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Switching Gas/Electric using comparison websites
I don't think I'm senile yet - but I'm beginning to wonder!!
Promises of lowering my gas/electricity bills led me to search various comparison sites -BeatthatQuote/Uswitch/EnergyOnline/Confuseddotcom and several others. All of them state that they have sooper-dooper software which will calculate a wonderful saving within seconds based on my input, so I used the exact information from my last 4 quarterly bills (in kWh) to place my enquiry.
Each one came back with a different provider/tarrif/saving!
Not only that - but each one had ignored the information which I provided, their software obviously knows better than me what I used and how much it costs. A couple of them even sent me "follow up" emails telling me that they could save me a lot more money than their website showed - how does THAT work?
Can anyone help me out of this maze please? I'm a newbie and I have faith in you!
Promises of lowering my gas/electricity bills led me to search various comparison sites -BeatthatQuote/Uswitch/EnergyOnline/Confuseddotcom and several others. All of them state that they have sooper-dooper software which will calculate a wonderful saving within seconds based on my input, so I used the exact information from my last 4 quarterly bills (in kWh) to place my enquiry.
Each one came back with a different provider/tarrif/saving!
Not only that - but each one had ignored the information which I provided, their software obviously knows better than me what I used and how much it costs. A couple of them even sent me "follow up" emails telling me that they could save me a lot more money than their website showed - how does THAT work?
Can anyone help me out of this maze please? I'm a newbie and I have faith in you!
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Comments
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Hi, and welcome to MSE happygran :hello:
Perhaps you could give us the data you used (i.e consumption in kWh and electricity region) please?
We keep getting new users signing up suggesting the comparison sites are flawed yet so far no one has given us the hard data to back up the allegations.
Aslo, how did the comparison sites get your email address? I've never had to supply that just to do a comparison (only if I then go on to carry out an actual switch through the comparison site)
I only use the comparison sites in the resource bar above, so haven't used confused.com or BeatthatQuote."Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 20100 -
I used one this morning as our bills have just arrived.
uswitch gave me a long list of companies each showing a 'saving' of -£75* through to about -£200*.
Natural reaciton was to find the largest '-' as this must mean I'd save a load. Checked the unit charges and they were much higher than I pay.
Look again and see the * and a small note at the bottom says a '-' means it's more expensive. Why not state 'no saving' rather than give a figure at all?0 -
I'm facing a similar dilemma. I can't find my existing plan on USwitch so I'm guessing which one (from a big list!) is the closest. When the results are returned, I check what USwitch are saying I'm currently paying with the tariff on my bill. Unfortunately, I have yet to find the exact match.
It might be more useful if they asked for your current charges and then went looking for cheaper tariffs or those that are close to what you're paying.
I think I'm going to have to trawl through each suppliers website, get a list of their current rates, compare them to what I'm paying and then apply for the one with the smallest percentage increase! :eek:0 -
I'm facing a similar dilemma. I can't find my existing plan on USwitch so I'm guessing which one (from a big list!) is the closest. When the results are returned, I check what USwitch are saying I'm currently paying with the tariff on my bill. Unfortunately, I have yet to find the exact match.
It might be more useful if they asked for your current charges and then went looking for cheaper tariffs or those that are close to what you're paying.
I think I'm going to have to trawl through each suppliers website, get a list of their current rates, compare them to what I'm paying and then apply for the one with the smallest percentage increase! :eek:
Does it matter whether you've used the correct tariff to start with?
If you think it may be wrong (or discover it by the fact that the site's 'current' cost doesn't match what you actually pay) then just look at whoever is cheapest according to the comparison site and compare whether that annual cost is more or less than you currently pay
"Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 20100 -
It might be more useful if they asked for your current charges and then went looking for cheaper tariffs or those that are close to what you're paying.
Asking you to enter your Tier 1 unit price for gas, Tier 2 unit price, tier ceiling, same three for electricity, asking you for a completely different set of numbers if you are on a DSC tariff, your discounts, whether your discount is a flat rate, a percentage, or only on your tier 2 consumption... yes, that's a lot more useful than selecting the name of your tariff from a drop down menu.0 -
Thanks everyone - my faith was justified - I am not alone!!
This is what I found during my search - I've summarised as much as possible.
USwitch, Moneysupermarket, Confused and Compare & Save do not have my "plan" in their dropdown menu, so I had to use "Standard".
Based on the following information - annual usage Gas 22600kWh and Electricity 6600kWh per year, and that I live in South East England.
Beatthatquote recommended British Gas WebSaver3 - saving £57.56
UKPower, SimplySwitch and Energyhelpline recommended E.On EnergyOnline Extra Saver Standing Charge 14 - saving £88/89 pounds.
