Find The Cheapest Gas & Electricity Plus Cashback Article Discussion

christabell

I was on the phone with POWERGEN yesterday (11th April I think)
POWERGEN prices are due to change on 30 April.

joejl

This is only relevant to anyone on, (or contemplating an), online, dual fuel, pay by monthly, fixed, direct debit, [what a mouthful].... Despite what you have been told...Scottish Power may be the cheapest supplier - they qwere for me! ... read on...
The article currently says: “Currently Scottish Power and EDF energy haven’t dropped their main prices, though both offer cheaper online tariffs. Price cut announcements are expected, but my feelers in the market (reliable but not infallible) say both are locked into expensive supply contracts and thus even when they do cut prices, they're not likely to be the cheapest..” [I had had a 3 year fixed price combined online gas and electric tariff with Manweb that ran out last December. This protected me against the recent price rises - and had then been parked by Scottish Power on their standard tariff while I waited for their price cuts to happen. Yes I could have and should have realised that there was a better alternative with them but I was waiting for the price cuts.]

So I decided to switch from Manweb, (ie Scottish Power) to the cheapest available alternative supplier.

However when I put in the details on a price comparator site for this kind of online tariff I found the answer was, amaizingly ... Scottish Power/Manweb! I then checked it against a couple of other sites and got the same answer. As the article suggests - a month ago Scottish power did reduce prices for their on line joint fuel tariff - by introducing a new tariff - for new applicants only ie no automatic transfers to those currently on their pre-existing online tariff.
In addition to show how customer unfriendly they are try choosing this tariff - on their web site. When you put in the details seeking a joint gas/electric online direct debit tariff there are 6 possible tariffs, which you click to choose. These options are spread over two web pages, first come the very profitable fixed price tariffs - at a premium to current prices - then the standard tariffs - at a premium to the rest of the market place... and of course the cheapest is the last one listed on the second page. In addition to this scurrilous method of presentation no details of what the tariffs actually comprise are set out along with the tariff choice buttons. They are clearly doing their best to avoid people choosing the cheapest option. [The actual rates are 2.154p.per KWH for gas and 7.55p per KWH for electricity, plus annual standing charges of £46.14 gas and £47.49 electric.]
The tariff is called: Online Energy Saver 3 Dual Fuel.
Hope this helps some who think they may be on the cheapest Scottish Power Tariff at the moment, if pre-March you aren’t, or for anyone who has thought of not including Scottish Power in any price comparison they make.

I am clearly not the first to find this:

wills34 wrote: »

you could sign for their volume 3 online tariff which is very competitive, why wait ALL 6 major suppliers have changed their online price

JoeL

joejl

sorry put it in 2x

kippygirl

We're about to start the switching process all over again just to get away from the nightmare that is edf. I wouldn't even care if we ended up paying slightly more as they are that bad!!!!

The switch comparison people did NOT send the £15 cheque until we chased them - don't assume that they will just send it automatically. Then, edf put us on a much higher tarriff than the one quoted when we price-compared. It was only by chance that I noticed this. I must have made about 20 phone calls over the year and had to call in Energywatch as well. Until I complained to energywatch, edf just ignored my emails and fobbed me off on the phone. It still took them another six months to actually solve the problem even after they started trying. edf have only just refunded most of the overcharge but I still think I'm on the wrong rate. Time to give up and go elsewhere. Tempting to return to BG as only reason for leaving there was price but maybe that is different now. Oh, and the energywatch online bills are not at all easy to follow (and spot errors) and you have to faff around with different log-ins for elec and gas.

From bitter experience, I would say do not touch edf with a barge pole. :mad:

bristolleedsfan

CAREFUL wrote: »

BE CAREFUL
I am on Price Protection 2010 for both gas and electric with British Gas. To change Suppliers I have to pay a penalty of £45 for Gas and £30 for Electric. When switching check that the figures you are given take into account the penalties (this is unlikely) you may have to pay and if not deduct your penalties to make a true comparison

i might be wrong but i thought i read that british gas had done away with the penalty charges

bristolleedsfan

ManchesterMoneySaver wrote: »

Another BE CAREFUL:

Switching is a great idea, but be careful!

The last time Martin's "Switch Now!" flag was hauled, I checked all the options and switched from Scottish Power to Npower using MoneySupermarket. I checked all the prices very carefully, checking all the comparison sites, and also checking the sites themselves. So I went ahead.

