I am not sure why there is so much paranoia surrounding this tariff. There was another rumour circulating that this was almost a tied contract - if you cancelled before 31 July 2010 then not only subsequent but all previous charges would be recalculated at a standard price. This is not true. There are no cancellation penalties.

The surprising aspect of this tariff is that it is suitable for a wider range of consumptions than most - customers with a low consumption receive a good deal rather than the usual of just being for those of national average or higher useage (eg, the BG and E-on tariffs that pip EDF on the tables are less than £2 per year cheaper for the average consumer but are both more than 50% more expensive for the frugal!!!)

Thank you very much! As long as I keep an eye on it, it's better than I thought.

It's in the footnotes of a tariff sheet pdf.

http://www2.savetodaysavetomorrow.com/documents/Online_v5_Ratecard.pdf

ADDiTiONAl CHARGES AND DiSCOUNTS

1. An electricity customer paying by monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount of £8.40 (£8.00 exc VAT) per annum. This is calculated daily and is credited to your electricity bill quarterly.

2. A gas customer paying by monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount of £16.80 (£16.00 exc VAT) per annum. This is calculated daily and is credited to your gas bill quarterly.

3. A Dual Fuel customer paying by monthly Direct Debit will receive a Dual Fuel discount of £25.20 (£24.00 exc VAT) per annum. This is calculated daily and is credited to your gas bill quarterly.

Maximum Discount available is for Dual Fuel on Direct Debit i.e. Electricity £8.40, (£8.00 exc VAT), Gas £16.80 (£16.00 exc VAT), Dual Fuel £25.20 (£24.00 exc VAT), Total £50.40, (£48.00 exc VAT).

(You are right that a '2% under our standard prices' is not much of a guarantee or assurance, though!)

access:

Shiverkitten is right. Price List para 3 refers.

Thanks shiverkitten but could you tell me where it is on their website just in case there is a disagreement in the future. I have taken the trouble to look at the 5 and general t&cs and unless I've missed it they don't cover it at all so I'm left with the front page of 5 where it shows total discounts of £50-40 per annum so I interpret that as all or nothing. I appreciate that may be wrong.

they pay out the DD discount at the end of the year

Not as far as I can read. All three discounts are calculated daily and credited to your account quarterly. So at most there may be a chance that the final £12.60 is not credited to a final bill but it is not an all-or-nothing affair (a la nPower) or a massive 13% to 20% of your final bill (a la E-on).

access:

Hi Jalexa, have a look at my earlier posting on this post and I said similar on another post - no I'm not confident they won't reduce the discount BUT I did read the t&cs and decided that it was worth the risk. The risk bit is that the £50 penalty I mentioned on the other post is the fact that they pay out the DD discount at the end of the year and as far as I'm aware my readingof the t&cs is you get nothing if you don't complete a year. If 5 gets uncompetitive at a crucial point you might lose £s?

Hi access

I kind of remembered you saying something similar in a previous thread but couldn't find it.

I've only checked the T&Cs in relation to price increases and I think the customer has a right to cancel without penalty in the case of a price rise. Though given that prices might fall a more likely outcome is that the tariff will not change but be replaced with a cheaper tariff. So it's a "clever" tariff (not being complementary there), neither capped nor fixed.

Nevertheless a good saving for people who stay alert and understand the small print.

Hi Jalexa, have a look at my earlier posting on this post and I said similar on another post - no I'm not confident they won't reduce the discount BUT I did read the t&cs and decided that it was worth the risk. The risk bit is that the £50 penalty I mentioned on the other post is the fact that they pay out the DD discount at the end of the year and as far as I'm aware my readingof the t&cs is you get nothing if you don't complete a year. If 5 gets uncompetitive at a crucial point you might lose £s?

If above is wrong please correct.

access:

I thought it may be of interest to inform members that I have switched from SSE to EDF v5

That's a very competitive tariff in most areas but I note its predicated on a minimum 2% discount over EDF standard rates. The current discount is much more than 2% (about 20% discount)

Given that its not a fixed tariff are you confident "5" won't be quietly replaced and the discount narrowed towards the 2%?

access:

No, you're reading something into my post that's not there.

The communication from the losing supplier is what would alert the customer to "slamming". In this case not relevent because it's a genuine transfer initiated by the customer but SSE would not know that.

On, or immediately after, the actual transfer date, EDF will take, or more likely ask you for a meter reading. The meter reading is sent to SSE. I was simply wondering out loud what SSE will make of a transfer reading for a supply they did not realise they were losing. If it is the case that they didn't know. That's speculation. The only fact is that you didn't hear from SSE.

Jalexa, I used the EDF website to switch from SSE and have had the appropriate paperwork through. Slamming is, from what I have read, done indirectly and is more popularly known as "missselling". I am at a loss to understand why the EDF request for a transfer reading should or could be a problem other than a standard internal mistake. Enlighten me please.

ps Just come back to this as I realised they wanted electricity reading. I have just had explained to me the role of the independent "Data Collector" that, in this case, SSE and EDF have to deal with. are you sure you can be slammed if you go direct?

access:

Not a peep out of SSE begging me to stay

Interesting but also worrying. You could have been slammed and not know. The acid test will be when EDF take or ask you for the transfer reading and send it to SSE for their final bill.

Maybe (probably) they sent a letter, but hey, lots of letters from my bank(s) get "lost" (allegedly).

I thought it may be of interest to inform members that I have switched from SSE to EDF v5 - filled out form on EDF website on 8 August and EDF informed me yesterday that my supply would start on 31 August. Not a peep out of SSE begging me to stay which I was pleased about and I would happily switch back to them in the future rates permitting.

The tariff is still available.

You can switch via TopCashback.com to receive £60 cashback in addition to the cheap tariff.

The 'not available' button has very little to do with availability - it only means you can not switch using that particular site.

Having got different results from different comparison sites all of which showed V5 as cheapest and indicating one needed to go direct to the company I did. Frankly even if the indication was not there the obvious move is to check out the company's website. I had already done that so I signed up very easily and quickly online and received an immediate salient point email.