Moneysupermarket and USwitch also recommended the E.On option (same tariff as above) but respectively the savings were £125.25 and £152.11.
Confused recommended E.On Energy Online Extra Saver v14 Standing Charge Dual Fuel - saving £152.23.
If I find anything else, I'll get back to you!0 -
Happygran what tariff are you on?
You say it doesnt appear on all of the sites but dont say what it is?Missing Tesco R&R since Feb '07 :A & now a "Tesco veteran" apparently!
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Just a word of warning - last year I "saved" £30 when I went through the moneysuperarket comparison site. I filled in all the criteria asked and switched from British Gas to npower, paying marginally less. I paid £178 a month by direct debit and in the last 12 months never missed a payment - but never received a bill.
When British Gas contacted me to say they were 5% cheaper and offered a £50 loyalty bonus I decided to return. Then came the bomb shell. Npower told me I was £2500 in arrears as my direct debit payment was nowhere near covering my energy consumption. On their figures my direct debit should have been more like £378 a month.
Nobody in their right mind would switch supplier and pay double for the privilege. Call me a simpleton but I can't believe a company can offer one deal then charge you at another rate. Any one else had a similar experience?0 -
katybshopaholic wrote: »Just a word of warning - last year I "saved" £30 when I went through the moneysuperarket comparison site. I filled in all the criteria asked and switched from British Gas to npower, paying marginally less. I paid £178 a month by direct debit and in the last 12 months never missed a payment - but never received a bill.
When British Gas contacted me to say they were 5% cheaper and offered a £50 loyalty bonus I decided to return. Then came the bomb shell. Npower told me I was £2500 in arrears as my direct debit payment was nowhere near covering my energy consumption. On their figures my direct debit should have been more like £378 a month.
Nobody in their right mind would switch supplier and pay double for the privilege. Call me a simpleton but I can't believe a company can offer one deal then charge you at another rate. Any one else had a similar experience?
I have to agree with you katybshopaholic, in my case I have switched without my consent (I was on holliday in france and my parents - who cant even speak english did that over the phone). Now my old provider charge me £948 becose had "estimated readings" and my new provider did not sent me a single letter to say at least thank you to choose us!0 -
Thanks everyone - my faith was justified - I am not alone!!
This is what I found during my search - I've summarised as much as possible.
USwitch, Moneysupermarket, Confused and Compare & Save do not have my "plan" in their dropdown menu, so I had to use "Standard".
Based on the following information - annual usage Gas 22600kWh and Electricity 6600kWh per year, and that I live in South East England.
Beatthatquote recommended British Gas WebSaver3 - saving £57.56
UKPower, SimplySwitch and Energyhelpline recommended E.On EnergyOnline Extra Saver Standing Charge 14 - saving £88/89 pounds.
Moneysupermarket and USwitch also recommended the E.On option (same tariff as above) but respectively the savings were £125.25 and £152.11.
Confused recommended E.On Energy Online Extra Saver v14 Standing Charge Dual Fuel - saving £152.23.
If I find anything else, I'll get back to you!
I have just carried out the search on the various comparison sites and get the following cheapest results for the annual consumptions you quote for the South East region:
energyhelpline - Eon energy saver online v14 (sc/nsc)- £1343
energylinx - Eon energy saver online v14 £1343.16 (sc) £1348.48 (nsc)
energyshop.com - Eon energy saver online v14 £1343.04 (sc) £1348.37 (nsc)
moneysupermarket.com - Eon energy saver online v14 £1343.04 (sc) £1348.37 (nsc)
ukpower - Eon energy saver online v14 (sc/nsc)- £1343
uSwitch - Eon energy saver online v14 £1343.15 (sc) £1348.48 (nsc)
beatthatquote - Eon energy saver online v14 £1343.16 (sc) £1348.48 (nsc)
confused.com - Eon energy saver online v14 £1343.04 (sc) £1348.37 (nsc)
compareandsave.com - Eon energy saver online v14 £1348.37 (nsc)
(I can't find the equivilent sc tariff on compareandsave)
So ignoring the very small variation of a few pennies, all sites suggest the same company/tariff with the same annual cost.
If you use a different current tariff as your starting point (as you did with USwitch, Moneysupermarket, Confused and Compare & Save) then you will of course get different claimed savings (as the current cost will be different) but as you see the total annual cost is the same.
Beatthatquote gives BG Websaver 3 as third best option, a total annual cost of £1374.08
(all the other comparison sites also did this at this price +/- a few pennies)"Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 20100
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