New Collective Switching website

scorp10

What is collective switching?
It's a bit of a mouthful, but the concept is simple.
If consumers form a big group, they can get a better deal.
The more people join, the more bargaining power they have.
You don't even have to do any work, because we do the bargaining for you!
Collective switching has already delivered savings to over a million consumers across Germany, Holland and Australia. Local authorities have even launched successful switches in the UK.
The Big Deal aims to take it to another level.


Hi i'm scorp10, a regularish hanger about on MSE. I love this site and to give something back to the folks of MSE for the immense help, advice, jokes I've enjoyed over the years i'm asking everyone to pass the good news on about Collective Switching.


If you think this is your kind of thing sign-up for free at thisisthebigdealdotcom


Well thank you for taking your time to read this, i'm off to switch the kettle on...good luck! :beer:

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

scorp10 wrote: »

What is collective switching?
It's a bit of a mouthful, but the concept is simple.
If consumers form a big group, they can get a better deal.
The more people join, the more bargaining power they have.
You don't even have to do any work, because we do the bargaining for you!
Collective switching has already delivered savings to over a million consumers across Germany, Holland and Australia. Local authorities have even launched successful switches in the UK.
The Big Deal aims to take it to another level.


Hi i'm scorp10, a regularish hanger about on MSE. I love this site and to give something back to the folks of MSE for the immense help, advice, jokes I've enjoyed over the years i'm asking everyone to pass the good news on about Collective Switching.


If you think this is your kind of thing sign-up for free at thisisthebigdealdotcom


Well thank you for taking your time to read this, i'm off to switch the kettle on...good luck! :beer:

Which (the biggest consumer rights group) tried this with many tens of thousands of sign ups, and failed to get anything that wasn't on the market already.

A number of suppliers chose not to engage at all - there is a significant amount of admin involved when you suddenly take on 280,000 new customers, depriving those that stuck with Which of many of the cheapest tariffs.

I'd be really surprised if things were about to get any different.

scorp10

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Which (the biggest consumer rights group) tried this with many tens of thousands of sign ups, and failed to get anything that wasn't on the market already.

A number of suppliers chose not to engage at all - there is a significant amount of admin involved when you suddenly take on 280,000 new customers, depriving those that stuck with Which of many of the cheapest tariffs.

I'd be really surprised if things were about to get any different.

I'm not sure I heard about the Which collective switching attempt...but you know..times have moved on...technologies have improved..its either a stab at this or suggest everyone turn off their gas and electric for a day or something in protest...I think this might be easier :grouphug:

Nada666

scorp10 wrote: »

It's a bit of a mouthful

No it's not.

scorp10 wrote: »

If consumers form a big group, they can get a better deal.

Not really. Why settle for better when it takes thirty seconds to find the best?

scorp10 wrote: »

Local authorities have even launched successful switches in the UK.

No they haven't.

WestonDave

If you stop and think about it collective switching on a big scale can't work which is why in general it doesn't.


The admin blizzard issue has already been referred to - suppliers work on the basis of expecting a steady rate of a few switches per day not a humungous block all in one go and then nothing for 2 years - the staff resource required on that one day (or even a week if you spread it a bit) would be massive with nothing for them to do afterwards.


The other problem is that cheaper energy tends to be bought on forward contracts. Let's assume that all of a sudden EDF gets a few thousand unexpected extra customers - they'd be short on energy to sell so would have to go into the spot market to get it which means buying it at higher prices. Meanwhile British Gas have lost a few thousand customers to this deal but have committed in advance to buying the energy to supply them - they then need to sell that off at whatever they can get it for - i.e. cheaply. So whilst economies of scale can apply in some circumstances they require one single buyer not an aggregated mass of smaller buyers.


That all of course ignores the fact that our energy is generally pretty cheap by comparison with neighbouring countries - our problem is that we waste too much of it. That being the case having "high" prices helps to motivate people to reduce waste so is less bad than it might seem. With energy company profit margins being around 5% at best you are going to get it 5% cheaper (around £5 per month on an average consumption) but you could use 10% less energy by wasting less.

scorp10

WestonDave wrote: »

If you stop and think about it collective switching on a big scale can't work which is why in general it doesn't.


