Ebico ethical??

Herongull

One of my friends (who is on a very modest income) told me about Ebico, his gas and electricity supplier. He has been with them for years and believed they must be the cheapest because "they were a charity".

I wondered why they never came up on when I did price comparisons and having delved deeper I've realised why - they are one of the most expensive suppliers around:eek:

They are only worth considering if your total gas and electricity consumption is less than £500 per year ie you are a second home owner/holiday home owner.

It may be that there are many other people like my friend on modest incomes who are paying way over the odds for electricity and gas in order to subsidise wealthy people's holiday homes in the belief that Ebico is a charity.:eek:

According to its website, it is "the UKs only not-for-profit energy supplier".

However Co-operative Energy (which is competitively priced, at least at present) is owned by its customers rather than shareholders.

wriggly

Ebico's ethical stance is primarily to provide the same rate to everyone, regardless of how they pay (direct debit, statement, or pre-pay meter). To do this, direct debit users pay a bit more and subsidise the pre-pay users.

Hence, if you are able to pay by direct debit, you will probably find that Ebico are not the cheapest. However, you are helping those who are stuck with pre-pay meters, usually the less well-off.

As an alternative, you could just go with the cheapest provider, and then donate your savings to a charity.

macman

'Ethical' or 'non-profit' does not mean the cheapest. Two completely different things. Ebico have higher fixed overheads per customer (being small), and cannot buy as cheaply as the Big Six.

MillicentBystander

My speculation would be that if everyone who took up the Ebico offer was on a really low consumption and paid on receipt of bill (i.e. the only ones who will really gain from being with them) their business model would be put under severe strain. Bizarrely, this is a similar scenario to the Big 6 in that if everyone took up their cheapest offers they would also struggle.

Herongull

I generally agree with the above posts.

My concern is that many people may not appreciate that not-for-profit may mean more expensive and not realise they are effectively choosing to pay extra to subsidise others.

Personally I believe it is usually best to go for value-for-money, and donate money to chosen charities who may be in a position to target the money more efficiently (eg not subsidising wealthy second home owners as well as pre-payer users).

Interestingly, for people who don't use direct debit, but pay on demand (receipt of bill) there are competitively priced suppliers. For example, Co-operative Energy doesn't seem to charge pay on demand customers more than DD. (I know pre-payment is different again and those customers would find it more difficult to get reasonably priced energy.)

Yolina

I am with Ebico for my gas simply because for me they do work out pretty much the cheapest for my usage which I pay by quarterly DD as I much prefer it that way but would pay monthly DD if I could find a cheaper supplier. I'm not on a "very modest income" and neither am I second/holiday home owner - yet my annual spend on gas/electricity is around £500 (but my electricity is not with Ebico).

When I use comparison websites, I always choose "any" payment method and always check combined gas/electricity and also each separately. I did a comparison a few days ago and that it turns out that I could save less than £4 a year by switching my gas to the Co-op, or less than £2 a year by combining gas/electricity with First Utility :rotfl:

Wywth

Herongull wrote: »

One of my friends (who is on a very modest income) told me about Ebico, his gas and electricity supplier. He has been with them for years and believed they must be the cheapest because "they were a charity".

I wondered why they never came up on when I did price comparisons and having delved deeper I've realised why - they are one of the most expensive suppliers around:eek:

They are only worth considering if your total gas and electricity consumption is less than £500 per year ie you are a second home owner/holiday home owner.

It may be that there are many other people like my friend on modest incomes who are paying way over the odds for electricity and gas in order to subsidise wealthy people's holiday homes in the belief that Ebico is a charity.:eek:

According to its website, it is "the UKs only not-for-profit energy supplier".

However Co-operative Energy (which is competitively priced, at least at present) is owned by its customers rather than shareholders.

Your friend is wrong. Ebico are not a charity.

Ebico should show up on any accredited comparison site (they fought hard to force comparison sites to include all suppliers & tariffs) although you may have to look quite a long way down as they are not the cheapest (unless you are a low user, which is what they say they encourage, being ethical and all that)

I suggest anyone who wishes to save money on their energy bills follows the MSE guide:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

... oh and it's no longer the UK's only not for profit energy supplier either
(The other one looks really expensive! ... but then they do say their aim is to make money for charity)

Wywth

Herongull wrote: »

...My concern is that many people may not appreciate that not-for-profit may mean more expensive and not realise they are effectively choosing to pay extra to subsidise others.

Personally I believe it is usually best to go for value-for-money, and donate money to chosen charities who may be in a position to target the money more efficiently (eg not subsidising wealthy second home owners as well as pre-payer users)...

But how do you know what is best value for money if you can't find Ebico on the comparison sites when you look??? :cool:

MillicentBystander

Ebico ARE on comparison sites. The problem is that these parasitic sites usually default to 'show me all the tariffs I can switch to' (i.e. those they get commission from) setting which tends to preclude them (and others) showing on the comparison site. Change that to 'All available tariffs' and Ebico will be shown.

macman

Although they may be well down the rankings unless you are a low user (how many people look beyond the first page of results?).

ethelhead

I've been with Ebico for 7 or 8 years & they were always very competitive. I used to check the comparison websites regularly to be sure. For the last 2 or 3 years I haven't checked, until today when I found that Co-operative Pioneer is over £100 cheaper for me.
Whoops better change my tag.