Switching from Ovo to Sainsburys-CONFUSED

paisleybuddy

Currently with OVO but according to The Cheap Energy Club would be better off switching to Sainsburys Energy price fixed to December 2015 saving £131 (plus also qualify for warm home discount-currently not available with OVO) Confused because when checking standing charge it seems to be cheaper with OVO for both electricity and gas. Sainsburys only seems to be cheaper in the Gas unit price with OVO cheaper with electricity unit price. HELP I don't know what to do whether to switch to Sainsburys or stay with OVO.
Thanks

molerat

Are you on a fixed tariff, if so the confusion of CEC strikes again. The CEC comparison automatically puts you onto the standard rate at the end and calculates your year from today at that part and part figure. CEC says I can save £26 pa with an annual charge of £798 by changing my gas supplier, my curerent gas cost is £792 pa but ends in June with a £30 exit fee. Use one of the other sites, much more user friendly. It could be that the higher charges of one fuel is more than offset by the cheapness of the other. My last comparison worked like that but by changing to separate suppliers the saving was even higher so look at single fuels, in many cases it will be way cheaper than dual fuel.

victor2

Put your annual kWh usage into another comparison site, such as uSwitch. Don't take too much notice of what CEC says you can save, you know your current annual cost and when your tariff ends, just look at what other suppliers will cost you going forward.

It is now cheaper to go with different suppliers for gas and electricity. The dual fuel discounts have largely gone thanks to Ofgem insisting on "simpler" tariffs.
You just have to decide if it is worth the hassle of managing two separate contracts for a relatively small saving.

System

MSE is aware of this issue but states that it is complying with OFGEM's rules. Run your projected consumption through a couple of other comparison websites and see what you get.

teddysmum

I have been looking at figures in the last few days (using tariff and offer details from sites and not relying on comparison sites) and find that, for me, Sainsburys, Co-op and OVO are the cheapest for me and are very close in overall price, when considering that Co-op give no dual fuel discount (but you can earn dividend), Sainsburys offer a £15 dual fuel discount (I haven't checked but they probably offer Nectar points) and OVO offer a £60 discount, paid at £5 /month for a paperless account and also 3% interest on any over payments.

victor2

OVO's 3% interest is a fine example of how Ofgem's meddling has made the tariffs more complicated to compare.
OVO will credit your account with 3% (annualised) interest on the statement's starting balance, if it is in credit. But if you get so much in credit that you request a refund, they will deduct any interest paid. Their T&Cs also say they will only pay interest on the amount you are above your monthly DD, although in my case it was 3% on the whole credit balance. Put that into a comparison calculation!