Anyone Find it hard to get the Truth from Price Comparisons?

gillette147

I went on Energyline and uSwitch and Scottish Power Capped Rates look ok to me. I would pay ~£982 (more than now but it would be capped).
But when I go on Scottish Power website through Quidco, all the units etc look the same but they are saying it will cost me £1153 !!!

Quite a difference. How do I find out what is right?
It's alright comparing unit costs but E.on discount 9% of that and S.P. give £10.50 and ~£10 for online and dual fuel discounts. I'm not sure I'm up to the maths involved to work this out.

Am I being cynical in thinking the error is at these comparison sites...who have a vested interest in you swapping?

Help for a dummy please?
Cheers

monoxideuk

A lot of the comparison site dont include the 6 or 9% discount you get off the total bill over the year and work it out with only the vate on it, I know this to be true on energyhelpline as it states this fact when you click on the tariff info.

Hope this helps

gillette147

So comparison sites are totally useless??

davy_fulla

It's ridiculous. When going through Moneysupermarket it says I'd be £95.00 per year better off by switching to Scottish Power. When I go through Quidco using the same figures it says I'd be £152 per year worse off.

It's no wonder some people just stick with their current provider!

espresso

gillette147 wrote: »

So comparison sites are totally useless??

No, use several comparison site to find out which suppliers come to the top of the price table and then work out the sums for yourself. It's not rocket science is it as all suppliers give their unit rates and you should know your annual consumption in kWh.

davy_fulla

Even better now, I've gone back into Moneysupermarket and, instead of making a £95 saving, using the previous figures I stand to lose £125.

SwanJon

What figures are you using?
If you are putting in monthly £ values, each site will have a different way of working out how much gas/electricity that relates to , before doing the comparison.
Always try and use annual kWh values - it should give a more even answer.

gillette147

SwanJon wrote: »

What figures are you using?
If you are putting in monthly £ values, each site will have a different way of working out how much gas/electricity that relates to , before doing the comparison.
Always try and use annual kWh values - it should give a more even answer.

OK, I don't know my annual useage..........which I SHOULD KNOW.
I thought the whole point of telling the site my current provider/deal was that they would back calculate this useage from monthly spend. Otherwise why am I bothering with this bit. Different sites should not do this differently.

I have swapped provider mid year so to find two bills a year apart which would tell me my annual useage would be difficult.

And this thread was started because it isn't just unit cost x useage or I could easily calc my new costs.

Like I said.
Comparison sites are useless (not just coz they can't calc my useage *pun*).

jd87

I think these comparison sites are useless for gas and elec. Why do I need to put in my usage? Why can't it just tell me who has the cheapest tariff.

bogg

I find them useless because they don't have my current tariff listed. So the amount they think i'm being charged is wrong, and therefore the savings are wrong.

SwanJon

gillette147 wrote: »

I thought the whole point of telling the site my current provider/deal was that they would back calculate this useage from monthly spend. Otherwise why am I bothering with this bit. Different sites should not do this differently.

The issue is that your monthly DD amount has very little to do with your monthly spend. You could be under paying, over paying, paying back a balance. Your plan could have started before the last price rise or after, you could have asked to have it reduced or increased.

I don't know how they calculate back to kWh, but I wouldn't be suprised if they do it differently.

If you have 6 months of bills (assuming Jan-Jun) doubling your consumption would be a good place to start. If the comparison site says it doesn't include certain discounts, take that into account, but try a few different ones with the same kWh values and see what you get.