MSE's Cheap Energy Club: Discuss & feedback

Former_MSE_Archna

This is the official MSE thread specifically to discuss

Cheap Energy Club

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JonB123

Will this support those with feed in tariffs? Not switched yet, but those I know with feed-in who have tried have had problems with swtiching

PeterFromSandhurst

I love this idea. I check annually but may miss a trick. When checking I sometimes pay a little more to avoid those suppliers with truly awful customer service records (mentioning no names). So my question is this,

- how do you factor into your advice the suppliers that no one really wants to be associated with if they are offering the lowest tariff?

I ran into this last switch. BG in my area were not the cheapest, but their customer support history was loads better than Brand X who were slightly cheaper. Ideas?

Regards

Peter

PeterFromSandhurst

JonB123 wrote: »

Will this support those with feed in tariffs? Not switched yet, but those I know with feed-in who have tried have had problems with swtiching

I am also on a FiT and the contract with your current FiT supplier can be switched if you wish but as the amount they pay is exactly the same and the amount you get is linked to the meter that you have in your home (the one that clocks up your total solar KwHrs generated), I cannot see that there is a reason to switch the FiT.

I hope this is right

Peter

ukspid

Well, Spark Energy was cited as being about £250 cheaper than my current provider (Scottish Power Fixed until Nov 13 - and I change every year or two), but when I ran Spark Energy's tariff through my well-established spreadsheet it came out £300 more expensive than Scottish Power. So I mandraulically checked my spreadsheet calculations with the same result; I.e. Spark Energy is coming out £450 more expensive than the Club's prediction.

I am sensitive to making co**-ups and I am sure I haven't, but would welcome a cross check of my figures!!

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Added 6/2/13:
Ah. The "advance" payment option, not direct debit, is what I should have gone for (was it there all along?!). The tariffs (including standing charges) seem to make it £100 cheaper than my fixed rate with Scottish Power.

MumsieWardo

I think this is a great idea. If I could say one improvement though - it's to allow customers to 'ignore' particular companies (their reasons may be previous bad personal experience, or dreadful reviews). I was told I could save loads by moving to Spark...but just doing a Google search on the company reviews (many of which are located on this website!), looks like the company should be reported to and investigated by Watchdog! I'd rather not receive regular email notifications to move to Spark when I have no intention of doing so!

Ken68

Cheap energy club shows Spark can save me over £100. Energyhepline doesn't even mention Spark in the first ten results.
Same details, so would need to check manually.

aloiseb

I have signed up for the Club - it's a great idea. I was shown a Spark deal which apparently would be £92 a year cheaper.

The only thing is, there's nowhere to factor in the Tesco Clubcard points I get from using my current supplier EON. I get about 110 clubcard points a month, which I use annually to buy RAC cover. (roadside and recovery is £32 in points) As I don't shop that much at Tesco, except petrol, I need these points...

Therefore I've set my advice point to be £100 savings as anything less than that will probably lose me money. I already lost out on my clubcard deal this time by not having quite enough for Roadside, Recovery and At home...(£48 in Tesco poins) as it's £64 :eek: to add this extra cover on.

Memo: must buy all petrol at Tesco all year.....I wish I liked their food better.

I know British Gas gives people Nectar points, and there must be other companies which are tied to loyalty schemes.
Please can the very clever people at MSE :money::money::money:find a way of factoring loyalty card points into the calculations?

ve50410

ukspid wrote: »

Well, Spark Energy was cited as being about £250 cheaper than my current provider (Scottish Power Fixed until Nov 13 - and I change every year or two), but when I ran Spark Energy's tariff through my well-established spreadsheet it came out £300 more expensive than Scottish Power. So I mandraulically checked my spreadsheet calculations with the same ....

I have had a similar problem which I have mentioned elsewhere.
I was told a alot of companies would be quite a bit cheaper than my current supplier but when I looked further into the prices, the companies were using an incorrect figure to base their calculations on. they were using a unit price 4p higher than I currently pay. Therefore most calculations were incorrect.
Having no spreadsheet but checking manually on each company's website, I gave up after 5, as all were suggesting my current rate is higher than it actually is.

So unless you take their savings estimates with a pinch of salt and look at the actual tariffs being offered, the comparison (in my view) is false.
I've been told I'm missing the point, but I still don't get it.

priorslee

aloiseb wrote: »

The only thing is, there's nowhere to factor in the Tesco Clubcard points I get from using my current supplier EON.

I know British Gas gives people Nectar points, and there must be other companies which are tied to loyalty schemes.
Please can the very clever people at MSE find a way of factoring loyalty card points into the calculations?

Even if these can't be factored in, could they be included in the comments as a potential further saving?

It looks good from what I've seen so far. My only very minor comment is that some of the tick boxes are too faint (eg the one that says I've understood the T&Cs - I had clicked the submit button before I found it!)

brizzleben

To be honest, I expected better from MSE: like others on this forum, I've found that the calculator over-estimates the savings. I entered my actual energy use and it correctly estimated the cost of my current supplier (Scottish Energy) and ir estimated my savings at between £230 and £130. However, when I went onto the websites of the top three cheapest alternatives and checked their actual tariffs, the savings were about £30 a year. Can someone from MSE explain why this can happen, not just to me but to others?