I don't trust the switching sites

temba

A year ago I changed from Scottish power (monthly dd £65pcm) to EON because one of the switching sites (I can't remember which one) said I would save over £100. My new direct debit to EON was £75 and when I rang up they said it would settle down and that the discounts over the year would make it cheaper.

So I put up with the extra payments.

A year has gone by and I have just rang up EON. They have no recollection or record of my chat with them about discounts, (funny that) and also, have told me that I shouldn't trust those sites.

Then they told me they could recommend a new tariff which would "save me £126" but when I pressed them, they couldn't tell me what I would be saving from, nor could they confirm what my new dd would be.

So, when these sites say you will save £xxx what are they referring to? They are not all referred to the same starting figure are they? So they are totally misleading.

Instead of saving me, that switch caused me loads of hassle and cost me £120 over the year.

thoughts?

nibs

I had exactly the same, I switched to npower as they were coming up cheaper. My payments were £95 per month.
By the end of the first year my payments rose to £200 per month for 6 months to clear the debit that had built up :eek:
It was a complete con

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi temba,

Lots of customers use the switching sites to compare suppliers, but it is always recommended that you use your usage and not your monthly spend, as this will be inaccurate.

When you changed to E.ON you will have been sent a welcome letter, this will have shown you your unit prices, discounts and the tariff you had chosen online.

New tariffs are launched all the time by suppliers and it sounds like you would be better off changing tariffs.

You can always view the products and prices on the website, if this would help you.

Helena

Bark01

They are generally accurate, but comparing DD amounts isn't a good way to go.

You really need to work out what your total bill was each year; the sum of 12 of my DD payments does not equal my annual bill as the DD amount is based on an estimate of annual usage.

I'm with BG at the moment and over the course of a year my DD added up to around £150 more thatn my bill. This is because BG based the DD amount I was initialy set up with on the number of bedrooms in my house not on actual reads (even though I had them).

My DD has just been changed to a lower amount which should let me recover the £150 I'm owed via a cheaper DD over the course of the next year. In essence its been changed by 2 figures, the first figure is to take me down to what I actually should of been paying and the second figure is to allow me to recover the £150 i have overpaid.

So next year in theory if my usage was exactly the same the DD i'm now paying *12 would equal £150 less than my actual annual bill.

So never trust DD amounts especially if swapping to a new supplier as most just make them up based on estimated consumption which doesn't take into account actual previous consumption. When using switching sites don't use bill amounts (£'s) to estimate consumption, use your actual consumption (don't input (£'s) input (kWhs)).

Cardew

temba wrote: »

Instead of saving me, that switch caused me loads of hassle and cost me £120 over the year.

thoughts?

These comparison sites are not a public service to help us poor customers.
As has been said many times, their sole purpose is to get you to switch so they can earn commission.

They are useful in the sense that if you enter your annual consumption in kWh they give accurate results.

Premier_2

temba wrote: »

...
So, when these sites say you will save £xxx what are they referring to? They are not all referred to the same starting figure are they? So they are totally misleading. ...

When you use a comparison site, they ask you for your consumption, current supplier & tariff, and supply area. Using this info they calculate your current annual cost.

If you input your consumption as an annual figure of kWh, the calculation is generally very accurate. Consumption figures on any other basis may induce small variations due to the way each individual comparison site estimates what your annual consumption in kWh is.

They will then calculate the cost of other suppliers/tariffs and indicate any savings.

Perhaps you could give us details of actual data that demonstrates the sites are "totally misleading". This is an accusation often levelled at comparison sites, but no one has given us the data to back that accusation up yet.
Will you be the first?

1carminestocky

With the best will in the world and even taking into account you enter the actual usage figures as opposed to DD figures, the switching sites can only basically provide an educated guess on account of the fact they may know your annual consumption but they don't know the daily/monthly whatever usages that make up that figure. I also believe OFGEM (anyone remember them?) should provide their own, not-for-profit, comparison site.