MSE News: MoneySavingExpert.com launches the 10 day big winter switch event

MillicentBystander

Cardew wrote: »

I couldn't agree more!


I do not want to give my full personal details in order to get a quote - why will my postcode not suffice?

I raised exactly the same point on here the day the CEC was launched and Martin replied to the effect that he would look into whether it was absolutely necessary and if not this requirement would be taken out, Then it all went a bit quiet It really is a strange thing when Martin's top pick comparison site has always been Energyhelpline and they require just a post code. The existence of actual addresses etc makes the info far more valuable to the company. I know Martin has stated they have 'no plans' to use the info for marketing purposes but whether that means 'ever' is another matter...

cklass

redux wrote: »

People who pay an exit penalty of £50 to commit to this new deal might find they'd have been better off overall not to move and just check their existing supplier's latest tariffs.

The exit fee is £10, not £50. The cashback will therefore more than cover the exit fee if people want to leave before the end of the tariff.

And, yes, it is possible that cheaper tariffs become available. That's a risk people take every time they decide to switch to a tariff with an exit fee. Ultimately, I think it's unlikely that a tariff cheaper than this will become available in the next couple of months. This tariff is only available for a short time, so the other providers have little incentive to beat it.

canterswest

cklass wrote: »

The exit fee is £10, not £50. The cashback will therefore more than cover the exit fee if people want to leave before the end of the tariff.

Cashback seems only available if you have not switched through CEC during the past twelve months. MSE has been answering points on this thread and so far has not said that everyone taking the collective switch receives £30 cashback.


We don't know which suppliers took part in the auction.


We don't know if there were cheaper tariffs but limited by how many could take them out.

redux

cklass wrote: »

The exit fee is £10, not £50. The cashback will therefore more than cover the exit fee if people want to leave before the end of the tariff.

And, yes, it is possible that cheaper tariffs become available. That's a risk people take every time they decide to switch to a tariff with an exit fee. Ultimately, I think it's unlikely that a tariff cheaper than this will become available in the next couple of months. This tariff is only available for a short time, so the other providers have little incentive to beat it.

I was talking about the exit fee from the previous supplier.

If someone can see a potential £50 tariff saving by switching to this, and it costs £50 to move, there would be no net saving.

And apart from these points, I'm not entirely convinced about the accuracy of comparison sites from day to day. One tariff I looked at a few days ago has a different name but the same numbers as a few days ago, or the old name has different rates than it did then. Maybe there was some hybrid or v1 and v2 for the month, and the API access either didn't pick it up or just made an error.

saver861

Well I have switched from Scottish Power to the Eon deal today. The CEC suggests a saving of £59. EnergyHelpline gives the same costings for my existing usage as the CEC. The Eon site gives me the just about the same savings at £55. All of these include the £10 paperless option.

So it does seem the CEC figures are pretty much correct. Thus with the £55 saving and £30 cashback its a goer. My existing supplier is Scottish Power on the Fixed to November 2015 - one year hence anyway - with no exit fees.

I think the points raised about better deals coming along later is mute for this particular product .. reality is that it will cover this winter only. So if you dont change now or very soon, then by the time a switch is complete most of the winter will have gone.

Only point I'm not clear about - Martin suggests he has done this deal on the basis of the numbers in CEC and email list. However, the deal is available to anyone regardless (other than the £30 cashback) - so I am a little confused as why MSE is promoting it as a deal specific for the CEC / MSE email members!!

cklass

E.ON is also offering the tariff via the collective switching initiatives being run by local councils via iChoosr, so it's definitely not exclusive to CEC. I doubt it came about because of collective switching-related bargaining, E.ON has merely come up with a tariff that undercuts its competitors and made it available through various different schemes.

canterswest

cklass wrote: »

E.ON is also offering the tariff via the collective switching initiatives being run by local councils via iChoosr, so it's definitely not exclusive to CEC. I doubt it came about because of collective switching-related bargaining, E.ON has merely come up with a tariff that undercuts its competitors and made it available through various different schemes.

MSE's terms to suppliers were that tariffs offered had to be cheapest and they must be exclusive to the CEC, or at least that's how I read the terms.

MSE published them last week as required by Ofgem on an obscure team blog that nobody reads

saver861

canterswest wrote: »

MSE's terms to suppliers were that tariffs offered had to be cheapest and they must be exclusive to the CEC, or at least that's how I read the terms.

MSE published them last week as required by Ofgem on an obscure team blog that nobody reads

Def not exclusive to CEC. Available to anyone.

I'm not sure any of the Big 6 would enter into such an arrangement in any case. CEC might have 1.5m members but that is relatively small in the grand scheme of things.

Unless anybody from MSE could clear this up?

kuepper

kuepper wrote: »

it says its available but I only switched 10 months ago, and I thought that barred me from the cashback too so I'm wondering about the accuracy of the tool???

the site should realise that though , so i could have switched then discovered afterwards I won't get the cashback?

cklass

kuepper wrote: »

the site should realise that though , so i could have switched then discovered afterwards I won't get the cashback?

Yes. I wasn't aware of this term either, but I suppose it is our responsibility to check the full terms and conditions? It should be made clearer on CEC, though.

canterswest wrote: »

MSE's terms to suppliers were that tariffs offered had to be cheapest and they must be exclusive to the CEC, or at least that's how I read the terms.

MSE published them last week as required by Ofgem on an obscure team blog that nobody reads

I have just double checked my iChoosr offer, and I was wrong, the offer isn't quite the same.

They have the same standing charge, but the iChoosr offer is the tiniest bit more expensive because they've rounded up the unit rates. On CEC, the East Midlands gas rate is 3.496p and the electricity rate is 11.036p. On iChoosr, it's 3.5p and 11.04p respectively.

E.ON therefore has technically provided CEC with the cheaper tariff, but the difference even for households considered high energy users wouldn't be more £1, so clearly CEC's large membership didn't significantly impact the offer. MSE's stipulation that they must be provided with the cheapest tariff likely meant that E.ON simply rounded up their offer to iChoosr in order to meet MSE's requirement.