Cheaper Electricity offer

[Patmobile]

We've just received a notice from Gaz de France inviting us to buy electricity from them.  Apparently it's a deal they've made with Gites de France which will give us a 10% lower standing charge, no standing charge at all for 2 months, and a fixed price for a year at a rate equivalent to that of EDF before their recently announced rate increase.

It sounds OK, but I'm not that keen to go for it, because (a) I know that Gites de France are getting a commission (probably hefty) for every proprietor who signs up, and (b) they are demanding a signature before 24/9/06 to qualify.

My gut feeling is that other, better offers will be soon on the way from other providers, and that even if they don't turn up, this offer, or possibly a better one from Gaz de France, will still be open if I approach them direct in a month or two.

I might turn out to be wrong, but this one's going in the "wait & see" file for the time being.

Patrick

[BJSLIV]

Sounds like the standard current Gaz de France electricity offer, though if you sign up on-line they offer a third month standing charge free so perhaps thats where Gites get their rake-off.

At present you can only get this rate for professional properties, but it will be interesting to see how domestic liberalasation takes off next year (July 2007).

I don't suppose it will be anything like as cut throat as the UK market was in the early days. Just imagine the scope for paperwork, 24 month contracts, 36 month notice periods etc etc.

[Patmobile]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]

Sounds like the standard current Gaz de France electricity offer, though if you sign up on-line they offer a third month standing charge free so perhaps thats where Gites get their rake-off.

At present you can only get this rate for professional properties, but it will be interesting to see how domestic liberalasation takes off next year (July 2007).

I don't suppose it will be anything like as cut throat as the UK market was in the early days. Just imagine the scope for paperwork, 24 month contracts, 36 month notice periods etc etc.

[/quote]

Yes, I had a look on the Gaz de France website and found that I couldn't sign up online, and thus get the third month of zero abonnement without giving a Siret no., which we don't have.  Gites de France seem to have made it posssible for us to do so.  They also suggest in their letter that we could get our domestic and other meters onto the same deal.

Really, it's the 3 phase supply to our 3 cottages adjacent to our house that would show the most significant benefit.  The abonnement there is 94.74€ per month so we would save 189.48€ immediately and then benefit from a 10% reduction in the future.  The abonnement for the home meter is only 7.50€ per month and, for our separate seaside cottage, 13.47€, so we wouldn't gain a lot there.

I remember when deregulation arrived in UK, standing charges disappeared.  Is it too much to hope, do you suppose, that if I sit this one out and wait till next year, better offers, with no standing charges at all, might materialise?

Patrick