Switching is not really cheaper. Why?

auntyS

Premier wrote: »

Could you also tell us your supply region (or first part of your post code) as this will also affect prices.

The current cost should be the same from all sites, the delared savings the same from all sites (subject to very small rounding errors e.g. some sites don't bother with the pennies), and all authorised comparison sites should show all suppliers and all tariffs (unless you ask for them to be otherwise restricted).

If you provide your supply region, I will take a look for myself to understand why there are apparent discrepencies.

I'm in the Norweb region , but I am sure that the discrepancies arise due to the difficulty in identifying the correct package to use. Scottish Power have so many different ones and on some comparison sites the Fixed Price Feb 2011 is not listed as such so you are never sure which one to choose - it also has an on-line and standing charge or no-standing charge option . Life was so much easier when there were only one or two tariffs to choose from.

I am happy with the choice I have made now and I applaud OVO for getting back to basics. I hope they can keep it that way.

Premier_2

auntyS wrote: »

I did comparisons using my annual Kwh of 10273 Gas and 3752 Electricity , and my current deal from Scottish Power Fixed Price Online Feb 2011.

Tesco Compare quoted my current spend as £734, UKPower as £743 less Dual fuel discount, and Energyhelpline quoted it as £894. My actual spend was £723.

Admittedly their results showed the deals from other companies in the same order apart from some suppliers which did not feature on all comparison sites, but the actual savings estimated looked radically different.

The main difficulty is finding the right current package to enter as the names shown do not always match the tariff being charged.

I am now switching to OVO for a slightly higher cost but fixed for 12 months, and as they only have two tariffs it is much more straightforward.

All the discrepencies do indeed appear to relate to your current product only. The suggested options are all consistent

i.e. the top four are:

Scottish power OES12: £733.28
EDF Online saver v8: £736.69
nPower SOL21: £766.46
British Gas Websaver 10 dual fuel: £778.07

Only tescocompare shows the pennies, the other two whole pounds only (rounded).

I'm not sure what the sites are doing with your present tariff (and I can't find the details on SP website either)(Edit: See below)
You didn't say whether it was a SC or NSC product.

I assumed the NSC product, all sites agree the unit costs as:

gas
4.311p (1143kWh/qtr)
2.910p thereafter

electric
16.110p (225kwh/qtr)
8.836p thereafter

Discounts appear to vary.
EHL says £16.80 p.a dual fuel, £15.75 Online
Tescocompare says £10.50 p.a dual fuel, £15.75 (£5.25 gas, £10.50 elec) Online
UKpower (I can't find online tariff) says £10.50 dual fuel.
(There is a SC version of the online tariff and that gives £15.75 online discount)

Using these figures I calculate

EHL: £726.94 (no idea where they get £894 from :huh:)
Tescocompare: £733.24 (they say £734)
UK power: £748.99 (no idea where they get £743 from :huh:)
(If I allow £15.75 for online discount, I calculate £733.24 - same as Tescocompare)


This goes to demonstrate why you need to use at least two comparison sites to check the results (in this case tescocompare & ukpower are almost consistent once the online discount is allowed for).
Energyhelpline has a big error somewhere in their site for your current particular tariff.
UKpower also has a small error. When I check their SC version of your tariff they also suggest the annual cost is about £5 less than it really is using their own figures.

Edit: I think I found the tariff details on the SP website:
http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/pdf/HistoricFixedPriceEnergy2011.pdf

For your area the dual fuel discount is £10.50. (Theres a £16.80 discount in Scottish Power & Manweb areas only). Another error by energyhelpline.

Mikeyorks

auntyS wrote: »

the discrepancies arise due to the difficulty in identifying the correct package to use. Scottish Power have so many different ones and on some comparison sites the Fixed Price Feb 2011 is not listed as such so you are never sure which one to choose

You're correct. I had precisely the same problem switching away from a Scottish Power fixed (2011) tariff last March.

