Find The Cheapest Gas & Electricity Plus Cashback Article Discussion

EnergySwitcher

Wish I'd read your post before I did basically the same thing (see my post from 16/9). I think Martin should check these out more closely before recommending them.

IClaudius

Peterlittleton : What a great piece of advice. I am soooo confused that this seems to be the only way of feeling that I am getting some independentadvice.
Thanks

IGK

Following the advice on this site, I just arranged a switch from Powergen to npower Sign Online (with energyhelpline £15 cashback)
I did notice a slight discrepancy between the price quoted on the energyhelpline website to the npower website. The higher (pre threshold) gas rate is 4.51p compared to 3.82p on npower's website. The lower gas rate is the same as is both electricity rates. I assumed this to therefore be a mistake, and called energyhelpline, but they weren't aware of their price being wrong.
I am now worried that having swithed via energyhelpline (to save £15) I will now be locked into the higher rate (which works out at about £30 per year).
Does npower have seperate Sign Online tarrifs depending on how you sign up for it? If that's the case then the switching websites need to come with a big health warning!

cowine_2

Just came accross a great new site that is comitted to green issues and saving money.

It has a section for switching Gas / Elec providers and rate providers that are green or not.

http://www.etheco.com/energy/index.html

Looks good

:rotfl:

4_Pete's_Sake

IGK wrote:

Following the advice on this site, I just arranged a switch from Powergen to npower Sign Online (with energyhelpline £15 cashback)
I did notice a slight discrepancy between the price quoted on the energyhelpline website to the npower website. The higher (pre threshold) gas rate is 4.51p compared to 3.82p on npower's website. The lower gas rate is the same as is both electricity rates. I assumed this to therefore be a mistake, and called energyhelpline, but they weren't aware of their price being wrong.
I am now worried that having swithed via energyhelpline (to save £15) I will now be locked into the higher rate (which works out at about £30 per year).
Does npower have seperate Sign Online tarrifs depending on how you sign up for it? If that's the case then the switching websites need to come with a big health warning!

IGK

I phoned npower on 0880 316 2604 with your query and they confirmed that that 3.82p per kwh for the first 4572 units per year is the correct price and that it matters not who you sign up with. So you can rest assured that you will not be £30 out of pocket. npower do not have separate on-line tariffs.

A friend of mine who is a very high user recently switched his gas and electricity from the Utility Warehouse to npower on-line and is saving £338.36 a year.

Wholesale energy costs seem to be falling at the moment and the next move in price may well be downwards, however I am certain that all the energy companies will be be dragging their heels when it comes to passing on the reduction to their customers.

Having said that it would be a brilliant marketing ploy to be the first company to reduce energy bills in years. It would make big headlines in the media and would probably bring in a rush of new customers for them in the same way that taltalk had a mad rush of new customers when they announced "Free Broadband".

gobbyash

I've just had a letter from Powergen informing me of yet more price rises. They were very sneaky, in that, they did not say what %age it was going up, just what the new Cost per kWh would be.

It works out about an extra 20% (twenty per cent).

I looked back at a bill from Dec 2004 and on my Electricity I was paying 5.06p per kWh. Now it has just risen from 13.88p per kWh to 16.65p per kWh. A rise of about 330% in 21 months.

The Gas was 1.414p per kWh in Dec 2004 and is now rising to 3.559p per kWh - a rise of about 250%.

If they were loan sharks they would have been thrown into prison!!

gobbyash

IGK

gobbyash wrote:

I've just had a letter from Powergen informing me of yet more price rises. They were very sneaky, in that, they did not say what %age it was going up, just what the new Cost per kWh would be.

It works out about an extra 20% (twenty per cent).

I looked back at a bill from Dec 2004 and on my Electricity I was paying 5.06p per kWh. Now it has just risen from 13.88p per kWh to 16.65p per kWh. A rise of about 330% in 21 months.

The Gas was 1.414p per kWh in Dec 2004 and is now rising to 3.559p per kWh - a rise of about 250%.

If they were loan sharks they would have been thrown into prison!!

gobbyash

I think the price rise Powergen inflicted on me is quite astonishing.
I am (until the switch goes through) on Energy Online Dual-Fuel, since about March last year. This was quite cheap, with a fixed rate regardless of usage, and a daily standing charge, for both fuels. I had been surprised that until now I had experienced no price rise, but a letter came last week.
I check my bills/useage on a spreadsheet, and typing the new prices in with my consumption has meant a staggering rise of 68% for gas and 46% for electricity.
The letter doesn't say this, of course. :mad:

As peterlittleton says, it will be interesting to see how the gas markets behave in the coming months, and if the wholesale price falls further how quickly the utility companies reduce their prices.
There will be lots of pressure on them to do so.

stylewise

This is my first thread....I want to switch from dual fuel package (elec + LPG bottled gas)currently with British Gas but none of the switch websites mention LPG gas (unless I've missed it).

delphi

I've tried the various comparison services inputting the same information each time - and get quite different results - any ideas?

I've also gone directly to my supplier's website (nPower) and find I can get a cheaper electricity rate than I'm paying at the moment - except I can't get it because I'm already a customer. It seems nPower have at least 3 sign on-line rates with the latest only open to new customers. I can understand companies using one-off switch incentives but this 'stuff our current customers' attitude can't do much for a company's reputation and, in my view, is sadly lacking in ethics. I'll be switching away from nPower shortly.

WestEndGirl_2

russetred wrote:

:eek: I used the energyhelpline cashback site to find the cheapest electricity provider which turned out to be British Gas which was surprising, and they did a green click energy which uses renewables for a year which i liked so I switched.I had to be scraped off the ceiling when the letter from BG dated 01/09 said my direct debit would be over 50% more per month than i currently pay.Remember this is before the price hike of 04/09 as the letter had the price based on 31/07 prices. Their letter sent first class business post took 6 days to arrive and left me with ONE day to cancel before the switch went through.I stopped the switch and checked energyhelpline's site even after BG's last price rise they are still showing the same price for BG that was wrong in july nevermind now.What other tariffs have they got wrong and how many more people will switch to higher priced providers? That was a shock to the system that will take me a long time to forget.

I've just done the same - it seems I'd be between £70 and £100 better off switching to British Gas Green Click Energy thingy. Being naturally cynical, I checked this board before taking any action, and saw this posting. BUT... the rates on BG's site for click energy, although dated July 06, are the only rates for that tariff - other, higher, standard rates exist dated Sept 06, and the click energy rates on BG's site are the same as those quoted on the switching sites.

Now I'm confused - what IS the correct BG click energy rate, and where else would I find it except on their website?

Any ideas?