Cheap Energy Club - problems, and NPower

gglaze

Hi guys,
I'm a complete noob to all this switching providers business, but I thought I'd give it a go since apparently I'm paying way too much. I currently have Southern Electric for gas, and British Gas for electricity (no idea how that happened but that's what there was when I moved in a few years ago).

So, I found this new Cheap Energy Club thing on the site, and I'm a big fan of the MSE site so I thought I'd give it a go.

First of all, I can't find any place to "contact" anyone or report bugs/issues, but if anyone happens to be reading this, please note the site doesn't work properly for me in Chrome, and so I was forced to use IE (after fiddling for ages and finally realising this was the issue).

Now, here's what happened. I did the whole thing online, entered all my details, worked out my usage, and the site informed me that my best option was to switch to "GO SAVE" tarrif with nPower, using "Dual Tarrif" to get both gas and elec on one bill. So I submitted the application and thought everything was good to go. Apparently I provided the gas supply number at the time of the application, but not the elctricity supply number. So I got a subsequent letter from NPower, requesting me to call in with this detail.

Unfortunately I left it for about a week before I had a chance to call in. I'm not sure if that's the reason why, but apparently my "contract" has been "cancelled" - or at least that's what NPower told me when I called in to provide the info. They also said they couldn't access the info about why the contract was cancelled, due to data protection or whatever. They then proceeded to pass me over to their sales line to proceed with what was apparently a new application. I checked online and it is still showing "You currently have 1 active application", so I guess this "cancellation" info hasn't gotten back to the Cheap Energy Club site yet. Anyway I couldn't be bothered to do this all over again, so I went ahead and let them do the application over the phone, gave them all the details, and got the same tarrif, with the same estimated bills (which are a good 30% cheaper than what I pay currently). So I confirmed it all. I think (unfortunately) this means I've let NPower poach a sale/commission back away from MSE, which I would have liked to not let happen.

Anyway, the thing I did notice - on the Cheap Energy Club website there is something about "You'll get £30 cashback 3 months after switching". I think this is a specific bonus for using the website to swtich, which I will miss out on now. But over the phone, the rep told me that there are also some other discounts - namely something about a £100 yearly discount for direct debit? and another £5 discount (monthly?) discount for having the dual supply. I'm not sure if these were also quoted by the Cheap Energy Club site when I applied a few weeks ago, but I assume they would be included regardless. There was also something about a "GO SAVE" regular versus "GO SAVE NS" which has no standing charge. The one on Cheap Energy club is the "GO SAVE", and I think the one they sold me is actually the "GO SAVE NS" which maybe works out better?

Anyway I'm confused about it all, but the bills she quoted me sound a lot lower than what I pay now so I guess I'm happy enough. But I thought I would just post all this as a first-timer's experience with switching, and also in case anyone from MSE is reading.

If there's some way I can still get my £30 cashback in addition to all this, of course I'd be happy to know about it

Wywth

gglaze wrote: »

First of all, I can't find any place to "contact" anyone or report bugs/issues,

The feedback thread is here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4431265

Wywth

gglaze wrote: »

So I confirmed it all. I think (unfortunately) this means I've let NPower poach a sale/commission back away from MSE, which I would have liked to not let happen.

Don't worry, I don't think Martin will lose too much sleep over the loss of a possible bit of commission - he got £87million for this site as it is

Anyone has the option of going direct to the supplier, or better via another cashback or comparison site which is often much more profitable than the £30 MSM/MSE cheap energy club offer anyway. Some cashback sites offer over 100% of any commission.

Wywth

gglaze wrote: »

... But over the phone, the rep told me that there are also some other discounts - namely something about a £100 yearly discount for direct debit? and another £5 discount (monthly?) discount for having the dual supply. ...

These are discounts provided by the supplier according to the terms of your tariff. You get these however you switch to that tariff.

Wywth

gglaze wrote: »

The one on Cheap Energy club is the "GO SAVE", and I think the one they sold me is actually the "GO SAVE NS" which maybe works out better?

Unlikely, unless you are a very low user.
Use any comparison site to find out.
If it is, give nPower a call ... or just call them anyway to find out

Wywth

gglaze wrote: »

Anyway I'm confused about it all, but the bills she quoted me sound a lot lower than what I pay now so I guess I'm happy enough.

That's the important thing.
It's not vital to get the very best, lowest cost deal. If you are saving a decent few quid anyway, that's gotta be good, yeah?

If you use the cheap energy club, your tariff will be reviewed on a monthly basis and if there is a cheaper option, you'll get alerted anyway (subject to any minimum saving you set).

So if you are not on the cheapest possible deal, you'll be alerted in about a month anyway