In these ‘Straightened Times’ the newly observed behaviour of Energy Suppliers is creating concern in many circles. Whilst there patently is an economic downturn, some behaviour can best be described as over enthusiastic. In most circumstances now all Energy Contract Renewals or Transfers are accompanied by a Credit Check on the business concerned, even when staying with your current supplier.

This new found paranoia has resulted in an exuberant application of the word ‘NO!’ . Whilst not wishing to be disparaging regarding the merits of such a process, businesses are failing, it is easy for the third party credit checking organisations to err ‘statistically on the side of caution’ and say no.

Rightly or wrongly this now forces the onus back onto the businesses being checked to ensure that they’ve ‘got their house in order’. Fairly obviously the more traditional late payment of bills, to sqeeze a little more credit period, can send out alarm signals, but even paying by ‘Cash Cheque’ can go against the credit score.The perception of the energy market is moving at the moment, with increased reluctance to cater for some areas of the market – for example, many Suppliers are not prepared to quote for New Business in the pubs, clubs and takeaways market.

Our advice at Torse is if you anticipate the worst, and actively plan to prevent it, you are more likely to be successful with the placing of a Renewal or new Supplier contract. It is a serious point, which some of Torse’s clients can attest to. At Torse we do not offer a credit checking service for the client but we can outline some of the problems that can lead to rejection as a result of a company’s application and provide advice on the types of scoring systems companies can be subject to.

Credit Application Rejection

• Torse recommend that Businesses do monitor their record at Companies House. Rejection can occur when records of the company are not fully up to date and indicating the late submission of accounts at Companies House. Businesses also need to ensure that Companies House is up to speed, there can be backlogs for updating records or even incorrect information
• Rejection can occur when a company has not kept up with bill payments and has been blacklisted.
• Rejection can occur due to the company being in one of the poorly scored sectors such as pubs, clubs or takeaways.
• Rejection can occur when the company is not able to pay by direct debit [DD] even though they have a clean record of paying by cash check on time for many years. If not rejection, Cash/cheque contracts are becoming more difficult to obtain and Torse recommends that all clients pay by Direct Debit as the company may typically incur a 2% or more premium on top of the Contracted DD Rates.

Accessing Your Credit Score

Finding your credit score can be a daunting task so we have compiled a list of the credit scoring systems that some of our energy suppliers use so that you can do some of your own research and get an idea of where your company stands. By clicking on the links you can see more details on each of the companies.

Energy Supplier: SSE
Credit Check Company: Experian

Energy Supplier: EoN
Credit Check Company: Experian

Energy Supplier: BGB
Credit Check Company: Experian

Energy Supplier: Npower
Credit Check Company: Experian

Energy Supplier: EDF
Credit Check Company: Dun & Bradstreet

Energy Supplier: ScotPower
Credit Check Company: Experian

Energy Supplier: Total
Credit Check Company: ICC