Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

OldGreyFox

Hi UW distributors.

Could you just CPS your call,s to UW ( No Energy) and take one of your prepaid cards and use cashback to pay off phonebill and have any balance paid to your bank account?

Any news on who the blue chip companies joining the cashback scheme are?

SwanJon

Nige, I've Carmine'd your figures to back up your argument. Nothing like a bit of late night maths.

They were for one month, not a whole year, and your projected difference including 'cash'back was actually £4.65. You also said then that you had 6 services...
So a very rough and ready calculation
Gas
One month kWh = 472 kWh (very low for January the month you posted it in) as gas is seasonal, how about 4720 for a year?
Electricity
One month kWh = 195 kWh, so around 2340 for the year.
Using Energy helpline
UW best prices Gas= £211 (-£21? membership)= £190*
Bizzarely UW's best deal is on Standard - how much does a low user use?
Best price is with Ebico = £173
Differernce = £17 (~9%)
UW best price Electricity = £319 (-£21? membership) = £298*
Best price is BG Websaver4 = £245**
Difference = £74 (~25%)

Dual Fuel
UW Best price is (190+298=)£488*
Best deal is Edf at £388
Difference is £100 (~20%)

So if you would spend more than £100 a year on calls at the time you would lose you are better off with UW, and it sounds lik eyou do.
However, you are paying more for your energy than with other suppliers, but recieving a benefit in kind. I'll admit to getting a bit confused doing this.
Energyhelpline said that UW paid a DF discount a year in arrears and it was recovered if you left in the following 3 months, but the discount bit said no discount?
It also said that you pay standing charges in advance (like line rental).

Anyway, how close were my figures?

* I have removed the membership fee as this would be payable on the remaining services. I have chosen the cheapest UW offering in each case.
** Exit fee applies.

Mike_by_the_Sea

OldGreyFox wrote: »

Hi UW distributors.

Could you just CPS your call,s to UW ( No Energy) and take one of your prepaid cards and use cashback to pay off phonebill and have any balance paid to your bank account?

Any news on who the blue chip companies joining the cashback scheme are?

Hi OGF

I don't think that UW offer just CPS anymore (if they are in contract with another provider and then they can go on CPS until the contract ends), unless they are on cable.

Again, as far as I know, you only need one service to qualify for the card.

As for news on the blue chips, nothing as yet. :sad:

Mike

I am a UW ID

jimexbox

NigeWick wrote: »

You have not told us what your actual energy use is yet, so how can they be fabricated? What I am asking for is your gas and electricity usage, current supplier and tariff. Unless you provide them, we will not be able to accurately calculate your savings.

You didn't answer my question. Do you believe I've fabricated my energy consumption to make UW look expensive? You don't need my kWh figures to answer the question.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

It is pertinent to point out that our friend used to state on this forum that his electricity consumption was 6,500kWh per annum.

However since he became a 'friend of UW' he has dropped his electricity consumption to 4,800kWh per year as, given the very high prices of UW gas and electricity, it makes any figures for comparison purposes more favourable.

Even so on his conveniently reduced consumption he is paying £246 pa more for his gas and electricity than he would with EDF.

Like I have said before, you suggesting anyone is being economical with the truth is about as easy to take seriously as the sadly (but inevitably) departed Keith Floyd suggesting people drink too much alcohol and should stop. My usage reduction was fully explained (unlike XBox) at the time and has indeed been borne out by actual experience.

At the risk of giving you a coronary, if I was being entirely up to date with regard to reporting my actual usage (how many of you lot actually give us ANY info, including such State secrets as in which store you grocery shop? ), it's very much looking like my annual gas consumption may reduce to 13000kwhs. Sorry.

Matters not. I STILL pay less than you would have been paying on my usage on that fixed deal you've been paying for over FOUR YEARS. And I've been paying UW for precisely TWO MONTHS. THAT'S what really annoys you, isn't it? There's absolutely nothing credible you can say on this point, is there? Please stop attempting to give money saving advice when it's entirely clear that you are hopeless at the subject yourself. You run the risk of being labelled a complete hypocrite (oops, too late)...

1carminestocky

Perelandra wrote: »

Hi Carmine,

I think the only way we'd be able to tell if you could get a better deal elsewhere than you've posted would be to also understand how much your telephone useage is:

As I posted in an earlier thread-

Taking phone and broadband from UW is a good MS idea, since these are sufficient to qualify for the big savings on the cashback card, and these services are priced competitively versus other suppliers.

Adding gas and electric to your services list has a downside in that these services on their own are more expensive than from other suppliers. However, there is a clear (financial) benefit, in that taking these in addition to the telephone and broadband qualifies you for free telephone calls.

