Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Cardew

NigeWick wrote: »

You didn't answer the second question:- why do they not offer their lowest prices to everybody and keep them there?

BG do offer their cheapest tariff to everyone - it is BG websaver2.

They want people to use internet tariffs as the costs to administer it are lower and this is reflected in their tariffs.

As posted previously all 8 BG internet tariffs were, and remain, cheaper than UW tariffs.

They also have a number of fixed price tariffs.

I really can't understand why you keep flogging this issue. Without any question whatsoever, UW gas and electricity prices are amongst the highest available in UK.

Every comparison network shows this to be an absolute fact.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

BG do offer their cheapest tariff to everyone - it is BG websaver2.

They want people to use internet tariffs as the costs to administer it are lower and this is reflected in their tariffs.

As posted previously all 8 BG internet tariffs were, and remain, cheaper than UW tariffs.

They also have a number of fixed price tariffs.

I really can't understand why you keep flogging this issue. Without any question whatsoever, UW gas and electricity prices are amongst the highest available in UK.

Every comparison network shows this to be an absolute fact.

'They want people to use internet tariffs as the costs to administer it are lower and this is reflected in their tariffs.'


Do you REALLY believe this to be true? If everyone on BGs standard rate suddenly transferred to the internet accounts I'm suspecting BG would have to put the prices up immediately. It doesn't take a genius to work out that BG make a massive profit from their millions of apathetic customers on their standard rate (come on, exactly how much more expensive is it to send 4 bills per year?) and that allows them to buy their way up the comparison sites with their intent tariff. Not rocket science....

NigeWick

Cardew wrote: »

BG do offer their cheapest tariff to everyone - it is BG websaver2.

Is that available to people not on the internet?

NigeWick

Quentin wrote: »

You are worse off financially by having everything in the one basket.

Not for my circumstances I'm not.

I am a Independent Distributor for Utility Warehouse and any views expressed are mine and not necessarily the company's.

1carminestocky

NigeWick wrote: »

Is that available to people not on the internet?

Oops......



Product features:
Average savings of £46*
Additional discounts include up to £38 if you are a current British Gas cash/cheque customer and change to Direct Debit
Paperless billing is mandatory
Cancellation fee of £30 per fuel if you move to another tariff on or before 31st December 2009 - WHAT'S THIS? (Ed)
Available to new and existing customers
Available to credit meter customers only

NigeWick

Cardew wrote: »

I really can't understand why you keep flogging this issue.

Perhaps for the same reason you do.

I am a Independent Distributor for Utility Warehouse and any views expressed are mine and not necessarily the company's.

jimexbox

All traditional utility companies will offer a range of tariffs, online, fixed, green etc etc. We should be thankful we are not semi autonomous life forms incapable of decision. If Mr 'junky sweater' wishes to allay their guilt by paying over the odds for the energy, fine. That what an alleged free market should offer. That why the likes of UW can trade as they do, although as other have pointed out some of their claims are pure nonsense, bordering on blatant deception. Don't bother with your baseless threats either Vinny, you only make yourself look sad.

Ive absolutely no trouble with anyone joining UW, as long as they know that their gas and electric unit price will be initially far more expensive than the competition. And the same new 'recruits' understand exactly how much they have to spend in approved UW retail stores to realise a discount, to bring where they could of been in the first place.

I wish the reps on here can just say, 'yes we are damn expensive, but with thought and little hard work its possible to be cheaper than traditional utility suppliers'.

Can we agree on the last statement?

Mike_by_the_Sea

Cardew wrote: »

I put in the usual 3.300kWh/20,500kWh for gas/electricity in my area.

It came up with 60 tariffs.

UW were in 52nd, 53rd and 58th position out of the 60.

There was 1 big 6 tariff slightly more expensive than UW in 55th position, BG Zero carbon.

HI Cardew

How can this be right? What about the Triple Value Guarantee? Does this mean that the comparison sites are incorrect, or does it mean......:eek:

Hopefully, if you check tomorrow they will have shot up the table (a bit).

On a serious note, the TVG does get realigned tomorrow and, as far as I can tell, they will be cheaper than BG for Gas and the "Big 6" for Electricity, subject to all the T&C's.

mech_2

1carminestocky wrote: »

Not specifically on crates of Stella but I used the 750 pts on £50 coupon floating round the Codes Forum to take advanatge of a loophole. The crates of Stella were due to halve in price to £6.99 the day after I ordered (i.e crucially on the day of delivery. They of course went into the basket at full price on day of ordering allowing me to make 2 separate orders for 4 crates and qualify for the 750 pts on each order. Plus a free delivery code was (successfully) used. Job done. The fact my mate (not interested in clubcard deals etc) bought 4 crates off me for £28 (he wouldnt accept th 4p change) made the deal an even better one (I'm not a big drinker so 8 crates was overkill). £62 worth of clubcard deals for £30 outlay. Great deal.

