Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

onlyfoolsandparking

Very interesting comments regarding comparison sites, I have just switched from Bulb and their 'ripoff' gas prices to Avro (9th Feb) 'Simple and superfixed' which will save me £238 (apparently) based on MY usage and I consider that a decent saving, however having read somewhere on here maybe this thread about Citizens advice comparison site I decided to explore it and I'm a bit gobsmacked, I put my figures in what I'm paying at Bulb and the saving it produced were around £390!!!!!! This is with Orbit where I must admit the unit prices are VERY cheap 2.01 approx for gas and 10.5 for electric (cant remember the exact figures) SO I did the comparison again but this time put Avro down as my supplier and the saving came up around £190, why is this?? looks to me like CEC is a waste of time and flawed, I don't know whether to cancel my switch to Avro and go with Orbit, I believe?? I could cancel as I switched on the 9th + 14 days = 23rd feb, how easy will it be to cancel switch? or should I just get up and running with Avro then switch later on in the year as the 'no exit fee' with Avro works in my favour anyway.

Am I missing something here?   

aris

So i tried the citizens advice checker - and when I put my estimated energy usage from the AVRO statement - it says I can save £178 per year - using AVRO on the same tarriff i'm on right now.  This makes no sense either.

aris

aris said:

So i tried the citizens advice checker - and when I put my estimated energy usage from the AVRO statement - it says I can save £178 per year - using AVRO on the same tarriff i'm on right now.  This makes no sense either.

Ok, never mind - I had the wrong tarriff - uSuperFixed instead of SuperFixed.  They try to make it as confusing as possible don't they.   Orbit would save me £86 per year.  Why doesn't CEC have this?

One difference with Orbit - the price is VARIABLE - not guaranteed for 12 months. 

victor2

onlyfoolsandparking said:

Very interesting comments regarding comparison sites, I have just switched from Bulb and their 'ripoff' gas prices to Avro (9th Feb) 'Simple and superfixed' which will save me £238 (apparently) based on MY usage and I consider that a decent saving, however having read somewhere on here maybe this thread about Citizens advice comparison site I decided to explore it and I'm a bit gobsmacked, I put my figures in what I'm paying at Bulb and the saving it produced were around £390!!!!!! This is with Orbit where I must admit the unit prices are VERY cheap 2.01 approx for gas and 10.5 for electric (cant remember the exact figures) SO I did the comparison again but this time put Avro down as my supplier and the saving came up around £190, why is this?? looks to me like CEC is a waste of time and flawed, I don't know whether to cancel my switch to Avro and go with Orbit, I believe?? I could cancel as I switched on the 9th + 14 days = 23rd feb, how easy will it be to cancel switch? or should I just get up and running with Avro then switch later on in the year as the 'no exit fee' with Avro works in my favour anyway.

Am I missing something here?   

The so called "savings" these sites produce, using OFGEM mandated rules, are well known to be meaningless to anyone not on a supplier's standard (ie. expensive) tariff.

Forget any supposed savings figures given and look at estimated cost for the coming year. Compare that to what you actually paid for energy consumed in the previous year. The difference is what extra (or less) you will pay IF your usage in the coming year matches your usage for the last year.

onlyfoolsandparking

That's exactly what I was thinking, why doesn't CEC show Orbit? I tend to ignore the 'potential' savings and look closely at the unit costs because IMO that's the most important, well Orbit are definitely cheaper than Avro so what do I do now, cancel the switch and go to Orbit? think I've said on here before I'm not a serial switcher BUT I'm also not scared of switching especially when the proposed savings are as big as they look.

Biggus_Dickus

Consumerist said:

Gerry1 said:

I'll rephrase my question.  If you (temporarily) edit your details to say you're with someone other than Avro, does the latest Avro tariff magically appear when you search again?  That would confirm or disprove w0z's theory.

In theory, your present supplier should have no effect on the list of tariffs available to you. Only your postcode, and possibly tariff type (e.g. E7), should have any effect on the suppliers and tariffs listed.

If you enter your present supplier as BG for example, the CEC will indeed bring up Avro’s cheapest ‘Simple&Superfixed’ tariff;...it also displays a CEC exclusive (and slightly more expensive) Avro tariff called ‘Simple&mSuperSwift’.

If you enter your present supplier as AVRO then  the CEC price comparison tables do not show any Avro tariffs,...not even the CEC exclusive ‘Simple&mSuperSwift’ tariff. Ticking the ‘tariffs from my current supplier’ box brings up a blank page.

