Uswitch - Energy Suppliers

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Joined
20 Feb 2004
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Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Recently been thinking about changing our gas/electricity suppliers but getting a bit confused.

We're currently with M&S and after plugging in our usage and current tarriff all the comparison sites were telling me to move to Scottish Power as they were cheaper. Just got the paperwork through though and its showing unit prices to be quite a lot more expensive on the new tarriff, which seems to be baffling me a little bit!

Any ideas why everywhere would be telling me one was cheaper when unit prices are actually more? Its the first time i've really looked into it so i took the advise of uswitch at face value which probably wasn't the best idea!
 
What did uswitch say and what have you actually received? In terms of tariff names, unit rates etc.

A little more detail would be useful.

Wouldn't surprise me if you selected one tariff and somehow ended up on another.

I recently used uswitch to assess competing prices but then went directly to the suppliers after that.
 
Don't use comparison sites for energy, tarrifs are far to complicated and they often include the £100 rebates like Npower offer after 12months. Stick to spreadsheet and a bit of hard-work, knowing monthly usage is pretty much a necessity.
Company's can and do charge the two prices for differing amounts of units per month.
Npower for example, has almost all their expensive units in winter, meaning comparison sites well underestimate the cost for Npower.

As to orginal question, cancel it if your not happy. Tarrifs are changed often and you prolly missed that tarrif, or comparison site didnt update in line with the company.
 
Cheers guys, just looking into this a little and it makes sense as M&S have a standing charge for gas which given our low annual usage (502 units) made our bill fairly astronomical compared to competitors with no standard charge.

Just pulling together a spreadsheet now, though finding individual companies unit prices is proving a bit tricky.
 
I'm an idiot!

Turns out i was using Gas Units instead of Gas KWh which is why it was coming up as such a saving. Turns out my switch will save me a lot less than expected but still a little bit :)
 
i would personally recommend uswitch. i've just saved over £200 p/a for less than 5 mins work when i didn't like the look of my estimated bill.
 
I'm going to be swtiching soon too. With first:Utility at the moment. they have put prices up 3 times in 12 months. Complete jokers.
 
What you need to consider is that's referred to as "tariff tilting" in the business.

Some tariffs will be structured in such a way it's great if you have a high consumption, or great if you have a low consumption.

As a high consumer you want one with a higher standing charge & a lower unit rate & via versa as a low consumer (on average).

Some suppliers come out as very expensive only because of your usage, the main tariffs they provide may not be meant for somebody like you.

Ironically the proposed government changes (to simplify tariffs) will simple make these good offers evaporate - but it does require a bit of work to find the right one.

My advice (from somebody who has worked in energy pricing, commodity trading (energy), tariff management & business intelligence - all within energy) - find a good long term fixed deal (with a tariff which suits you) & stick at it - either get one with discount points, or a fixed discount over the first few years (then repeat at the end, hopping from cheapest to cheapest fixed term deals).
 
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First used it a good few years ago when our gas and electric bill with British Gas was £900pa switching to EDF brought that down to £700pa... fast forward to today and we're paying £1320pa and that site can save me £80 by swapping to another tariff with EDF... just barely feels worth even the few clicks to change :(
 
I'm with Ovo energy, been with them for about 6 months, one thing I've really liked is that they're quick to give you any interest on any overpayments you've made and adjust your monthly payment quickly should you start to overpay (probably due to the small interest rate they pay you on the balance.)

They've adjusted it twice so far, first time up, but now it's back down as we've reached summer again. Just e-mails to let me know about 6 weeks in advance :)

Not sure what their deals are like just now but I've been pretty impressed, never built up more than a £50 surplus, where as I had quite a chunk sitting with Scottish Power, SSE and Npower previously.
 
Spektor said:
First used it a good few years ago when our gas and electric bill with British Gas was £900pa switching to EDF brought that down to £700pa... fast forward to today and we're paying £1320pa and that site can save me £80 by swapping to another tariff with EDF... just barely feels worth even the few clicks to change :(
Click to expand...

£1320 p/a?! do you have a large aquarium?

ok the saving i made wasn't massive but it's a saving and took me 5 mins i would suggest you do the same. a saving is a saving.
 
cm1179 said:
£1320 p/a?! do you have a large aquarium?

ok the saving i made wasn't massive but it's a saving and took me 5 mins i would suggest you do the same. a saving is a saving.
Click to expand...

Yeah tell me about it :(

I do keep meaning to start checking the metre to find out if I'm being swindled by dodgy estimates. The only things that are on 24/7 is a Fridge / Minifridge and Router. The are two PCs, only one of which is usually on for extended periods of a day. I'm tempted to see what sort of savings Solar could bring as my Google Earth snooping has shown a couple of my neighbours have panels.
 
Uswitch and other energy compare sites are pointless. Only way to find out who is cheapest is to compare unit and standing charge prices directly with all the suppliers.
 
Glaucus said:
Don't use comparison sites for energy, tarrifs are far to complicated and they often include the £100 rebates like Npower offer after 12months. Stick to spreadsheet and a bit of hard-work, knowing monthly usage is pretty much a necessity.
Company's can and do charge the two prices for differing amounts of units per month.
Npower for example, has almost all their expensive units in winter, meaning comparison sites well underestimate the cost for Npower.
Click to expand...

When ever I use comparison sites, I always enter the data in terms of raw usage (kWhr), rather than saying what I currently pay. Where possible, I give the total kWhr over as long a period of time as possible (ie a year), rather than just a month.

When you say npower has almost all of their expensive units in winter, what do you mean?

I understand that some companies may have split pricing, so say first x units at one price and then anything over that at another. And obviously in winter you're more likely to go onto the second of those prices than in summer. Is that what you mean?

Quick look on various comparison sites seems to think that they can't save me anything and that switching to anything else would cost me at least £50 more. So fairly happy with the deal I'm on now.
 
I just used Uswitch to change. I got lazy after my last fixed term ended with EDF, so was paying the standard rate :eek:
They just sent me the yearly statement with energy use over the last 12 months, so I know exactly what I used.
Just got a fixed term with M & S until September next year, allegedly saving me £141 over 12 months for the same usage.
Time will tell.Its all a con IMO anyway.
 
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