Comparing the comparison services/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Nutty_Netty

I've just used the two comparison site recomended by martin and have come away completely confused. I am currently with n power who have been ok for service etc so far but thought i had better do a check as recommended. If i put in my kilowat usage from the last years bills both sites told me my current usage was £770 per year. On checking the bills i found they only come to £658 per year this brought the price to within a few pounds of the cheapest recommended alternative! Now i am thoroughly confused i think i will stay where i am. Can any one account for this discrepancy?

too_many_details

Hi,

just decided to try and see if i can make savings by switching. Martin's article states that SimplySwitch pays more (£15) cashback.

However, I cannot find anything on the SimplySwitch website that says it pays cashback.

Am I wrong?

Rakesh

Little_Louis

Well, I followed Martin's advice in October when he said time to switch.
Uswitch confirmed my on line registration. then silence.
One evening a Southern Electric rep.called with no details about me or my meters . It felt wrong , so I rang Atlantic( my new supplier) who said this sometimes happened but was not their process for switching.
I got a letter of apology .. then silence. By the end of Nov . I rang to query the progress and finally found Atlantic had closed my application, and so I had lost the cheaper October tarrif.
After 2 new contracts, arranged by phone , both wrong, i finally gave up in Dec , and switched easly by ringing British Gas.

what a fiasco. Uswitch are not the place to switch , but only to compare.
Be warned.

too_many_details

Hi,

just to update every one on SimplySwitch. I called the number on the website (0800 011 1395) and asked about cashback. They said they will pay it but i ha to ring back on another number (0800 083 3347).

The procedure was a bit longwinded (especially since i did not have good figures of usage). However, whie i was on the phone I used the calculations from the Energy HelpLine web site and asked to change to those suppliers.

I am now expecting 2x15 pounds cashback!!!

Hope thats useful to people.

Rakesh

Splats_2

Does anyone know if the additional charges now made by many power companies if you have an independant gas transporter (i.e. your supply pipes are not owned by Transco) are included in price comparison sites? I guess they are able to tell if you have an IGT by postcode.

I switched from Scottish Power to Powergen this time last year because SP introduced a charge for IGT. Powergen didn't charge at the time of the switch but have introduced an extra charge of £42 (I think). They justify the charge on the basis that it costs them more to deal with an IGT than it does Transco. I am not too sure it costs them £42 a year to do this though?

Anyone know of any companies who don't charge or if the comparison service take this into account?

Mister_Miser

I have an observation on two of the featured energy switch sites that I would like to share with you.

I approached both sites with the same query, as follows:

I am an online customer of Scottish Power and I pay monthly by direct debit. My annual spend is £600 on gas and £400 on electricity.

Simply Switch Energy recommends Scottish Power as the cheapest and quotes London Energy Online as an additional £16.64.

Energy Helpline recommends changing to London Energy Online for a saving of £103 (10%).

What is a body to do?

shammyjack

Instead of inputting your annual spend in £s , try calculating your annual Kilowatt totals for each fuel as this gives a much more accurate result .

shammy

speedtwin

I did that and they still gave two different results

arthurdent_3

Hello chaps
I'd like to sack Seeboard Energy as I strongly suspect they are screwing us. Trouble is I don't have confidence in the comparison services since I haven't found one yet that lists our tariff - 'Warmwise' (think it used to be called Economy-10). We get cheap electricity at night plus a couple of 'boost' hours in the afternoon so this is not directly comparable with the Economy-7 tariff.

What I would like to do is to create my own Excel spreadsheet calculator so that I can make a sensible comparison of all suppiers for myself.

The million dollar question is then - where can I get the actual tariff price lists for the various suppliers?

Cheers
arthurdent

Lizbetty

I took Martins advice (the 'now's the time to switch' advice) and used Energyhelpline to switch from SWEB (who I went to initially in May 2005) in December 2005 - the site said that British Gas were the best. The offer was that I would get 3 months free electricity, I've had nothing in writing about this though. The WORST thing, apart from British Gas actually being the dearest, is the fact that SWEB gave me a £5 credit as I had overpaid for the gas with my £23.50 monthly direct debit. However, I have just received a gas bill from British Gas - bearing in mind I've been with them since 12th December 05 - for £102.10, which has already taken into account £23.50 I have already paid by dd. :eek: Which in effect means that I have been charged £125.60 from 12 Dec 05 to 13 Feb 06, whereas before I had paid £47 for the same period. Not what I need right now with an 8 month old baby and only one (low) wage coming in....! Yeah, I know they'll all go up soon, but does anyone else think this is horrendous?!! All advice welcomed. Luce