A great source of confusion

We cash strapped pensioners have to watch every penny especially since the exchange rate is still low.

When we first went onto mains electricity, everyone at Villas Andrea was put onto Iberdrola Verde accounts – so called green electricity.

When they were told of a more advantageous account, many residents switched to an ordinary tariff and claimed to save a lot by doing so. We elected to stay with the original “green” electricity account because it seemed to me that what you saved on each unit (a few cents) you paid for in increased standing charges. Unless you consumed above a certain amount, you could potentially be worse off. 

At our Spanish class, one of the residents from the estate complained that his recent bill was very high and when I checked ours we’d paid a similar amount – more than normal. Speaking to others, their bills were less than half of ours. That struck me as odd until I realised that those who changed accounts pay each month; we still pay every two months.

To make matters more confusing, the person who had the expensive bill actually has two meters in a similar arrangement to Economy 7 i.e. he pays half the amount for electricity consumed at night than in the daytime.  It is a tariff aimed at those who have night storage heaters.

So what is the best deal to go for? I still don’t know. What I do know is that we changed suppliers in England which was a complicated drawn out process and saved very little if anything by doing so.