Comparison Site Difference

backfoot

Annual Units (Midlands Region)

Gas 12015 kwh
Electrictiy 2346 kwh

Moneysupermarket and Energy Helpline show current cost of BG click energy 5 to be £767.

On Click Energy 6, MS £670, EH £711.

Any clues as to why there is a difference?

backfoot

I asked MoneySupermarket about this on their forum. A week later,they still do not know the answer !! :eek:

The difference is significant and can result in a different choice of supplier based on price criteria.

Both organsisations are accredited

Dustykitten

I noticed on MS that when you go back to the original page where you enter you details to research (I want to do E7 and non E7) they keep your usage figures but everything else defaults back so you could research on the wrong date if not careful.

I know this is not what has happened to you OP but thought I'd let others know.

Premier_2

Have just done the same comparison using other sites:

Energylinx: £766.48 BG Click 5, £711.21 BG Click 6
Energyshop: £767 BG Click 5, £711.12 BG Click 6
UK Power: £754 BG Click 5, £669.69 BG Click 6
Uswitch: £754.01 (£460.15+£293.86) BG Click 5, £711.26 BG Click 6

It looks as though UK Power are using the same method as MS to calculate the BG click 6 costs.

Whatever the reason and whatever the actual cost on BG Click 6, ALL 6 sites show BG Click 6 as the cheapest option based on the above criteria.


Edit: Perhaps the reason for the difference could be to do with how the annual consumption is split into 4. This may have an effect as discounts are applied quarterly based on consumption in that quarter, but are limited to a certain amount.

i.e. Electricity customers paying by Monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount off their quarterly Tier 2 consumption charges (and night rates where applicable) of 1.429 p/kWh up to a maximum of £10 (including VAT) per quarter. Gas customers paying by Monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount off their quarterly Tier 2 consumption charges of 0.270 p/kWh, up to a maximum of £12 per quarter. Dual fuel customers receive a discount on their electricity bill of 0.537 p/kWh off quarterly electricity Tier 2 rates (and night rates where applicable) up to a maximum of £3.75 (including VAT) per quarter appears on the electricity bill.

KimYeovil

I suspect some sites do not calculate British Gas' pro rata tier 2 direct debit adjustment for gas correctly. They occasionally take off the whole advertised maximum discount.

MoneyMiser

I think the difference in the prices are down to how the calculators for each comparison site works. Usually they bring out similar results but with the discount structure for British Gas being more complicated than quantum physics, I think this is where they are going wrong.

This is the first time I have seen a discount structure like this as usually it is very simple like an annual rebate or a percentage off each quarter.

MM

Premier_2

KimYeovil wrote: »

I suspect some sites do not calculate British Gas' pro rata tier 2 direct debit adjustment for gas correctly. They occasionally take off the whole advertised maximum discount.

Correct!

I have just done the calculations.

Splitting the annual consumption equally by 4 gives an annual total of £711.30
However this does not achieve maximum DD discounts possible since insufficient Tier 2 units are used. Maximum dual fuel discount is not attained either.

Ignoring how the consumption is actually used over the year and just awarding maximum discounts possible gives a theoretical annual total of £669.80

However, you cannot get maximum discounts in all four quarters - there just isn't enough consumption per annum based on the OP figures.

Premier_2

Details of calculation:

Rates & discounts for Midlands area:

gas: 6.860p for the first 670 kWh per quarter, and 3.485p thereafter
elec: 19.368p for the first 125 kWh per quarter, and 9.030p thereafter

Electricity customers paying by Monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount off their quarterly Tier 2 consumption charges (and night rates where applicable) of 1.429 p/kWh up to a maximum of £10 (including VAT) per quarter.

Gas customers paying by Monthly Direct Debit will receive a discount off their quarterly Tier 2 consumption charges of 0.270 p/kWh, up to a maximum of £12 per quarter.

Dual fuel customers receive a discount on their electricity bill of 0.537 p/kWh off quarterly electricity Tier 2 rates (and night rates where applicable) up to a maximum of £3.75 (including VAT) per quarter appears on the electricity bill.

Gas Figures
Annual consumption: 12015 kWh
Quarterly consumption: 3003.75 kWh

670 x £0.0686 = £45.96
(3003.75 - 670) x £0.03485 = £81.33
Gas discounts for DD (capped @ £12.00 per quarter)
(3003.75 - 670) x £0.0027 = £6.30

Gas total per quarter = £120.99

Total Gas Price per annum: £483.97


Electricity figures:
Annual consumption: 2346 kWh
Quarterly consumption: 586.5 kWh

125 x £0.19386 = £24.23
(586.5 - 125) x £0.0903 = £41.67

Electricity discounts for DD (capped @ £10.00 per quarter)
(586.5 - 125) x £0.01429 = £6.59
Electricity discount for dual fuel (capped at £3.75 per quarter)
(586.5 - 125) x £0.00537 = £2.48

Electricity total per quarter = £56.83

Total Electricity cost per annum = £227.32

Overall total annual bill = £711.30

oldwiring

Dustykitten wrote: »

I noticed on MS that when you go back to the original page where you enter you details to research (I want to do E7 and non E7) they keep your usage figures but everything else defaults back so you could research on the wrong date if not careful.

I know this is not what has happened to you OP but thought I'd let others know.

I've been playing too:D I had even worse experience with MS, as no matter what consumptions I inserted it came up with ridiculous figures of multi thousands per year. My own personal investigations done for my situation with UK Power, Energy Help Line, and U Switch were only minimally different, and I noticed that some of the wordings in tariff detail sections were not identical. I think that in the end the only way to be sure is to get rates from the companies themselves, and then do one's own calculations based on own usage pattern.