Cheaper Oil for Fuel?

skanegb

Cheers FYR

OIl price check just gives you a daily comparison of oil prices but it doesn't ever tell you who's offering that price - bit of a drawback really.

Tunstallstoven

You're right about Oilpricecheck. It is info only. It does not give names of the cheapest suppliers - nor can you buy through the site.

However, as I've said in this thread here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2972234

I've found the prices they are calling average/expected are way off what I'm finding and reading about.....

home-heating-oil

Hello,

We cover the daily heating oil price for both the highest quotes and the lowest quotes for 500 litres of standard kerosene. Whilst we do not names name the information is useful. Today the low quote is 60ppl and the high is 72ppl. Data is normalised across the UK from national suppliers for a 10day delivery slot. Prices got so silly in December we could not work with the variation for a normal delivery.. In many cases could we actually get in quote at all in December for anything less than 10 day delivery! So using our data if you are getting a quote below 60ppl you know it is a good price, nationally, or if above 60ppl it is probably putting the effort in to shop around but you may have to settle from something between 60-72ppl. Anything outside the pricing given can be reported by leaving a comment and of course as it your comment you can name names..

If we were to names names or to offer a purchasing option it would inevitably make us no better than any other supplier. The reason that no comparison site will ever be "honest" is because heating oil companies have different tariffs for different users groups.

New customers are often quoted either the cheapest or the most expensive ppl. Commonly new customer get cheaper deals in slow periods i.e. summer and more expensive quotes when heating oil is actually needed i.e. winter. Top up schemes offer customers "yearly average pricing" so this is more expensive in the summer and cheaper in winter when top up customers pay less than new customers.. and of course suppliers must reserve heating oil under contract so top ups customers will get deliveries even in the worst of times..

So the reason that a "real" comparison site will not work is because if you were on a top up scheme and checked the prices in summer you would appalled that the same supplier is offering a cheaper price to new customers. Of course what you do not appreciate at that time is that in winter your price will be less. Because of this risk the larger heating oil firms will not participate in a comparing their prices publicly.

Another factor is regional variances. Heating oil prices is a post code lottery so those potential customers within an "IP" post code area will pay less than those in "YO" but "YO" pay more than those in say "RG" etc..

As a compromise we are going to be moving from reporting a national average daily to a "post code" region average in the next 3 months. Where we have permission we will also include the supplier details, with their daily price, but have no plans to recommend one supplier over another or to add any purchasing system from the website.

Tunstallstoven

Just looking at your website now..... Looks fantastic and really helpful! Many thanks.

I guess it's the million dollar question, but would you hazard a guess to where the prices will go in the next two weeks?

We have around a quarter of a 1300L tank left and are low users. I (the risk taker) think we should hold out a couple more weeks for prices to drop a bit more. She (the sensible one) says get oil today in case prices go up again and/or we reach a stage where delivery times are weeks ahead and we run out in the meantime.

At the moment I can get 60 ppl delivered in around 7 days.

Fair enough if my question dilemma is not one that can be answered!!!!

Cheers

Max

suki1964

Looking at the prices here in NI they are slowly coming down again - its around 50ppl

I usually order again end of Feb and as far as I can remember prices have usually fallen quite a bit by then.

Im keeping a very close eye. if they dont fall by much in the next week or two my next order will only be 300 litres and I will get a fill later in the summer

hatchy

Max_Dread wrote: »

Just looking at your website now..... Looks fantastic and really helpful! Many thanks.

I guess it's the million dollar question, but would you hazard a guess to where the prices will go in the next two weeks?

We have around a quarter of a 1300L tank left and are low users. I (the risk taker) think we should hold out a couple more weeks for prices to drop a bit more. She (the sensible one) says get oil today in case prices go up again and/or we reach a stage where delivery times are weeks ahead and we run out in the meantime.

At the moment I can get 60 ppl delivered in around 7 days.

Fair enough if my question dilemma is not one that can be answered!!!!

Cheers

Max

Hard one to call isn't it? not got to your stage yet but I have just under a half of our 1300l tank left so got a few weeks to go till I can get 1000l in there (wont order less, you get charged more ppl for just that reason it seems). If it was me I would be tempted to go for it now (or at least get quotes every day till near D day as far as delivery time/to near running out goes) as the weather is mild at the moment (well here on the South Coast it is). If the weather turns bitter again I think we all know the direction the price is going to go in then.

Read a good article from an Independant? (consols oils) last night about DDC (can't put link to article as I'm a new member).

TBH though their price quoted is a hell of alot more than I bet it was back in November. I know we should stay clear of the BJ site now but if you look at the 'oil price' graph for the last couple of years you'll see that the price 'last winter and the one before didn't have a huge increase like we have faced this year. So the companies can't use the "it happens every winter" excuse.

hatchy

I notice too on BJ there is no mention of themselves in the news and a defence to it.

home-heating-oil

Thanks Max.. I forgot to add that the other serious issue about using the Internet is that some websites offer services that they do not control. A good reference for this is golocatefuel. They promised delivery but actually had/have no control over the supply chain. Not sure if they are just scammers, as they cited suppliers they have no relationship with, but the issue remains if you buy from anyone, who is not the end supplier, you are at the mercy of the end supplier and not the company you pay!

Personally I believe that the heating price will drop. I note that BJ dropped prices almost immediately following the profiteering and price fixing reports. For interest they dropped from around 70ppl to 60ppl over the weekend of 8/9th January. Maybe a coincidence? The lowest quote we were informed off today was for 56ppl in Essex. However, this was for a consortium placing a 79,000 litre order. I have asked them to create an article about how they created their buying group which we will publish to help other consumers create local "buying groups" for themselves.

As for futures we publish the world oil daily prices too. So if trading price is high you SHOULD see that hit retail in about 2-3 weeks as stocks are replaced. I say "should" as larger companies trade based on date delivered so pricing is taken into consideration immediately.

The future is not really that bright. Predictions are for the oil price to hit anywhere between $100 - $150 per barrel by the summer of 2010. This is the continued effect of "peak oil" and there is not anyway back from that price as it heads toward $2-300 per barrel by 2013-2020. Of course that is speculation by industry analysts. But even so the outlook is not great.

Tunstallstoven

Interesting stuff...... What exactly do you mean by "peak oil"? I'm guessing that it has something to do with the fact we are running out of oil globally, but was not sure....

We went safe and ordered 500L today. I rang through the suppliers listed in the Yellow Pages. Some said they would not negotiate whatsoever, others said they would. So after a few call backs the winner was..........

CPS Fuels!!!!!!!! 59.90 ppl for 500L 57.2 ppl for 1000L

(Don't know if they are the end supplier or not. Could anyone tell me?)

To save people tracking back. I live in North Norfolk. If anyone reading this in the same area wants to know which companies were most competitive then let me know and I'll say on the info.....

Cheers

Max

Tunstallstoven

Just to add another point..... When we moved in in May last year, we thought seriously about having a new boiler installed because the current one is 17 years old. We decided to wait in the end and I'm kind of glad we did. Would be a shame to shell out several grand on an oil system if in a few years oil becomes ludicrously expensive. Our only other option would be electric, but I'm hearing good things about modern electric combi (and other) boilers.

We gonna keep with our current boiler now and see what happens in the next year or two. I wonder how many other people will feel the same when it comes to a new system, following the scary hikes in prices this winter.....