Well done you. Though even I don't generally do that much hoop-jumping. I notice you've counted 4 x the points value though. I thought that wasn't allowed.

I'm sure a time and motion observer would be sceptical of such a claim but if you are happy, that's the main thing.

The local shops I actually use are all in a similar area to the local large Tesco as confirmed with Google Earth. It helps that they're on the way to Tesco too, but I go up there often enough for the post office, bank/cash machine, bus+tram stops etc that I can usually combine journeys anyway. If I had to go further afield I'd try and stock up on whatever it was. I didn't think it would be worth the hassle either until I started doing it.

We have 3 cars if you include our eldest son's . Your description of us, I feel, hints at sacrasm or, even worse, resentment?

No chips on shoulders here. It's just that you have narrowed down the households potentially able to benefit from the UW card to quite a small minority. Sainsburys only has about 15% market share. Additionally, the majority of households in this country now are 1 and 2 person households with relatively small grocery bills and close enough to an urban centre that a car is not neccessary. My car is SORN because I just didn't use it enough. (It's still on my drive, but I'm about to transfer ownership to my sister). The Twocars are just the shorthand I'm using for your household profile.

If you are a committed money saver there's no way on Earth you should use clubcard voichers for in-store discount. Why not convert them to vouchers and flog em on ebay?

I could. I've hoarded the vouchers that are not close to expiry. I have sold till-spits I couldn't use on ebay before. The point is 1% is a minimum and I still manage to get more than 5% other ways without changing energy provider.

And I'm telling you you are shopping at an increasingly expensive supermarket (Tesco). Not just me saying this, you know. Check out the new Shopping forum.

I haven't noticed to be honest. I don't hang around the shopping forum anyway because I'm too lazy to sift through the high volumes of posts of no interest to me. (I only hang around on here because I've always had a bee in my bonnet about fossil fuel depletion).

But it's all irrelevant, anyway, as we have already agreed you are in no way a candidate for UW or its card. The fact that you then can't understand why ANYBODY would be better off with it is the puzzling part of your stance on this...

I'm just trying to see if there are real circumstances in which there are really no other ways for the Twocar household to save a similar amount off their shopping without using Utility Warehouse. It seems very likely that there are, even if my experience isn't of the right kind to figure out what they are likely to be. I don't tend to research things once I find out that they aren't helpful to me, so you're at an immediate advantage on this topic.

Do you know anything about how things affect ones' credit rating? I'm suspecting not...... unless this paragraph was a joke without a smilie.

Getting a couple of credit cards a year between two earners shouldn't do more than move them from 'excellent' to 'good' unless they're already in trouble.

And there's that 'Mr & Mrs Twocars' again. We've worked very hard to get where we are, we never resented anyone who had more than us when we had nowt. A lesson in life?

There's that chip again. I traded money for time and freedom and space. I'm fine with that. A one person household has higher per-person costs than when I was cohabiting. I'm also fine with that.

Anyway, back to Amex. AFAICT, on our projected spend of a core £500 per month rising to £9,000 for the year taking into account mucho increased Xmas spending, that would net us £140. Almost £300 less than the UW card (which, again, isn't a credit card). I'll stick with that, thanks.

As you wish. I would point out that a credit card can be used in more circumstances than the UW card. For example I could use it to pay my council tax.

And what about this little-discussed T&C:

Earning rewards has never been easier — we deliver them straight to you. No calls required; simply look out for your rebate as a credit on your statement one month following your Card Anniversary date. (If you opened your account in January, for example, you should expect to see your rebate in February the following year

Sounds too much like an npower 'discount' to me.

Except you can only use one energy provider at a time. Just cancel the card after 15 months. Inconvenient, but still worth it for the 3 months of 5% cashback..

Neither have you, if we are nitpicking .

True, but I simply couldn't make Sainsburys cheaper whatever I bought in the Tesco section, so I didn't think that would be hard to replicate. I do concede I could save more on the Sainsburys bill if I started in the Sainsburys section, but I'm not convinced I can halve the Sainsburys shop. Frankly I can't be bothered to start again. Already some of the substitutions are inferior products and yet it's more expensive. With the basket I started with I'm on a loser I think.

See my first response to you in this post. The offer still stands. Will you take up the Sainsburys Challenge?

It could be interesting and informative.

Quentin

jimexbox wrote: »

I wish the reps on here can just say, 'yes we are damn expensive, but with thought and little hard work its possible to be cheaper than traditional utility suppliers'.

Can we agree on the last statement?

It would still mean them taking advantage of gullible punters.

If anyone wants to use prepayment cards, then there are genuine discount shopping schemes where you can get the same "discount" offered by the uw card. The difference is the discount is off the shopping.

So people don't need to "waste" their uw card "discount" just to get their utilities back into the ballpark of prices. Just have the cheaper prices from normal suppliers, and then get the money off their shopping. (And use a bank/building society card rather than the risky uw one).