An unsuspecting Avro customer, looking for a better deal and relying solely on the CEC, could be suckered in to a move to a cheaper tariff with different company altogether,...blissfully unaware that an even cheaper new tariff is already available from Avro because the CEC is not actually displaying it.

The CEC is something of a minefield when it comes to getting accurate and up to date price comparisons, imho. 

Biggus_Dickus

onlyfoolsandparking said:

That's exactly what I was thinking, why doesn't CEC show Orbit? I tend to ignore the 'potential' savings and look closely at the unit costs because IMO that's the most important, well Orbit are definitely cheaper than Avro so what do I do now, cancel the switch and go to Orbit? think I've said on here before I'm not a serial switcher BUT I'm also not scared of switching especially when the proposed savings are as big as they look.

If I switched from my present fixed 12-month £0 exit fees tariff to Orbit’s Vari-save Extra tariff I could potentially save £63 over the next year.

However, that Orbit tariff is ‘variable’ and could change,...up or down. I personally prefer the security of a fixed 12-months (£0 exit fee) tariff,...but there are people on here who can make a good case for either option.

As the old saying goes “you pays yer money and you takes yer choice”.

onlyfoolsandparking

victor2 said:

onlyfoolsandparking said:

Very interesting comments regarding comparison sites, I have just switched from Bulb and their 'ripoff' gas prices to Avro (9th Feb) 'Simple and superfixed' which will save me £238 (apparently) based on MY usage and I consider that a decent saving, however having read somewhere on here maybe this thread about Citizens advice comparison site I decided to explore it and I'm a bit gobsmacked, I put my figures in what I'm paying at Bulb and the saving it produced were around £390!!!!!! This is with Orbit where I must admit the unit prices are VERY cheap 2.01 approx for gas and 10.5 for electric (cant remember the exact figures) SO I did the comparison again but this time put Avro down as my supplier and the saving came up around £190, why is this?? looks to me like CEC is a waste of time and flawed, I don't know whether to cancel my switch to Avro and go with Orbit, I believe?? I could cancel as I switched on the 9th + 14 days = 23rd feb, how easy will it be to cancel switch? or should I just get up and running with Avro then switch later on in the year as the 'no exit fee' with Avro works in my favour anyway.

Am I missing something here?   

The so called "savings" these sites produce, using OFGEM mandated rules, are well known to be meaningless to anyone not on a supplier's standard (ie. expensive) tariff.

Forget any supposed savings figures given and look at estimated cost for the coming year. Compare that to what you actually paid for energy consumed in the previous year. The difference is what extra (or less) you will pay IF your usage in the coming year matches your usage for the last year.

Err yes I understand not looking at 'supposed' savings, as I've said I may not be a serial switcher but I can do the simple maths on unit/standing charge differences, example being Avro 2.4 and 13.1 (approx.) and Orbit 2.1 and 10.1 (approx.) higher standing charge with Orbit but still decent saving to be made on usage.
 

onlyfoolsandparking

Biggus_Dickus said:

onlyfoolsandparking said:

That's exactly what I was thinking, why doesn't CEC show Orbit? I tend to ignore the 'potential' savings and look closely at the unit costs because IMO that's the most important, well Orbit are definitely cheaper than Avro so what do I do now, cancel the switch and go to Orbit? think I've said on here before I'm not a serial switcher BUT I'm also not scared of switching especially when the proposed savings are as big as they look.

If I switched from my present fixed 12-month £0 exit fees tariff to Orbit’s Vari-save Extra tariff I could potentially save £63 over the next year.

However, that Orbit tariff is ‘variable’ and could change,...up or down. I personally prefer the security of a fixed 12-months (£0 exit fee) tariff,...but there are people on here who can make a good case for either option.

As the old saying goes “you pays yer money and you takes yer choice”.

Yes I'm thinking the same at the very least Avro is fixed (and cheaper for me) so bit of a risk with Orbit being variable. I think I'll let the Avro switch go through as I'm still saving moving away from Bulbs ripoff gas prices and I'll definitely keep an eye on Citizens advice comparison site.

wrongplanet

Biggus_Dickus said:

The CEC is something of a minefield when it comes to getting accurate and up to date price comparisons, imho. 

Easy enough to put together a simple spreadsheet that takes the tariff details and consumption to produce the annual and monthly costs plus take into a account any cashback. Makes comparisons easy and here it's always agreed near enough as makes no difference with any site's figures I've entered.