Help with Natural gas?

[Draggy]

When we move in to our town house in June we will have Enbridge gas heating.

Does anyone have experience with them?

What does your bill look like?

We are flying blind here and it's making me very nervous!!!!

[army_girl29]

I hear enbridge is the fairest. I was really unhappy when they said that I would have to pay a $250 depoist or go on Pre-aurth debit. I will let you know once I get my first bill.

[Draggy]

They told me I had no choice but to pay the $250 deposit fee. Do you know if we get that back or not?

[ottawagurl20]

after a year or two u get the deposit back.. either as a credit on ur bill or u can ask them for the money and they will send you a check.

[OttawaWoman]

Enbridge is a good & honest company. I have dealt with them for 20+ years. The deposit is pretty standard for utilities, either gas or hydro if you are a new customer. (It protects them against people who don't pay their bills) If you have a really good credit rating you can ask them to waive/reduce the deposit, it might work it might not, but no harm in asking.
Don't be fooled by the promise of extra savings and sign up for "Direct Energy" (or any third party provider) stick with Enbridge - the add on companies, such as Direct Energy promise great savings but don't necessarily deliver. You sign a contract to purchase gas/hydro from them for a fixed price (often lower than the posted rate for the current month) for a fixed term (1-3 years) that auto renews, while the price from Enbridge is not locked in, the price fluctuates with the going rate of energy but in the long run it is far cheaper.
I work at a Credit Union and have seen several instances of people puzzling over why their monthly gas or hydro bill is so much higher than several neighbors who have the same size unit and same number of people living in the household. In all instances it was due to a contract with a third party supplier, such as "Direct Energy" Another interesting tidbit about third party suppliers, when you move and no longer need gas/hydro, you think all you need to do is contact the gas/hydro company and notify them of your move out date. But if you have signed on with a third party supplier, they will not automatically close your account with them, and $$ continue to be owed, some of which I have seen go to collection, just because they didn't know they had to make two calls to two separate companies to cancel their gas/hydro when they moved out. The sales people for third party suppliers are paid by the number of accounts they sign up, and often present themselves as a "representative" of the utility company, and can be quite pushy. Know your rights, don't be pushed into signing something, and keep in mind, Enbridge or Ottawa Hydro will NOT have people coming door to door to sign you up for savings.

Sorry I went on a little long, I've just seen too many people pay the price.

Good luck with your move & welcome to Ottawa!!