Confusion!

weller7

Hi all

I am a newbie to the forum, very impressed by what I read! Glad to know i am not alone with all this stuff.

I am in debt and being managed by a debt company at the minute (another post about that to be sent soon!), they have, with my permission, forwarded my information to a company called MoneyVillage who have a billshrinker service. I am aware they will make a comission charge of course but wondered if they are all legitimate and if anyone had any dealings with them.

They are claiming they can save me £20 a month from my gas/elec monthly direct debit by switching from Utility Warehouse to Npower. Great if true but i am concerned that i dont end up jumping into the fire literally in light of Npowers recent bad press and any changeover costs i may incur. Utility Warehouse have been fine for me but i think, from what i see, you only real benefit from them with additional services like mobile/broadband etc which i do not have.

Any advice/info would be greatly appreciated!

Premier_2

I suggest you use one of the comparison sites as recommended by Martin to see for yourself what you can save by changing supplier/tariff.

weller7

Thanks for this. Moneyvillage are calling me back at 5pm today (Thurs) so i will look before then.

I of course have no problem in saving £20 a month at all BUT I am concerned about being locked into any kind of longterm contract if it does not work out AND Npower have a lot of bad press at the moment. Admittedly UW isnt much better judging by what i have read on here!! UW have overestimated my readings..not by much....so i am concerned about a high final bill..particularly as my debt management company are going through an expenditure process with me tomorrow night!

Premier_2

The comparison sites will indicate if any early exit fees apply and if so, how much they are and for what period.

JasX

look at your old bills and work out what your ANNUAL consumption is in kWH and use that on the likes of uswitch etc, look at overall cost rather than any quoted 'saving'.

for the best deal work out using uswitch who you whould be switching to, then look round cashback sites like topcashback and find a good offer on cashback and switch via them (Important: clear your cookies immediately before going to the cashback site and linking thru them to ensure the cashback gets tracked).

Cashback amounts are not guranteed so don't rely on them.

One thing to watch with Npower is their cost figures often include a £100 discount you only get after the first year and then only if you don;t miss any DD payments, if you might fall foul of that perhaps npower will be one to avoid.

if you post your annual kWH figures and rough part of the country you live in someone can probably help you look up the best supplier.

Finally its another classig trick to sign you up on the basis of a low DD that doesn't cover your useage ie you were using £38 of gas/electric pm and paying £38pm, someone signs you up saying you can only pay a DD of £20 but are still actually using £38 a month (or worse more) and you only find out 10 months later when they want the missing shortfall and hike you from £20pm to about £75pm to make things up.

macman

Do you have existing debt with UW? If so, you will have to clear that debt before they will allow any transfer to another utility co.
It's completely absurd to pay a 3rd party a commission to do a switch for you or advise you-all the tools are available on this site, and by doing it yourself via a cashback site (not via a comp site) you will also maximise the benefit to yourself.

weller7

No existing debt as such however I have only just informed them of my correct reading. I shouldve let them know each month i guess.

Thanks for all your info and advice.