MSE's Cheap Energy Club: Discuss & feedback

Wendy_MB

I have joined the club and entered my gas and elec usage (based on an average of my years usage for 2012). I paid £135 per month to Eon for all of last year for this usage, which totals £1620 and your site is comparing prices and telling me that I only paid £233.44 per year for my energy???

Please help as I don't know from this if I will benefit from switching to NPower like it is telling me to or if your site is wrong in this case?

leadhead

SSS999 wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Could I suggest that the Cheap Energy Club offers advice to members on what to do if they are paying a much higher monthly direct debit amount than the calculator says they should?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I have just registered and put my details into the calculator. I read both my meters every week so I know exactly how much gas and electricity I have used in the last year. I’m on the best deal at the moment, but the calculator says I should be paying £31 a month, and I’m actually paying £116! I am going to contact my provider (Scottish Power), but in my experience they are usually very reluctant to reduce the monthly direct debit amount. Is there any way I can use the Cheap Energy Club calculator as leverage in my discussion with them?[/FONT]

I cant imagine the £31 being correct.....You say you know exactly how much you use...I use roughly 15000kw gas and 5000kw of electricity a year, and I pay roughly £100 a month.....How much are Scottish Power charging you.....mine is correct......I am also with Scottish Power on their Online Nov13 tarrif

I think the calculator you have used is incorrect....

Mine comes out unbeatable, Spark being £29 more expensive.

amancalledchuda

My immediate comment would be a request for the facility to edit our details.

When signing up, I initially went for:

"Only notify you when you could save: £75 per year" (which was the default, I think.)

But now I'd like to change that - but there doesn't seem to be any 'Edit Preferences' link.

Am I missing something, or does this need to be added?

newleaf

Spark showed up as £30 cheaper for me, but I've never heard of them and I'm disinclined to switch. As a previous poster said, their website is unhelpful enough to make me wary.
My understanding of the Edf Blue + Price Promise tariff I'm on at the moment is that Edf will notify me if I can save by switching elsewhere.

birdy1987

No savings for me...my address isn't listed

tallgareth

The tool appears to have errors.

I'm on EDF Fixed Price 2014 tariff for elec and gas. The tool calculated that my monthly cost is £181, but I calculate it to be only £88 (using the tariff and standing charge figures on my bill)

If the tool is getting the cost of your current usage wrong, the comparison is completely misleading. People could end up switching based on incorrect information, and end up on a more expensive tariff.

The tool should have a big red warning on it stating that it's only beta and that calculated figures may not be correct.

Atidi

Wendy_MB wrote: »

I have joined the club and entered my gas and elec usage (based on an average of my years usage for 2012). I paid £135 per month to Eon for all of last year for this usage, which totals £1620 and your site is comparing prices and telling me that I only paid £233.44 per year for my energy???

Please help as I don't know from this if I will benefit from switching to NPower like it is telling me to or if your site is wrong in this case?

Enter you anticipated annual consumption in kWh for the most accurate results.

These figures should be on your E.on bill ... or just give them a call and ask

Atidi

skkamh wrote: »

Specifically: my postcode is CW8
Current supplier (no pun intended) is EON
elec kwh 6,917 per year
gas kwh 60,766 per year

:eek:
Are you sure those figures are correct?
That would be costing you about £3500 a year - about 3x the average

The average annual household consumption is 3300kWh of electricity and 16,500kWh of gas

In particular, you may want to double check you are being charged correctly for gas. BBC Watchdog highlighted about 5 years ago how some people were being charged 3x more for gas than they were supposed to be.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/consumer-advice-reading-meters

Amontylado

Hello - I have input my exact details for gas and electricity usage over the past year and the calculator tells me I can save £383 by switching to a different supplier (Spark) to pay £160 per month. Well as I currently pay Eon £132 per month and my account is in credit even after the cold winter period I don't see how this can be correct. I have double checked the information I entered and it is definitely right. I think there may be a bug in the calculation tool.

Wywth

Amontylado wrote: »

Hello - I have input my exact details for gas and electricity usage over the past year and the calculator tells me I can save £383 by switching to a different supplier (Spark) to pay £160 per month. Well as I currently pay Eon £132 per month and my account is in credit even after the cold winter period I don't see how this can be correct. I have double checked the information I entered and it is definitely right. I think there may be a bug in the calculation tool.

I think you would need to provide the following information if you want anyone to check it out for you.

i.e.
1. What is the annual usage figures you used (entering these in kWh is the only way to get an accurate output)
2. What supply region are you in (or first part of your postcode)
3. What is your current tariff

Don't be misled by monthly amounts paid by DD. Perhaps you already have an accrued credit on your account? Perhaps you are builing up a debt? Perhaps the DD has not been increased to reflect recent price rises? Perhaps a new supplier does not charge you 1/12 of the annual bill initially if you join them in winter? (It tends to be the samller suppliers that do this as they don't like you to be in debt)