MSE's Cheap Energy Club: Discuss & feedback

tallgareth

ernie-money wrote: »

I thought the same, but when I looked in to it further it turned out to be my gas usage that was creating the miscalculation. I had googled how to convert gas units to kwh, but apparently there are 2 different calculations, depending on whether you have a 4 or a 5 dial gas meter, and I was using the wrong one. It would make it so much easier if you could base the usage on gas units, instead of kwh's, or if the site would do the conversion for you...

My bill quotes gas usage in kWh, so the figures I entered were correct.

However, what figures I enter are irrelavent. I could enter 100 for elec and 100 for gas, and the tool still calculates the cost wrong. It has the tariffs incorrect.

This means that the tool is dangerous, as it is recommending people switch to what it says is a cheaper tariff, when in fact it is more expensive.

Former_MSE_Archna

tallgareth wrote: »

My bill quotes gas usage in kWh, so the figures I entered were correct.

However, what figures I enter are irrelavent. I could enter 100 for elec and 100 for gas, and the tool still calculates the cost wrong. It has the tariffs incorrect.

This means that the tool is dangerous, as it is recommending people switch to what it says is a cheaper tariff, when in fact it is more expensive.

Could you email energyclub at moneysavingexpert dot com with the figures and tariffs you're entering so we can check it out.

Have you factored in the 10% ish price rises that have happened in the last few months? As your most recent bills are unlikely to include those.

Thanks

dodecca

Neither of my tariffs were featured in the drop-down menus. Your auto-response was that you were looking into it. How will I know when it is worth my time to go back and fill in the whole form again?! Thanks. Keep up the (almost always) good work!

samj3

tallgareth wrote: »

My bill quotes gas usage in kWh, so the figures I entered were correct.

However, what figures I enter are irrelavent. I could enter 100 for elec and 100 for gas, and the tool still calculates the cost wrong. It has the tariffs incorrect.

This means that the tool is dangerous, as it is recommending people switch to what it says is a cheaper tariff, when in fact it is more expensive.

Energy Club is a great idea but I seem to be having very similar issues.
Edf customer with online account that I have just updated with new reading and received updated bill for. I used actual Kwh per year amounts for both fuels, but when checking quotes on actual provider sites the differences are worrying.
Example: energy club price for scottish power online fixed sept 14: saving £70/year, total cost £1158/year
scottish power price online fixed sept 14: saving £90.69, total cost £1379.72.
Energy use report from edf website (VERY handy tool!) gives forecast for next 12mths on current tariff of £1144.82.
Spark (cheapest but would not consider) given by energy club as £1059/year.
Will stay where I am for now, but hope glitches will be ironed out so I don't need to manually calculate everything to be sure.

leohornbill

Wywth wrote: »

How much cheaper are the other tariffs?
Are those other tariffs fixed (and if not would you be happy to be on a variable tariff)?

Thanks for the response. The biggest savers were variable (£110 on the infamous Spark, up to £75 on others) but there was a £49 saving on an EDF Energy Fixed deal. I will stay where I am as it is not worth changing again.

Wywth

leohornbill wrote: »

Thanks for the response. The biggest savers were variable (£110 on the infamous Spark, up to £75 on others) but there was a £49 saving on an EDF Energy Fixed deal. I will stay where I am as it is not worth changing again.

It's not worth saving £110 per year? :eek:

Oh well, your money... but not for long :cool:

clairelh

Having just received my latest bill I thought I'd do a comparison with the Energy Club tool.

Based on the annual usage figures I could save up to £248. For some reason switching suppliers gives me the heebie-jeebies - we were 'victims' of a sales agents using a fake signature to supposedly sign us up years ago, and this has make me avoid anything to do with switching since - but I just can't let saving £21 per month pass. Just need to decide to go with a fixed tariff or the cheapest...

Pat_c

Joined the club and checked out the details - looks like I could save and the best bet was advertised as £70 cashback after 3 months ....went to the best site to read "up to £40 cashback" available

Sad that an MSE product should fail so much, hopefully not a function of becoming a money supermarket product

victor2

clairelh wrote: »

Having just received my latest bill I thought I'd do a comparison with the Energy Club tool.

Based on the annual usage figures I could save up to £248. For some reason switching suppliers gives me the heebie-jeebies - we were 'victims' of a sales agents using a fake signature to supposedly sign us up years ago, and this has make me avoid anything to do with switching since - but I just can't let saving £21 per month pass. Just need to decide to go with a fixed tariff or the cheapest...

If you are going to make a saving anyway, I'd be leaning towards a fixed tariff. At least then you will not be concerned with utility price increases during the duration of the agreement. Of course, there's the (slim, very slim) possibility prices could fall during the contract and leave you paying more than others. To ease that concern, look at what the penalties are for leaving the fixed tariffs that interest you. If prices fall enough to make that worthwhile, you're covered.
Variable tariffs will always be the lower cost option at any one point in time, but I've found without fail, that I've eventually been paying unbeatable rates as I've got further through the fixed tariffs I've chosen.

muffle_2

I think the Energy Club is a great idea, but in practise for me the results are inaccurate.

I entered my actual usage in kWh, and the energy club website suggested savings of over £400/yr with Spark and £67 with nPower. When I used these company's own sites, entering the same figures, the actual results were £87 cheaper with Spark, and £248 more expensive with nPower. I decided not to switch.

I hope these inaccuracies can be corrected.

Steve