MSE's Cheap Energy Club: Discuss & feedback

concept

I joined the club when it was first started. My energy supplier is the Co-Op and was shown to be one of the cheapest for me. I registered with as request for advice if a saving of £75 could be achieved in the future by switching.
Recently the Co-Op have increased their prices so I thought I would login and see what the market was doing only to find that their are 6 cheaper prices available by switching the best being £386.
I have not received any alert about this so I sent an email query with a reply that I should read my FAQ's. Of course, it is not covered so I sent another email apologising for troubling them but received the same worded email reply.
So if you have been with the club for some time it would appear that if you have not received any alert it would be prudent to do your own check.

Wywth

concept wrote: »

I joined the club when it was first started. My energy supplier is the Co-Op and was shown to be one of the cheapest for me. I registered with as request for advice if a saving of £75 could be achieved in the future by switching.
Recently the Co-Op have increased their prices so I thought I would login and see what the market was doing only to find that their are 6 cheaper prices available by switching the best being £386.
I have not received any alert about this so I sent an email query with a reply that I should read my FAQ's. Of course, it is not covered so I sent another email apologising for troubling them but received the same worded email reply.
So if you have been with the club for some time it would appear that if you have not received any alert it would be prudent to do your own check.

Can you save £75 by switching?
If your annual cost is only £386 with the cheapest supplier, I suspect not

Edit:
Or are you saying it will cost you £386 per month? :eek:
Over £4600 a year would seem a heck of an increase from £1800 you were being asked for 2 years ago
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=42486574&postcount=26

But then £386 a year also seems wrong too. :huh:

Wywth

benzondog wrote: »

I joined cheap energy club, entered my actual usage amounts and was decided to go to Scottish Energy who promised to save me money.
They sent a nice welcome pack showing my new direct debit amount but it was considerably more than I used to pay.

I called them and they said they had to put me on this high tariff to start with but after the switch, they'd change it.

I'd call this mis-selling.
ON cheap energy club they clearly offered and I accepted a particular deal, but they did not and would not deliver it.

We expect this sort of dishonest behaviour from power companies, but why are MSE letting them do it through their cheap energy club?

Why have Scottish Power not put you on the tariff you requested? :huh:
Have you perhaps applied for a tariff that you don't have a suitable meter for?

I know when I was supplied by Scottish Power they had to do a bit of behind the scenes fiddling. However that was all done prior to the switch taking place, so there was no payments made. It was due to one fuel already being supplied by SP and me wishing to move the other to them. They said they could only put me on their system as a duel fuel customer when they were supplying both fuels. (this was 2-3 years back, so they may have updated their systems since)

But Scottish Power were as true to their word and put me on the desired tariff before they started to charge me. So they backdated the consumption of the fuel they already supplied to the date I applied at the new lower traiff, but of course only started billing the other fuel from the date the switch went live.

The monthly direct debit was originally calculated based on the consumption data I supplied them and the tariff I chose.

MillicentBystander

Wywth wrote: »

Can you save £75 by switching?
If your annual cost is only £386 with the cheapest supplier, I suspect not

Edit:
Or are you saying it will cost you £386 per month? :eek:
Over £4600 a year would seem a heck of an increase from £1800 you were being asked for 2 years ago
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=42486574&postcount=26

But then £386 a year also seems wrong too. :huh:

??? I'm almost certain the poster meant that they can save £386/yr by switching. And I'm also almost certain the £386/yr saving will be with the company that begins with an S and ends with a K.

Wywth

MillicentBystander wrote: »

??? I'm almost certain the poster meant that they can save £386/yr by switching. And I'm also almost certain the £386/yr saving will be with the company that begins with an S and ends with a K.

You might be right, but if the poster could now save £386, then either they didn't choose the cheapest supplier originally or with the Co-op's average 9% price increase, then that would still mean they are probably paying over £4200 a year.

MillicentBystander

You seem to be forgetting the emergence of the company beginning with S and ending with K's sudden appearance from nowhere with pricing that seems almost too cheap to be true.

And where does this £4200 come from? To test out my previous assumption I've just done a test on ukpower with Gas 25,000 Electric 6,000 (yorkshire region) which gets to £1900 on Co-Op Pioneer 4. Savings with S....K? £398! Next best saving? £200 with npower. assuming that the poster's increase was the actual 9% average Co-Op published his/her claims would appear to be more or less spot on.

Nada666

Wywth wrote: »

Can you save £75 by switching?
If your annual cost is only £386 with the cheapest supplier, I suspect not

I disagree (irrespective of the circumstances of the original case). In some cases it is easier to make an enormous (relative) saving with a very low consumption than if you are on an average usage. Things are much more chaotic at the extremes. Chances are if you are already on an average consumption and a decent tariff that is when it can be tricky to make a £75 saving.

concept

Re my original post

' that their are 6 cheaper prices available by switching the best being £386.'

I signed up for an alert for a saving of £75 or better. The £386 is an annual saving if I switch away from the Co-Op

concept

To follow up as I have now read the replies. Yes the £386 is with the supplier one would guess at but there are others in the £250-£300 range.
I did chose the cheapest at the time of joining the Club it is the Co-Op's recent 9% price increase that has led to cheaper prices being available.
However my posting was meant to point out that the Club had not emailed me an alert as stated in No. 3 of their reasons why one should join in the first place

Wywth

Spark energy were offering their current cheap tariff when the cheap energy club started.