If the telephone call saving is greater than the utilities tariff differential, then UW is the cheapest option for you- if the saving is less than the differential, then even with free calls it's better to take telephone and BB from UW, btu gas and electric from a different supplier.

So it all comes down to how much of a telephone saving you'll make- but you need to know that, in order to judge whether you have the best deal or not. From what you've said, I suspect that your telephone useage is very high in which case I'd be surprised if anyone could find you a better deal. For the average user (apparently) the saving is £120 p.a. (which for some is less than the saving they'd make if they switched to a different gas/elec provider. £220 for a new customer due to the £100 discount after the first 12 months).

Have you calculated how much you'd have to pay/the number of calls made if you weren't getting the calls free? (EDIT: Based on the UW price for those calls if you didn't get them for free, since the assumption is you'd have your phone/BB from UW anyway) /EDIT. If so, we can then take a stab at finding a better deal as we'd have all the info we needed then (although I suspect there won't be a better deal for you).

Pere

Hi Pere,

Nice, reasoned post. Impossible to tell exactly regarding daytime calls at the moment because we haven't had a bill where all daytime calls were included. But the figures really do add up (this is why people who have just the evening and weekend calls packages with certain providers often get a shock when the bill arrives).

Just 3x 10 sec calls per day between the hours of 6am and 6pm would cost over £10/mth with UW and their call costs are very cheap compared to most suppliers (the same calling pattern with BT would cost almost £14/mth!). A total of 30 seconds on the phone per day! Just 3 calls. As a family of 4 (but mostly 6 when we include our 2 sons' almost live-in GFs ) the daytime calls will probably run to at least 6, most probably average out at 7 or 8. Even if all these calls are less than one duration minute each, that would equate to £27/mth with UW. (£37/mth with BT!!!). Makes you think, doesn't it?

Ps If I had my gas and electric elsewhere I would just get inclusive weekend calls, of course, so my evening calls would also be chargeable. Frightening.....and I wouldn't want to even go there. :eek:

PPS I look at it like this - if you accept that £25/mth for unlimited up to 24mb bb, phone line rental, all calls 24/7 (including 0845/0870 and some intl destinations), free calls to the guaranteed UK-based phone support, etc is a very decent standalone price in the marketplace...then with the use of the cashback card and referral discount I get my gas and electric (15000/4800, Yorkshire region) for £614 per year. Beatable?

NigeWick

SwanJon wrote: »

Anyway, how close were my figures?

Haven't got a clue! I know that when I worked the numbers out, I saved just over £4.50 per month compared to the quoted best buys of the time. I was asked if I had annual figures and I replied that I didn't care, just multiply those by 12. Then Utility Warehouse dropped their G & E prices by about 2% making me even better off. As I said "just now" I spend more in Sainsbury's than I did then making Utility Warehouse an absolute no brainer for me and it is a perfect fit for the way I like to do things. Obviously it will not suit people whose wants are different to mine.

We have low energy bulbs and are careful about switching items off so our electrickery use should not be as high as many.

I am an Independent Distributor with Utility Warehouse and the views I express may not be shared by the company.

NigeWick

jimexbox wrote: »

You didn't answer my question. Do you believe I've fabricated my energy consumption to make UW look expensive? You don't need my kWh figures to answer the question.

I do not believe you have fabricated your figures because you have not given them yet. You need to show us you actual usage, current supplier and tariff in order for us to see if you are saving money as you say. Even if you are saving money compared to Utility Warehouse prices because you do not use the pre payment card, does not mean that others can not use Utility Warehouse services to good effect by using the card.

jimexbox

NigeWick wrote: »

I do not believe you have fabricated your figures because you have not given them yet. You need to show us you actual usage, current supplier and tariff in order for us to see if you are saving money as you say. Even if you are saving money compared to Utility Warehouse prices because you do not use the pre payment card, does not mean that others can not use Utility Warehouse services to good effect by using the card.

I'm getting confused, I've given you a projected spend of £1345 for the next 12 months, do you believe this is excessive to the point that they are manufactured. The kWh usage figures prove zero, I could make them up. I could give you 50 different kWh figures that match my predicted spend, like I said they prove nothing.

Do you believe me ore not?

jimexbox

1carminestocky wrote: »

Beatable?

Absolutely not, no way, never. You seem have a predilection for obsessively ringing 0870/0845 numbers, may have numerous friends living from the Pitcairn Islands to Honduras, and have ample free time during the day, UW is perfect.

So for you my friends and the other 3* people in the UK with similar requirements, UW is the obvious choice.

*estimate