Which Electricity Provider after ZEST?

Sybarite

I was a ZEST customer and never had any problems with the - plus the politest 'We've gone into administration letter' every received.

I'm in the London area (SW19) and had a direct debit of £59.50 or £690 annual spend on Economy 7 with 40% low usage, 12547 units 5160 low/7387 high.

I'be done the online comparison site thingy using using spend and unit figures, which come out slightly differently.

The unit figures give me new cheapest supplier of £740 with Altlantic or I could go for something with an incentive scheme say Scottish Hydro Argos Points.

My question is this, does anyone know of any method of lowing the cost - I already do Quidco - based on my figures?

Also are the incentives any good; British Gas seems to require you to be registered for a full 12months before you receive the 1 month free (I change perhaps every 6 months) is there a similar time stipulation with other schemes or is the bottom price of Atlantic acceptable for the customer service?

Thanks for any suggestions?

StepByStep_3

They are all attempting to tie you in.

Atlantic - 8.5% discount on the 13th month!

British Gas - Most of its discount after a year & a threat to charge you £20 if you leave them!

NPower - £21 discount after a year!

Ebico / EquiPower - no messing about, just one price, ethical, not for profit organisation and up there with the cheapest anyway!

I'm already with them for Gas, which is the cheapest for me.

http://www.energyhelpline.com/energy/ have them on their comparisons. Administration is by Southern Electric just the price is cheeper.

http://www.ebico.co.uk for more info.

Sybarite

Thanks for this I'll check them out.

I've had a very odd price comparison thing going on online, so I decided on Atlantic (cheapest) and used three different options Uswitch.co.uk, phoning Atlantic direct (0800 028 3028) and phoning Energy Watch - independent comparison service - (0800 298 9692).

Using the figures quoted for Atlantic I received;

Atlantic phone quote £675 with service charge of 14.65p daily
Energy watch £704 no standing charge (inc 1 month rebate on 12th month)
Uswitch online £724 no standing charge (inc 1 month rebate on 12th month)

Does anyone know why this might be?

dave_dph

Sybarite wrote:

Thanks for this I'll check them out.

I've had a very odd price comparison thing going on online, so I decided on Atlantic (cheapest) and used three different options Uswitch.co.uk, phoning Atlantic direct (0800 028 3028) and phoning Energy Watch - independent comparison service - (0800 298 9692).

Using the figures quoted for Atlantic I received;

Atlantic phone quote £675 with service charge of 14.65p daily
Energy watch £704 no standing charge (inc 1 month rebate on 12th month)
Uswitch online £724 no standing charge (inc 1 month rebate on 12th month)

Does anyone know why this might be?

Were the quotes based on actual usage or how much you currently spend? Quotes for economy 7 based on current spend will vary depending on the percentage split of day & night usage applied to the calculation. The most accurate calculation will be based on kwh used per year.

Sybarite

They're based on the meter figures given at the start of the thread in units which is why it's so odd. I know I use 41% off peak and 59% peak.

I've now worked it out using the price per unit which is something like this;
Peak first 250 units per quarter (1000 yr @13.03p = ) £53.47
Subsequent peak units (6387 @ 7.83 = ) £578.40
Off peah (5160 @ 3.13 £161.50
Total = £793.37

1 month rebate = -£66.11

Grand yearly total = £727.26

So the man on the phone probably forgot to include the first 1000 peak units which explains one quotation difference.

I'm still not sure why the Energy Watch people have quote £20 cheaper, as I assume they all use the same PC package when constructing the yearly charge. Still the cheapest I can find.