Price comparison sites - DO NOT TRUST THEM

BoD

I use a spreadsheet I have created to work out the best tariffs. You just enter: units used in a year (kwh), tier 1 and tier 2 (if applicable) prices, tier 1 limit and any other discounts. I got the tariffs from all the big players and put them in.

The result was British Gas gave me a saving of £300 (websaver 11) over the closest supplier for electric.

Over to uSwitch. Gave uSwitch my yearly consumption and the site recommended Websaver 6 - this would cost me almost £400 more.

Is it not possible that as these site work on commission it is in their interest to sell you a product that isn't the cheapest. Either that or their website just does not work properly.

Do the maths yourself.

Plushchris

BoD wrote: »

I use a spreadsheet I have created to work out the best tariffs. You just enter: units used in a year (kwh), tier 1 and tier 2 (if applicable) prices, tier 1 limit and any other discounts. I got the tariffs from all the big players and put them in.

The result was British Gas gave me a saving of £300 (websaver 11) over the closest supplier for electric.

Over to uSwitch. Gave uSwitch my yearly consumption and the site recommended Websaver 6 - this would cost me almost £400 more.

Is it not possible that as these site work on commission it is in their interest to sell you a product that isn't the cheapest. Either that or their website just does not work properly.

Do the maths yourself.

Impossible, can you show a screenshot where websaver 6 was at the top? It hasnt been on sale for months so I cant imagine Uswitch still showing it.

t0rt0ise

They are actually onto websaver 12 now so where did websaver 11 or 6 come from?

Cardew

Other people have stated the same on MSE and if followed up, in every case their allegations have proved to be incorrect.

Give us your figures(in kWh) and area where you live, and an example of a discrepancy between your spreadsheet and the comparison website please.

Plushchris

Its never EVER a case of "my spreadsheet was wrong dont trust it" though, despite spreadsheets not being closely monitored by consumer focus etc. for acuracy...

I just cant see the point in wasting all that time mucking about with spreadsheets myself, more bother than its worth when there are calculators designed to do it for you...

grizzly1911

Plushchris wrote: »

Its never EVER a case of "my spreadsheet was wrong dont trust it" though, despite spreadsheets not being closely monitored by consumer focus etc. for acuracy...

I just cant see the point in wasting all that time mucking about with spreadsheets myself, more bother than its worth when there are calculators designed to do it for you...

My current tariff is due up soon an I have done a simple spreadsheet to do the comparison.

It works, and more depressingly so do the comparison sites.

The main reason I did it was to compare my existing suppliers tariffs they had given to me but which they didn't compare against my usage.

It also helped as not all the sites use the default tariff you will be switched to as the comparison. In my case everybody was more expensive against my existing tariff but 5/6 were cheaper against the replacement tariff.

st999

I have a spreadsheet that I use to record my usage and to check the comparison websites.

My spreadsheet and the comparison websites always agree to within a few pence.

You must be doing something wrong.

intermynan

Considering websaver 6 hasn't been on sale for months and months and months, I think I don't believe you.

uSwitch_company_representative

BoD wrote: »

I use a spreadsheet I have created to work out the best tariffs. You just enter: units used in a year (kwh), tier 1 and tier 2 (if applicable) prices, tier 1 limit and any other discounts. I got the tariffs from all the big players and put them in.

The result was British Gas gave me a saving of £300 (websaver 11) over the closest supplier for electric.

Over to uSwitch. Gave uSwitch my yearly consumption and the site recommended Websaver 6 - this would cost me almost £400 more.

Is it not possible that as these site work on commission it is in their interest to sell you a product that isn't the cheapest. Either that or their website just does not work properly.

Do the maths yourself.

Hi BoD,

As some of the other replies mention, WebSaver 6 is no longer on the market - I went and double-checked the tool we use to manage all the tariff information just to be on the safe side though and we're definitely not providing quotes for this tariff anymore. Websaver 11 has also been taken off the market (British Gas is on WebSaver version 12 now! ) and doesn't appear to be on the British Gas website anymore either. If you could drop me an email at the address in my profile with some more details and a screenshot of the results table we'll very happily look into this for you.

Thanks!

Lauren

JasX

+1 to the above comments, many have come forward claiming comparison sites don't work, unsurprisingly AGAIN without any numbers they can publish just vague allegations 'I worked it out and they're all wrong'.

Lets see if this one either publishes so we can point out their deficient arithmetic or resorts to the surprisingly more common furious delusional ranting that they checked it themselves and its 100% correct but without actually giving up any numbers or examples.

They work fine, and given the above poster is referencing plans that haven't been sold in yonks I'm smelling a troll from the outset

*yawn*

eurmalian

Not to mention that for the difference between Websaver 6 and Websaver 11 to be arround £400 you must be using a horriffic ammount of electric. They were both guaranteed to be at least 6% cheaper than the standard tarriff so I can't see there having been that much of a difference in price between them.

In fact, even the basic claim that Websaver 11 was £300 cheaper than anything else is incredibly suspect. I know that the Websaver tarriffs are cheap, but I can't immagine them being that good unless you're providing the power for your entire street...