The admin blizzard issue has already been referred to - suppliers work on the basis of expecting a steady rate of a few switches per day not a humungous block all in one go and then nothing for 2 years - the staff resource required on that one day (or even a week if you spread it a bit) would be massive with nothing for them to do afterwards.

The other problem is that cheaper energy tends to be bought on forward contracts. Let's assume that all of a sudden EDF gets a few thousand unexpected extra customers - they'd be short on energy to sell so would have to go into the spot market to get it which means buying it at higher prices. Meanwhile British Gas have lost a few thousand customers to this deal but have committed in advance to buying the energy to supply them - they then need to sell that off at whatever they can get it for - i.e. cheaply. So whilst economies of scale can apply in some circumstances they require one single buyer not an aggregated mass of smaller buyers.


That all of course ignores the fact that our energy is generally pretty cheap by comparison with neighbouring countries - our problem is that we waste too much of it. That being the case having "high" prices helps to motivate people to reduce waste so is less bad than it might seem. With energy company profit margins being around 5% at best you are going to get it 5% cheaper (around £5 per month on an average consumption) but you could use 10% less energy by wasting less.

I personally think that something like this sends a message out to the energy suppliers that while the UK does have energy contraints the typical model of pushing prices ever upwards is a trend that they have become used to and need to get the message that something needs to be done about it. Also apart from making profits for their shareholders and investors this is an issue about helping the ordinary people of the UK.

There is no compulsion for anyone to sign upto the website. But if enough people feel the energy suppliers could do more on prices for their customers then its a platform for their voices to be heard.

JJ_Egan

With a 5% profit margin many would not bother to open such a business . Plus not a great deal of margin to reduce prices .
If anybody pushes up prices its the spot traders .

Insulate your home and find the best online deals .

Nada666

cf. a case in point

scorp10

JJ_Egan wrote: »

With a 5% profit margin many would not bother to open such a business . Plus not a great deal of margin to reduce prices .
If anybody pushes up prices its the spot traders .

Insulate your home and find the best online deals .

I dont care if they are business and they are only making 5% thats besides the point and if you read further you'll see they are making a hell of a lot more than that. Insulating and smart meters go some way towards improving matters but that doesnt deter from the fact that old people and people with young children need to turn their heating on when its cold.

What this initiative proposes is a radical rethink of how energy suppliers need to to do business with their customers. The big six know that the energy business in the UK is a huge cash cow. Look despite rising prices E.ON for example, which has eight million UK gas and electricity customers, reported a £296million profit for 2013, which was a 26% jump on the previous year, as sales rose 6% to £434m. The company raised its prices by a further 3.7% in January this year. I'm pretty sure the story will be the same for the other six as well! This is monstrous and ludicrous. Maybe as we have been blessed with an unusually mild winter (in London I felt at least) not everyone had to turn their heating up as much. Also once the bills are taken care of on DD system nobody pays any real attention anyway.

This sign-up is to show energy companies an alternative way to do business which doesn't mean the ordinary people have to be hit so hard in these times of austerity. Hopefully they might 'care' to listen even though that's not entirely their business either.

2013yearofthehouse

I had an email from energyhelpline today, asking me to sign up for Huge Switch 4, so I guess there's a few of these going around. They reckon the Huge Switch 1, 2 and 3 were a success:

http://www.energyhelpline.com/hugeswitch/fri/Domesticenergy/Domestic/GetHelp?reference=Benefits_of_The_Huge_Switch

although the individual savings were quite small.

Not sure I'd put much faith in it. The website can't even gets its table of when fixed price tariffs end e.g. Npower's Energy Online April 2014 finishes 30th April, not 31st March.

http://www.energyhelpline.com/fri/fri/domesticenergy/domestic/gethelp?reference=tariffendfebruary&utm_campaign=Mar+13+Huge+Switch+Launch&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=

Joyful

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned you cannot advertise your company on here. I for one would be concerned if you are in this business that you were not even aware of the Which collective switching as this was mentioned everywhere and had lots of publicity. How much research have you actually done?