comparision websites-rip off!

Plushchris

napper wrote: »

The direct debit was set by the comparision website

What website was it you used then?

I'm not aware of any of the decent comparison sites that quote monthly DDs

Direct debits are never set by the comparison sites, always the supliers, who told you the DD was set by the comparison site?

napper

hi EDF told me it was the comparision site who were at fault & the comparision site say its EDF , so im caught between a rock & a hard place!

JasX

Ok, I've punched your numbers into a comparison site and here's what I got -I put in a swindon postcode as somewhere vaguely 'southwest'

For Economy 7 Tariffs
EDF (Economy 7) came up as £747 per year for your useage and one of the more expensive ones
Cheapest Economy 7 Tariff was Npower (sign online V18) at £605 pa

However Economy7 Tariffs are designed for people who use alot of their electricity at night and are cheaper at night but MORE EXPENSIVE than a standard one during the day, as you use very little at night its not economical for you to be on economy7.

Two ways round this are pay for your meter to be exchanged for a standard one... or sign up with one of the companies that will let you use dual/economy7 meters on standard tariffs by adding them together

as per this post
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2210679

companies that do this include eon and maybe BG but NOT npower or EDF

If you move onto a standard tariff you would pay the following for 6000 kwh per year

cheapest - Npower (sign online v18) £501 pa but would need meter exchange
cheapest without meter exchange Eon (fix online v8) - £545 pa

Basically you're on a completly unsuitable tariff and are adding about 50% to what you could/should be paying.

I have gathered this info from a comparison site, problem doesn't seem to be with them or EDF as EDF readily advertise themselves as the most expensive for your useage if you put it in correctly

melstin

"the average daytime usage over the 3 years is 5187 &night time 813"

If you have used 5187 day units and ONLY 813 night units, it is not surprising you are paying a small fortune. You are not making full use of the reduced tariff. Actually, you are hardly using it at all!

My last quarterly bill showed 921 day units and 4360 night units, because the hot water heather and the 3 storage heather ONLY operate during the low tariff time (they are on a separate circuit), though they can be manually switched on at all times. In addition, we make use of timers to tumble dry and to wash.

It seems to me that either your system is not working properly, or that you are doing your best not to use it correctly, to take advantage of the reduced night tariff, that is. I also read the meter every quarter, so I pay for what I have used and not one single penny more.

Comparison sites offer a very partial view and they have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. A bit like the car insurance ones. Always read the small print!

Electricity should be re-nationalised and there should be only 1 price for day and another one for night power, throughout the UK, since the supplied 240VAC @50Hz in London power is identical to the 240VAC @50Hz in Belfast. The entire energy industry is a giant con, specifically designed to rip customer off.

Premier_2

JasX wrote: »

Ok, I've punched your numbers into a comparison site and here's what I got ...

For Economy 7 Tariffs
EDF (Economy 7) came up as £747 per year for your useage and one of the more expensive ones
Cheapest Economy 7 Tariff was Npower (sign online V18) at £605 pa...

Me too, I used energyhelpline.com and assumed 15% night time usage (a little more than the 13.5% the OP used, but the closest fraction available with that site)

They came up with:

Scottish Power Online Energy Reward - £591
nPower Sol 18 - £601

The cheapest EDF deal (the supplier the OP chose) was £682 (Annual Fix Version 2) rated 12th
The cheapest EDF non fixed deal was £704 (online saver v6) rated 28th
EDF standard E7 is £761, rated too far down to bother counting! (but cheaper than E.On standard E7 at £835)

The cheapest E.On deal appears to be their Fix online NSC v8 at £684.

Monthly DD amounts would be set at about 1/12 of these annual amounts.


So either the OP did suffer from GIGO, or otherwise didn't understand the clear and accurate information the comparison sites output; it's far from garbage and I struggle to see how a saving of 25% could be achieved (on E7) by switching from E.On to EDF :huh:

Plushchris

melstin wrote: »

Comparison sites offer a very partial view and they have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. A bit like the car insurance ones. Always read the small print!

How exactly do they offer a very partial view? Have you got any evidence? If so we'd love to see it, many many people have said the same but can provide no evidence.

SwanJon

melstin wrote: »

Electricity should be re-nationalised and there should be only 1 price for day and another one for night power, throughout the UK, since the supplied 240VAC @50Hz in London power is identical to the 240VAC @50Hz in Belfast. The entire energy industry is a giant con, specifically designed to rip customer off.

Since electricity was run by regional boards, even when it was nationalised, the picture you offer has never happened. As such customers in London (where the average 'length of wire' per customer is tiny) has always been cheaper than the north of Scotland where electricity has to be transmitted through miles of wires. The longer the wire, the greater the voltage drop, the greater the voltage drop, the higher the overheads for the supplier - and that's before you involve maintenance for the distribution network.

As we are now part of Europe, theoretically our electricity is 230 V +10% or -6% (which just happens to include 240V). Pretty much every appliance will also work at European standard 220V (also within the above range) and would be cheaper (if you didn't have to spend huge amounts of money buying the converter).

JasX

Plushchris wrote: »

How exactly do they offer a very partial view? Have you got any evidence? If so we'd love to see it, many many people have said the same but can provide no evidence.

meh, I just put him down as the token crazy person you can expect to wander thru a thread from time to time, I tend not to get my expectations up they'll start to make sense if asked to back themselves up with anything as radical as 'evidence' :T

Plushchris

JasX wrote: »

meh, I just put him down as the token crazy person you can expect to wander thru a thread from time to time, I tend not to get my expectations up they'll start to make sense if asked to back themselves up with anything as radical as 'evidence' :T

True, probably wont even get a reply...