Rip off's and comparison website results

graham76

Hi people, its the first time i've used this forum - but i have a specific question relating to comparison sites and prepay meters.

First of all, I have run a prepay meter now for a while with npower, but of late (i dont know if this is a new thing or not) the meter seems to be eating my credit. For example, over the last few months i understand the price of energy has gone up, but on Friday i topped up my meter with £10 (which normally lasted me about 4 days) however after topping up my meter at midday with £10 by 4 o'clock i was on the emergency - and that subsiquently lasted me 2 days! Ominous.

I called npower to query this and i was told "well you must be using more electric than normal" and then i was told that for each time i put the emergency electric on Npower charge my account £2.50 per event and hike my useage price up. So if i pay £10 i only have £5 of available credit and £5 which i am not supposed to use because if i am i get penalised. And nor do they check meters if you think there is a problem with them, but they are very good at sending you to a referal company telling you what items you're running in your house you shouldnt. :mad:

Anyway, long story short. I did the smart thing and checked both Uswitch and compare-the-market - except they both showed me identical companies but saving me different amounts each time. EDF Energy online saver 5 was listed as the highest saver each time, except on Uswitch they could save me £360 per year and on compare-the-market the same company and same option could save me £543 per year.

It makes no sense. How does this work??

Premier_2

What is your annual consumption in kWh you input into the respective comparison sites.

Amd what electrical supply region are you in?

graham76

we're on a prepay meter so we put the monthly amount at £100 for electric (which isnt a lie considering what Npower are doing with prepay meters) and 40 a month on gas

Plushchris

graham76 wrote: »

Anyway, long story short. I did the smart thing and checked both Uswitch and compare-the-market - except they both showed me identical companies but saving me different amounts each time. EDF Energy online saver 5 was listed as the highest saver each time, except on Uswitch they could save me £360 per year and on compare-the-market the same company and same option could save me £543 per year.

It makes no sense. How does this work??

They are rubbish results anyway as you cant go on EDF online saver 5 with a prepayment meter anyway!

If you use Energyhelpline it only shows the tariffs available to prepayment customers (assuming you tell it you are on prepayment in the first place)

KimYeovil

But did you select prepayment meter as your current and future payment method? And did you select the correct current tariff? If not the results will be random.

KimYeovil

Plushchris wrote: »

They are rubbish results anyway as you cant go on EDF online saver 5 with a prepayment meter anyway!

If you use Energyhelpline it only shows the tariffs available to prepayment customers (assuming you tell it you are on prepayment in the first place)

No, the inputs were [STRIKE]rubbish[/STRIKE]incorrect. Both The Energy Shop (Compare the Market) and Uswitch (just like Energyhelpline) do not offer non-prepayment tariffs as results to prepayment requests.

markharding557

never can understand why anyone willingly has npower on prepayment

dogshome

Hi graham 76 - Google "switchwithwhich" Take care on the name as there are other sites with simaler names on the Page

When you get thro' to the results page, under the title of the tariff of the competing comany, there is a 'More Information' icon, press this and it give you full details of n'powers tariff alongside the new suppliers

Blimey ! Are n'power now "sculpting" pre-pay electric coustomers? - A charge of £2.50 to access £5 of credit ? !!!!!
Even if this credit is outstanding for a full month, which is pretty unlikely, I calculate the interest rate as being around 600% per annum, and if the customer clears in a day, the rate is over 18,000% per annum.
Best of Luck

graham76

KimYeovil wrote: »

No, the inputs were [STRIKE]rubbish[/STRIKE]incorrect. Both The Energy Shop (Compare the Market) and Uswitch (just like Energyhelpline) do not offer non-prepayment tariffs as results to prepayment requests.

I wasnt looking to keep on prepayment, rather looking at quartely payments. After seeing what happens with prepay, i wouldnt want to go back on it.

graham76

dogshome wrote: »

Hi graham 76 - Google "switchwithwhich" Take care on the name as there are other sites with simaler names on the Page

When you get thro' to the results page, under the title of the tariff of the competing comany, there is a 'More Information' icon, press this and it give you full details of n'powers tariff alongside the new suppliers

Blimey ! Are n'power now "sculpting" pre-pay electric coustomers? - A charge of £2.50 to access £5 of credit ? !!!!!
Even if this credit is outstanding for a full month, which is pretty unlikely, I calculate the interest rate as being around 600% per annum, and if the customer clears in a day, the rate is over 18,000% per annum.
Best of Luck

hard to believe, eh? So think of the poorer families, if they can only spare £10 a week, and they hit the emergency each week, by the end of the month they owe Npower £10 - or £120 in a year :eek:

Premier_2

graham76 wrote: »

we're on a prepay meter so we put the monthly amount at £100 for electric (which isnt a lie considering what Npower are doing with prepay meters) and 40 a month on gas

You didn't mention which electricity region you were in.

However, I just did a comparison based on your figures using the East Midlands area and whilst EDF Online Saver 5 was indeed the cheapest option for dual fuel in both cases, the saving offered by uSwitch was £628.69 and by comparethemarket.com was £628.68

I'm sure you'll agree that's effectively the same; the 1p difference is probably a rounding error.

Which supply region are you in that gave the difference in the results you quoted in your OP?

Edit: be aware you can't have this tariff unless/until a supplier agrees to instal a credit meter