None of the major comparison sites listed the package precisely .... and those that appeared closest, by version / package name, proved to be using a very different tariff. I had to dig through the tariff details to eventually find a match I could use. And then check both sides of the comparison manually before making a switch.

Turned into a lot of effort just to get away from Scottish Power's tedious insistence on changing the DD value at every meter reading

auntyS

Premier wrote: »

Using these figures I calculate
EHL: £726.94 (no idea where they get £894 from :huh:)
Tescocompare: £733.24 (they say £734)
UK power: £748.99 (no idea where they get £743 from :huh:)
(If I allow £15.75 for online discount, I calculate £733.24 - same as Tescocompare)

You can see what I mean now. If you simply look at the savings figure without studying the detail (as many people do) you would be very upset when the bills started coming in if you had changed through EHL and didn't get the savings of £170pa.

Vigilance is key. As you say, get more than one comparison and check and double check. Thanks for your interest. Hope my details have helped prove the point.

Now I can forget about it for another year, and at least it won't be as complicated next time.

Plushchris

I think the difference on EHL is the fact they base the comparison on the tariff you are likely to go onto (seeing as you wont be on your tariff for the coming year)

If you click the link in the red writing at the top of the page you can see the comparison based on your current tariff or the "weighted" results.

Premier_2

Plushchris wrote: »

I think the difference on EHL is the fact they base the comparison on the tariff you are likely to go onto (seeing as you wont be on your tariff for the coming year)

If you click the link in the red writing at the top of the page you can see the comparison based on your current tariff or the "weighted" results.

Ah yes, you are correct.

The non wighted results (the actual cost of the current plan) is shown as £727 (as I calculated). Only error then is the fact they've used the wrong duel discount £16.80 instead of £10.50, but unlikley to be a deal breaker.

Premier_2

auntyS wrote: »

You can see what I mean now. .... Hope my details have helped prove the point...

Not really. What you said was

auntyS wrote: »

I have found the most accurate comparison site to be ukpower.co.uk , ...
Some comparison sites have been hundreds of pounds out so be aware.

From the results I would say Tescocompare gave the most accurate result - in fact they were the only site to have got it 100% correct.

I couldn't find your exact tariff on ukpower so had to manually include the online discount and even then there was about a £6 discrepency.
Once you look at the correct EHL info (as Plushchris explains) then all prices are within £6.30 of each other - less than a 1% variation on the total price.
Is anyone really going to choose one supplier over another over a possible maximum £6.30 difference?

auntyS

Premier wrote: »

From the results I would say Tescocompare gave the most accurate result - in fact they were the only site to have got it 100% correct.

I couldn't find your exact tariff on ukpower so had to manually include the online discount and even then there was about a £6 discrepency.
Once you look at the correct EHL info (as Plushchris explains) then all prices are within £6.30 of each other - less than a 1% variation on the total price.
Is anyone really going to choose one supplier over another over a possible maximum £6.30 difference?

I agree with all of that but Tesco did not compare all suppliers, and to the average person if you see savings of over £100 highlighted in the results you might think it was a good deal. All I have done is provide my figures as an example of how they are not as clear and easy to understand and at first glance do appear to give very different savings.

Premier_2

auntyS wrote: »

I agree with all of that but Tesco did not compare all suppliers, and to the average person if you see savings of over £100 highlighted in the results you might think it was a good deal. All I have done is provide my figures as an example of how they are not as clear and easy to understand and at first glance do appear to give very different savings.

All the authorised comparison sites have all the suplliers & tariffs included.
I think it was Tescocompare that didn't allow all payment options to be listed at the same time. However, paying monthly by DD is usually the cheapest option, and certainly in this case.
The top four best options (and possibly more) were shown by Tescocompare as they were by the other two comparison sites.

There arn't savings of £100's. The difference in sites was £6.30 (due to minor site errors) and when you looked at the correct figures (which needed a couple of extra button presses with EHL as explained by Plushchris) then I don't think there were any savings as you are already on the cheapest tariff for your situation.