Sainsbury’s Energy to CLOSE in April affecting hundreds of thousands of customers
The good news is your supply won't be affected as it was already coming from British Gas anyway, while your terms and conditions will remain the same
HUNDREDS of thousands of Sainsbury's Energy customers will be moved to British Gas in April as the firm is closing down.
Sainsbury's Energy stopped selling its own tariffs to new customers yesterday and all existing customers will be moved over to become British Gas customers in April.
Currently, British Gas supplies the gas and electricity to Sainsbury's Energy customers under a so-called "white label" partnership.
This sees Sainsbury's Energy as the face of the brand with British Gas performing all the background functions, such as supplying the energy, and taking meter readings and payments.
British Gas wouldn't tell us how many households the closing of Sainsbury's Energy affects, but we found documents from the company that reveal it had around 190,000 customers in 2014.
The good news is your supply won't be affected as it was already coming from British Gas anyway, while your terms and conditions will remain the same.
This means that if you're on a fixed deal you remain on this tariff, while if you're on a standard variable tariff (SVT) you'll stay on this.
Your account number and payments will also remain the same.
If you owe cash to Sainsbury's Energy this debt will be passed over to British Gas, and the same goes for any credit on your account.
But any early exit fees applied to your tariff will also remain; so you won't be able to switch penalty free as a result of the change unless your contract already allows this.
British Gas hasn't confirmed when in April the switch will take place, only saying customers will be contacted and told the date, as well as how to set up new online accounts.
In the meantime, you can continue to send in meter readings as normal, while smart meter customers will still have their readings automatically taken.
British Gas has 12.5million customers, including Sainsbury's Energy users. It doesn't have any other energy white label brands, but other firms do.
For example, Octopus Energy now provides the energy for M&S Energy, and SSE has done so in the past.
A spokesperson for British Gas' parent company, Centrica, said: “We can confirm the partnership between Sainsbury’s and British Gas is coming to an end.
"We have enjoyed a successful partnership with Sainsbury's since 2011 and we will be writing to Sainsbury's Energy customers to reassure them they will continue to be supplied by British Gas under the same terms and conditions and they will now be able to join the British Gas Rewards loyalty programme.”
More on energy bills
Energy regulator Ofgem is due to announce new energy price caps tomorrow, which some experts have said could see prices set to rocket by £113.
The Big Six energy firms, which includes British Gas, have been accused of running a cartel by charging the same prices for standard tariffs.
Meanwhile, Npower has revealed plans to axe 900 jobs and it blames the cuts on the energy price cap.
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