Do Energy Comparison Sites include anounced price rises in comparisons?

NickTipping

Hi All,
Can anyone clarify whether Energy Comparison sites include anounced price rises in comparisons or not? It' s not obvious one way or the other. Martin recommends switching ASAP, but if the prices shown don't include up-coming hikes, it could be disasterous if you switch to a supplier who's rate rises haven't kicked in yet.
As an aside, I thought about this as I was checking out prices on energyhelpline.com. I'm currently with BG on duel fuel, and have been dumped onto their standard tariffs, so I'm looking to switch. Strangely, no BG tariffs were listed in the comparisons, even though I know they have cheaper ones. I'm now wondering if all options are listed. Anyone else seen this?

victor2

Think it can vary. Always best to confirm the "best" prices shown by going direct to the supplier's website. Comparison sites do claim that they try to have up to date information regarding all available tariffs, but I'm sure some slip through. Generally though, they do seem to be a very good pointer to what your cost is likely to be for a given usage on currently available rates. So long as you are able to provide annual kWh figures for each utility, as is often rightly stated here

jalexa

NickTipping wrote: »

Can anyone clarify whether Energy Comparison sites include anounced price rises in comparisons or not? It' s not obvious one way or the other.

You ask a really good question and indeed it is not "obvious". I think it is a major deficiency in the Consumer Focus Confidence Code specification, in presentation and comprehension terms, though perhaps not in terms of the calculations.

If I understand the Code correctly, tariffs are required to be updated no more than 2 days after a supplier first "announces" their changes. In practice that means that you can be "confident" that 3 days after the changes are announced, Consumer Focus comparison websites will calculate using the revised prices - regardless of the implementation date of the revised prices.

I hope that someone can confirm or correct that understanding.