It took 2-3 months for the switch to actually go through, and after it had, a chap from Scottish Power came to the door in March saying a lot of customers who had switched from Scottish Power to Npower were actually paying more after the switch! Naturally I was sceptical as I'd been very careful, and don't usually trust any old person at the door. But he gave me some leaflets, then I checked against the prices on my old Scottish Power bills, and checked the prices Npower had sent me, and they were indeed higher!

The bloke also said that Npower prices had recently gone down, and Scottish Power would be going down "at some point soon", which would probably make the gap bigger!

Anyway, I've actually moved out of the country now (!) so I cancelled the agreement after only being with Npower for a few days (and selling the unexpected free Npower Orbs on Ebay!). I'm not sure how this happened, I don't know if I should blame MoneySupermarket or Npower for this, but make sure you check the prices at each step!

could reason be that npowers quoted best price only applies once someone has been with npower for 12 months

bristolleedsfan

joejl wrote: »

.

As the article suggests - a month ago Scottish power did reduce prices for their on line joint fuel tariff - by introducing a new tariff - for new applicants only ie no automatic transfers to those currently on their pre-existing online tariff.
In addition to show how customer unfriendly they are try choosing this tariff - on their web site. When you put in the details seeking a joint gas/electric online direct debit tariff there are 6 possible tariffs, which you click to choose. These options are spread over two web pages, first come the very profitable fixed price tariffs - at a premium to current prices - then the standard tariffs - at a premium to the rest of the market place... and of course the cheapest is the last one listed on the second page. In addition to this scurrilous method of presentation no details of what the tariffs actually comprise are set out along with the tariff choice buttons. They are clearly doing their best to avoid people choosing the cheapest option. [The actual rates are 2.154p.per KWH for gas and 7.55p per KWH for electricity, plus annual standing charges of £46.14 gas and £47.49 electric.]
The tariff is called: Online Energy Saver 3 Dual Fuel.
Hope this helps some who think they may be on the cheapest Scottish Power Tariff at the moment, if pre-March you aren’t, or for anyone who has thought of not including Scottish Power in any price comparison they make.

I am clearly not the first to find this:

JoeL

i started raising the issue with scottish power last weekend, i had this
"I am sorry to hear you have encountered a problem with your ScottishPower account.
To enable us to ensure your on the best possible tariff and prices, please call our Energy Assured Call Centre on Freephone telephone number 0800 400 200 select option 2, where one of our Energy Assured Call Centre Agents can go through a pricing quote for you.
We try to offer all our customers the same packages, why not call the telephone number above and ask about our Online Energy Saver 2 or 3 Tariff or our Capped K Tariff"

i then went to moneysupermarket input my circumstances as if i was a british gas click 2 energy customer to see which scottish power plan came up the cheapest for my circumstances and answer was none of the paperless online pay monthly online tariffs but "no standing charge monthly direct debit"

im actually furious that scottish power have been introducing new cheaper tariffs for new customers while leaving existing customers on more expensive tariffs, im just organised to switch back to british gas and will see how far i can push my complaint, scottish power chose to treat my dissatisfaction as a complaint what scottish power dont know is im an expert at complaints :rotfl:

PrincessSoo

Edf are not reducing there prices but they have introduced a cheaper tariff which is cheaper than there standard price and is fixed until sept/oct 2008

John_Pierpoint

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

could reason be that npowers quoted best price only applies once someone has been with npower for 12 months

Npower are into the "deferred rebate" game. This is widely used in commerce and details are posted elsewhere on the forums.
In theory you offer a supplier a year of your business and if you deliver your side of the bargain you get a rebate at the end of the year - just like signing up with a financial institution for a loan and being surprised if there is an early exit charge. It is just another consideration you have to make when deciding to switch energy suppliers.

It is not really in anybody's interests to have people trying to swap every quarter. Even on the internet there is a real cost to both parties in setting up and closing down accounts.

oj01

I put figures into 2 sites (EnergyHelpLine & MoneySupermarket) on Friday. Both came up with the same Atlantic deal as my best option (I'm currently with Edf). Because MoneySupermarket offer a better Cashback rate I decided to go with them, however I didn't have my bank details to hand. So I've come back to it today, Sunday.

Putting in exactly the same details, EnergyHelpLine is still offering the same Atlantic deal, but MoneySupermarket is now saying my best option is with NPower at a much lesser saving.

How can that be ?