Price Comparison Sites - How Many Check That They Get Lower Energy Bills

Richard741

I’ve just been on the Money Supermarket website to get cheaper gas & electricity prices. They gave me several choices which were going to save me £200 pa +-. I went to the Npower site to get the most competitive unit cost details & any other discounts – duel fuel, monthly DD etc. I compared them with my present supplier’s unit costs. To my surprise my present supplier’s unit costs were lower than the NPower unit costs. Can anyone tell me how I could achieve the stated savings? DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK WHEN SWITCHING SUPPLIES. There would appear to be some “holes” in the price comparison system, so you might not be making the savings which you think you are.

Cardew

The first point to be aware of is that all of these comparison websites are driven by one objective - to get you to change supplier and hence get their commission. Why else would they offer the service?

Whilst they would get in trouble if they gave factually incorrect information, they do everthing possible to get around that petty restriction.(being factual that is!)

They don't have all the tariffs on their data base for example. So the tariff that you have may not be the one they use for comparison purposes.

They can restrict your choice of company. Ebico for example(an excellent company that last year was very competitive - and may be again next month) do not pay commission to these companies - so were excluded by some sites on spurious grounds.

full-time-mum

Richard741 wrote: »

I’ve just been on the Money Supermarket website to get cheaper gas & electricity prices. They gave me several choices which were going to save me £200 pa +-. I went to the Npower site to get the most competitive unit cost details & any other discounts – duel fuel, monthly DD etc. I compared them with my present supplier’s unit costs. To my surprise my present supplier’s unit costs were lower than the NPower unit costs. Can anyone tell me how I could achieve the stated savings? DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK WHEN SWITCHING SUPPLIES. There would appear to be some “holes” in the price comparison system, so you might not be making the savings which you think you are.

You will also get better/more realistic results if you type in your useage rather than the monetry bill values - I know it is a bit more hassle as I'm sure the bills are designed to make sure you can't do this easily!

When entering the amount you have paid, you are entering values based on last years prices. The comparision sites then work out your useage but based on current prices. The end result is that they underestimate the amount of fuel you have used.

ie: Last year, I spent £100 at £1 per unit which would be 100 units.
I enter £100 but the comparison site has a per unit value at this years unit price of £2 so it will base its comparisions on a usage of 50 units.

Having said that though, you should still double check.

Richard741

full-time-mum wrote: »

You will also get better/more realistic results if you type in your useage rather than the monetry bill values - I know it is a bit more hassle as I'm sure the bills are designed to make sure you can't do this easily!

When entering the amount you have paid, you are entering values based on last years prices. The comparision sites then work out your useage but based on current prices. The end result is that they underestimate the amount of fuel you have used.

ie: Last year, I spent £100 at £1 per unit which would be 100 units.
I enter £100 but the comparison site has a per unit value at this years unit price of £2 so it will base its comparisions on a usage of 50 units.

Having said that though, you should still double check.

I suppose I'm one of the "sad" people as I know exactly how many KWh I've used for the last 365 days. So I had an accurate comparrison.

ray_roughmoose

Even using usage as a baseline, Energyhelpline are overstating my savings as the standing charge and unit tariffs they quote for my existing product are wrong. I've been back to my supplier to double check the product I'm on and I would actually lose money if I switched to their recommendation.

As they say in the States, "do the math" - don't take their word for it.

MoneyMiser

IMOH if you select the correct tariff you are on and enter your annual consumption in kWh then the saving you get will be accurate enough.

Cardew - Ebico for example(an excellent company that last year was very competitive - and may be again next month) do not pay commission to these companies - so were excluded by some sites on spurious grounds.

I asked a couple of comparrison sites why they were no longer showing EBICo and was told that they are an agent of Southern Electric and they don't deal with agents, is this true?

Richard741 - I went to the Npower site to get the most competitive unit cost details & any other discounts – duel fuel, monthly DD etc. I compared them with my present supplier’s unit costs. To my surprise my present supplier’s unit costs were lower than the NPower unit costs. Can anyone tell me how I could achieve the stated savings?

Its not just about the Unit Costs though is it? The company may offer larger discounts for MDD and managing the account online or a larger yearly refund.

I usually use around three or four comparrison sites with the same data and more or less get exactly the same result. Then its just a case of who is offering the most cash back :j

Cardew

MoneyMiser wrote: »

I asked a couple of comparrison sites why they were no longer showing EBICo and was told that they are an agent of Southern Electric and they don't deal with agents, is this true?

My understanding is that Ebico are a separate company(with completely different tariffs) and it is only their billing that is handled by Southern Electric.

It is what I meant by excluding them for spurious reasons.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if Ebico gave them commission they would be included.