Add your feedback on energy supplier Zog Energy

Neil_Jones

Well my ultra cheap tariff that I jumped on last summer when everything bottomed out is due to expire in June, so I am now in my switching window.  And as expected log on this morning and oh look, a lovely "Renewal email" from Zog, at 5:07am this morning.

Pity the prices go up, though I have noticed there is literally sod all difference in the unit rate between Mercury 12 v45 and Mercury 24 v31.  The difference in the unit rate for me between the two is literally 0.0002p.  Standing charge on Mercury 24 is slightly higher at 4p a day.  It might be a sign of where things are going trend wise since their Saturn 24 offering is more expensive than the variable tariff in the unit rate, albeit by just under 1/100th of a penny.

Zog is not the cheapest for me, Neo Energy came cheapest (at some ridiculous rate that was cheaper than I was already paying, so I doubt its sustainable long term, I learnt from Outfox the Market not to fall for that again), but Zog is second and I will almost certainly be renewing with them.  The way things are going it might be considered a luxury to have a gas unit rate below 3p per kWh, so decision is whether to have a one or two year fix.  Of course if markets drop again and the net saving is more than £30 it's always worth looking at jumping.

norvic

My current 12-month contract with Zog has just ended, and I would normally seek a further 12-month fix. I am hesitant, however, because summer is not far off and I had it in mind that prices tend to drop during the summer months. Would I be wrong to imagine that, can anyone say? So for the present I have allowed my tariff to roll over to the variable Juniper in the hope that prices will soon start to fall - or is that a vain hope?!

As to my estimation of Zog, I concur with all the many positive comments posted. In my experience it is an excellent firm, and I can't understand why, in the light of so much acclaim, MSE doesn't award five stars.

Neil_Jones

norvic said:

As to my estimation of Zog, I concur with all the many positive comments posted. In my experience it is an excellent firm, and I can't understand why, in the light of so much acclaim, MSE doesn't award five stars.

They did. It was rated 5 stars on the Energy Club.  For some reason it got wiped.

Re: prices, bear in mind a lot of business was closed last spring/summer, so the lack of demand meant oil prices bottomed out at something ridiculous like -$38 a barrel.  They were effectively paying you to take it, as they had so much oil, not enough room to store it, and so it pushed prices down quickly.

As businesses and economies reopened demand came back and that pushed prices back up again, and that is almost certainly going to be the trend.  If you see my post above about tariff comparisons there is next to no difference (in my case, yours may be slightly different) between Saturn 24 and Juniper.  Since 2 year fixes tend to be higher cost wise generally and they're not in this case, it may suggest where Zog think (or maybe know, since energy companies buy this stuff months in advance) where things are going.

Patr100

Neil_Jones said:

norvic said:

As to my estimation of Zog, I concur with all the many positive comments posted. In my experience it is an excellent firm, and I can't understand why, in the light of so much acclaim, MSE doesn't award five stars.

They did. It was rated 5 stars on the Energy Club.  For some reason it got wiped.

Re: prices, bear in mind a lot of business was closed last spring/summer, so the lack of demand meant oil prices bottomed out at something ridiculous like -$38 a barrel.  They were effectively paying you to take it, as they had so much oil, not enough room to store it, and so it pushed prices down quickly.

As businesses and economies reopened demand came back and that pushed prices back up again, and that is almost certainly going to be the trend.  If you see my post above about tariff comparisons there is next to no difference (in my case, yours may be slightly different) between Saturn 24 and Juniper.  Since 2 year fixes tend to be higher cost wise generally and they're not in this case, it may suggest where Zog think (or maybe know, since energy companies buy this stuff months in advance) where things are going.

Sorry, still not clear where you think Zog thinks "things are going""? 
If the Zog  longer term fix is relatively lower , as you say in this case, surely that suggests prices that they expect to buy in advance, won't rise significantly within the foreseeable longer term.

Neil_Jones

Perhaps I didn't explain it clearly.

Normally in a 2 year fix you pay more because the provider factors in potential rises in the cost of the energy over that period.  The fact the price difference between Saturn 24 and Juniper is negligible could (key word) be seen as prices may have peaked at this time.  Normally a variable/standard tariff is quite pricey on its own and in previous incarnations Zog was exactly the same.

Of course it could just be they haven't updated it yet.

Patr100

Neil_Jones said:

Perhaps I didn't explain it clearly.

Normally in a 2 year fix you pay more because the provider factors in potential rises in the cost of the energy over that period.  The fact the price difference between Saturn 24 and Juniper is negligible could (key word) be seen as prices may have peaked at this time.  Normally a variable/standard tariff is quite pricey on its own and in previous incarnations Zog was exactly the same.

Of course it could just be they haven't updated it yet.

Yes, I  realise that but preceding that with "As businesses and economies reopened demand came back and that pushed prices back up again, and that is almost certainly going to be the trend. " implied the opposite. 

Neil_Jones

Yeah I see your point now, my bad

norvic

I appreciate the foregoing responses to my earlier post, from which I infer that prices are more likely to go down than up in the short term (if, however, I have misunderstood then someone please disabuse me of my misunderstanding).

Given the present uncertainty I had thought of moving to the Saturn 12 tariff which, although a fixed tariff and lower than Juniper, does not levy an exit fee and would leave me to switch again without penalty to a cheaper tariff should prices fall during the summer.

Any thoughts?

JJ_Egan

I took the view that prices will rise , even though they may dip over the summer .

Signed up to Zog two year fix as it was only £30 a year more expensive .

GunJack

JJ_Egan said:

I took the view that prices will rise , even though they may dip over the summer .

Signed up to Zog two year fix as it was only £30 a year more expensive .

I almost did that, but that would have left me to really HAVE to keep separate suppliers next year, so decided against it and see what next year brings