End smart meter farce
HOW are the power giants-getting away with using underhand tactics to bully us into getting a smart energy meter?
It’s a question Money Mail will be expecting Ofgem to answer in the coming days. We have urged the watchdog to investigate after readers-inundated us with complaints-about feeling cajoled into dumping analogue energy meters in favour of new-fangled digital ones.
Please keep sending in any damning evidence, because it is-helping us hold these superciliousfirms to account — and goodnes sme, someone needs to.
Eon, in particular, appears to be a law unto itself. Its letters state, without ambiguity, that it is-cancelling cheap deals for customers who don’t have a different meter installed.
There are two types of meter — smart and analogue — so the implication is clear.
That’s either discrimination or downright lies in my book, not least because smart meters won’t work in three in ten homes, often because of the way they’re built, or due to poor mobile phone reception (which the meters use to send data to your supplier).
Ofgem must force Eon to stop misleading customers with threatening letters and offer the same rates to all.
Another Eon letter makes a smart meter sound like a legal requirement — yet the Government has repeatedly said that installing one is optional.
Eon says it’ll update its letters in response to our concerns, but how much difference that will make remains to be seen.
There are plenty of excellent reasons to have a smart meter, which provides both you and your supplier with your usage data within minutes — eliminating any erroneous estimated bills. yet many people, particularly the elderly, would rather avoid this-digital revolution.
One concern is that hackers may mess around with the data being transmitted around your home, leading to fraud or even fires. In California, residents were so fearful the radio signals could cause cancer that the roll-out of smart meters was put on hold in 2012.
The meters also allow suppliers-to charge different rates at different times of day at the touch of a button. If prices start fluctuating with demand, you might run the vacuum and find it costs more than last week.
And there can’t be many people happy with the idea of a supplier disconnecting them remotely, or knowing their movements.
Until all these concerns fade away, it’s absolutely right that smart meters remain a choice.
And until the meters are made compulsory by law, we need a crackdown on suppliers that bully customers into switching.
Insurance racket
IF yOU’vE had your car or home insurance renewal letter through and the price is the same or lower, count your lucky stars.
I’m yet to find someone who hasn’t been hit by a hefty hike this year — even when there’s no apparent reason.
One I saw at the weekend showed that the Co-op wanted to put up prices from £343 to £383 — an 11 pc hike. The only reason given in the renewal letter was‘a series of changes recently announced by the Government’.
This seems a bit rich, given that insurance premium tax has risen by only 2.5 pc in the past year.
Online, I found a similar policy, which included breakdown and legal cover, at £200 with the RAC and it took less than 30 minutes-to switch.
What a racket the insurance industry is running. I suggest shopping around for a cheaper deal and calling your insurer to see if it’ll match the quote.
Fund fee pledge
THE fees you pay for a fund manager to pick shares for your pension or Isa could be about to fall. At least, that’s what Fidelity would have us believe.
Under major changes, it’s cutting the annual management charges-on its funds. Savers will pay more — or less — depending on whether itsstockpickers achieve stonking returns or have a bad run.
Fidelity yesterday wouldn’t tell us what its new charges will be, nor what stonking returns/bad run will mean in practice.
It merely said it expected to pocket less from savers overall.
It’s about time that greedy fund managers cut their fees — but excuse me for being sceptical about Fidelity’s bold claims until the details emerge.