Oil clubs and oil comparison websites

G_M

I've been shopping around as per my annual habit, and yet am disillusioned by the claims online.

OK - we now all know Boilerjuice is owned by DCC who own... blah blah, and it now transpires many of the other comparison /bulk-ordering sites are also DCC-owned.

Recently I've come across various 'independant' groups, both village/postcode based and bigger web-based (eg the heatingoilclub), but NONE of these, whether DCC or independant, actually seem to produce cheaper prices than I get from my local supplier direct, despite the 'bulking-up' of orders.

The theory of group buying makes sense, but in practice it just doesn't seem to pan out. Is it just me? Or an idiosyncracy of my location?.......

A._Badger

G_M wrote: »

The theory of group buying makes sense, but in practice it just doesn't seem to pan out. Is it just me? Or an idiosyncracy of my location?.......

It seems true for me, too. My local suppliers are usually within a fraction of the same price and always cheaper than the online sources.

I smell a racket...

ulsterman

Most (though not all) price comparison websites and oil buying groups have to fund themselves somehow. Some will charge the fuel distributor to list their prices, others will add a small premium to the final price and others may take a cut in return for processing payments.

In summary, if the 'service charge' applied is greater than the 'saving' through bulk buying - then the fuel costs more. From experience, this is often the case.

But that's not to say these websites don't have their uses. Living in Northern Ireland, I use the Cheapest Oil website which differs from most in that the site makes its money through advertising and an online store. The site mainly targets NI, but there are some prices listed for suppliers on the UK Mainland. The prices submitted are submitted directly by a named oil distributor - hence there's no 'middle man' to increase the price.

When ordering I get the cheapest online price I can find from a reasonably local supplier and then call my regular supplier and if he's more expensive, I'll hammer him down to at least match the online price. It's never failed me yet, I suspect it would work the same for most fuel distributors and having passed the tip on to family and friends who've used it with DCC owned suppliers... quite often they're getting cheaper prices than those featured on Boilerjuice!

Regards

Ulsterman