Comparison sites

taffj

How up to date are comparison sites. I am looking to switch at the end of the year and most comparison sites tell me that npower online 20 tariff is the second cheapest for me. As I have been on a fix with npower for the past two years with no problems I thought I would stay and take their online 20 tariff as recommended by the comparison site, but does this include npower's January 4th price hike. If it does not then one could do a monthly comparison (for example) and come up with different suppliers every time.

Plushchris

Comparison sites should all be up to date, I dont think Npower have put the prices up on SOL 20, almost all other Npower tariffs have gone up though I believe.

How long that will remain the case for though is anyones guess...

MillicentBystander

taffj wrote: »

How up to date are comparison sites. I am looking to switch at the end of the year and most comparison sites tell me that npower online 20 tariff is the second cheapest for me. As I have been on a fix with npower for the past two years with no problems I thought I would stay and take their online 20 tariff as recommended by the comparison site, but does this include npower's January 4th price hike. If it does not then one could do a monthly comparison (for example) and come up with different suppliers every time.

I would imagine the 4/1/11 increase is showing now. Although as you are an existing npower customer so I'm probably teaching granny to suck eggs here, but I hope you are aware that npower SOL20 effectively has a £145 exit fee? Only problem is the switching sites don't see it like that. Included in the price you see on the switching site is a £105 discount paid annually in arrears, i.e. if for instance npower decided to increase the tariff to a price that made other company's tariffs cheaper, to switch away before your 12 months were up you would lose £105 of that 'saving' shown on the switching site. Bad enough as it is but npower being npower decide to really kick you when you are down by imposing a £40 exit fee IN ADDITION to the £105 you would already be losing. So, in effect, leave before the 12 months is up and you can actually add £145 to the price shown on the switching sites. That, I suspect, wouldn't look so good then.

taffj

But how often does one switch? You could spend nearly all day every day checking out prices and switching and probable what you save would not be worth the hassle. I think for myself anyway that every 12 months is enough to check prices otherwise paranoia sets in.

MillicentBystander

taffj wrote: »

But how often does one switch? You could spend nearly all day every day checking out prices and switching and probable what you save would not be worth the hassle. I think for myself anyway that every 12 months is enough to check prices otherwise paranoia sets in.

The point I was trying to make was that, with npower you are virtually shackled for 12 months.What if they suddenly increased the tariff you are shackled to by a ridiculous amount? You're stuck. If that suits you who am I to argue? But there is generally lots of cash back incentives (via the cashback sites) to move to another energy company but if that doesn't float your boat either, no bother. But this IS a money saving site...

PS It takes less than a minute to check prices once you know what you are doing. Remember the reason these companies do so well is due to the apathy you are demonstrating.
PPS I've been known to switch suppliers 4 times a year for cashback purposes and am dispapointed if I don't make £250 net profit each year. Energy companies deserve to be abused IMO, lol.

taffj

You've obviously been lucky but I've read some horror stories about switching. But things may be better these days though.

MillicentBystander

taffj wrote: »

You've obviously been lucky but I've read some horror stories about switching. But things may be better these days though.

It's simply not a case of being lucky, it's about being organised. There's so little that can go wrong as long as you keep a record of your closing reading, it really is that simple. The whole process of switching 4 times over the last 12 months has, I reckon, taken up, at most, 2 hours of my time. £125/hour. Probably a middle-class 'escorts' salary, without the horrible deeds that need to be done.

PS My 'average' annual bill for usage is approx £900 before the cash back so effectively the energy companies give me 3 months free each year!

Premier_2

taffj wrote: »

How up to date are comparison sites. I am looking to switch at the end of the year and most comparison sites tell me that npower online 20 tariff is the second cheapest for me. As I have been on a fix with npower for the past two years with no problems I thought I would stay and take their online 20 tariff as recommended by the comparison site, but does this include npower's January 4th price hike. If it does not then one could do a monthly comparison (for example) and come up with different suppliers every time.

Comparison sites usually update their sites promptly.

I was checking energyhelpline yesterday about 5pm and noticed they had already updated their ebico prices, notification of which was only made public by Ebico about-2-3 hours earlier

If you use a couple of comparison sites to ensure you get the same result, that will usually identify any delays in updating.
Furthermore, the comparison sites provide details of the tariff details they have used to calculate any cost. You could always verify these with the supplier ('s website) if you want to be absolutely certain they reflect the updated prices