okay...............but I repeat, as you have gas, the electric usage should be no more than £700 per annum................the problem seems to be exacerbated by the estimated readings angle, but nevertheless the annual figure should sort itself out when actuals revert.....


also, if you an online cutsomer ( like me ). you can submit actual readings online instead of awaiting a meter person............


I presume yuou have also compared your costs with similar neighbour properties ??

Hi thank you for your answer to my posted letter, no this is not incorrect, I live in a bungalow and have both Gas and Electric, the hot water is heated by Gas and the central heating,, I have an electric cooker which is only used once per day and a fridge freezer along with the lights and a tv, I have several other appliances but they are not used on a daily basis, last year the metre reader did as he has done this year and not called to read the metre so last year we were given an estimated bill for guess what, £385 which was very high for us, I queried it but they insisted it was correct even though I supplied the reading for them, so I did not argue as it was a long and cold winter and extra electric had been used at that time unlike this year when we have been much more careful so I paid the difference and added an extra £10 a month to my standard debit making it £50 per month, this year again the metre reader claimed to have called but nobody was in so an estimate was again given based on last years readings which were unusually high, this metre reader is not being honest about us not being in as we have a german shepherd dog who goes mad everytime someone calls and she did not hear anyone on the two days mentioned in which he claimed to have called, so I recieved the bill for a massive £385 again this week, I immediately rang the billing and gave her the correct reading at this she altered my account and promised a new bill to be sent out to me, the very next day I recieved a letter from the debit department not asking but telling me they were on the 7th of Febuary they were increasing my debit from my account to£125 per month, I rang them up and eventually got a stroppy young woman who was not interested in any less an amount than £90 per month and she told me that I would not then be paying enough as I needed to pay what they had asked for, I refused and she insisted that I cancell my debit with them and arrange payment through my bank effectively cancelling my capped agreement and any discount paid to me, she put me in a position where I could not allow her to badger me into handing over such a hike to them so what I am saying to you is the truth about Powergen and I have been with them for years since they were the east midlands electricity company well before they became powergen, so do beware for they are by stealth like many more slowly adding huge amounts unneccessarily to people bills, again thanks for the answer.

assuming you have gas as well, then £125 per month for electric must be wrong............


even if you don't have gas, then £125 is a lot of power to use........


as an example ,we are with powergen in a 2 bed house with NO GAS, and we use tumble drier every day etc and we only pay £50 month............


your usage msut be inaccurate.....................what size property do you have ???

This company has just demanded via a letter as from next month on the 7th of Febuary a massive hike in my standard monthly debit taking it from £50 per month to a figure of £125 per month just for electricity, this is a hike of 150% increase, as I have a letter from them confirming that I have capped price until 2009 this is totally scandalous, these utilities are being allowed to blatantly rob people as they have them over a barrel by demanding these enormous hikes while the Government sits around putting a cap of a measly 2% pay rise on people and turning a blind eyue to all these utility companies and Councils who are being allowed to get away with murder, it is time that the people of this country got together and took these companies to the European Court for justice as our own Government are not intending doing anything to help the people who are being forced deeper into debt for no fault of their own, people like myself who are disabled are the most effected for we cannot go out to work and earn the extra money that is needed for we have been consistantly ignore by this so called Chancellor since this pathetic so called Government came into power promising to help the most vulnerable in society, it all sounds like the joke it was and not only for the disabled but for everyone who either works or is retired.so as far as POWERGEN is conserned give them the widest birth for your own sake that you can for they are the very worst of companies to deal with for prices and reliable metre readings.