Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

onlyfoolsandparking

Telegraph_Sam said:

Myself I can't see that dogmatically focusing on standing charges is other than a red herring since you are dealing with a trade-off between the two variables. If getting the best deal is important then there is no substitute for putting one's own forecast consumption values into a search engine, and preferably a spreadsheet also, to do the number crunching. I have never gone further than that along the "separate suppliers" route. This may generate additional savings but is it worth the hassle? Leaving one supplier at the end of a contract (and agreeing on who owes whom how much) can be traumatic enough, with two it could double the agony ..

You make a good point especially regarding the separate supplier route. I've been quite lucky regarding switches, all have been hassle free (up to now of course). I wouldn't say I'm overly focused on standing charges, it's just whilst reading (skim reading usually) some threads where posters have said paying £20-30 a year more on standing charges works out cheaper when your unit rate is 1p less if your a high user gets the brain ticking over. 

I agree there is a trade-off between a good supplier and the out and out cheapest, I can see there are cheaper available than Avro for my usage but I have no complaints about them at the moment and I definitely feel I'm getting the best price for my small amount of effort I'm willing to put in chasing best prices, just curious what the 'real' number crunching savers thought of higher standing charges vs lower unit prices.

Telegraph_Sam

" what the 'real' number crunching savers thought of higher standing charges vs lower unit prices." ... which is precisely what any decent search engine and/or a simple formula on a spreadsheet should tell you!

Talldave

onlyfoolsandparking said:
just curious what the 'real' number crunching savers thought of higher standing charges vs lower unit prices.

I crunch numbers in a spreadsheet.  Standing charges vs unit rate is irrelevant to me, it's just part of the cost calculation.  Of course, as a high user I end up using suppliers with the lowest unit rates and standing charges are irrelevant. 

The only use case where you might need to consider the balance between the two is when you forsee a significant change in your consumption

Consumerist

In general, you only pay 365 daily charges per year (per fuel) but, for most people, the unit charges run in to several thousands per year. This makes the overall cost far more sensitive to changes in the unit (kWh) charges.

polymaff

Talldave said:

The only use case where you might need to consider the balance between the two is when you forsee a significant change in your consumption

Which happens every year for just about everybody.  I switched from AVRO to SO during autumn as SO was a cheaper gas / more expensive electricity offering, then back to AVRO in the spring.  Saved a bit more than the SO £20 exit fee - not sure that I'll bother again. ...

Talldave

polymaff said:

Talldave said:

The only use case where you might need to consider the balance between the two is when you forsee a significant change in your consumption

Which happens every year for just about everybody.  I switched from AVRO to SO during autumn as SO was a cheaper gas / more expensive electricity offering, then back to AVRO in the spring.  Saved a bit more than the SO £20 exit fee - not sure that I'll bother again. ...

Those of us who use separate suppliers don't have to worry about switching gymnastics like that.  Just pick cheapest deals for the year ahead. And again, even when I've jumped ship it's because the unit rate has gone down - standing charge still irrelevant. 

I would guess that most homes' consumption is consistent year in year out with slight variations dependent on weather. 

polymaff

Talldave said:

...cheapest deals for the year ahead. ...  year in year out  ...

My point is not to do with years, but part years.

I would agree that folk can get obsessed with fixed charges, though.

And marketing departments take them to the cleaners. ...

Telegraph_Sam

" .. obsessed .." .  Not to overlook that provided you haven't been taken to the cleaners in the first place, the actual net LSD spreadsheet savings that can be achieved by switching (in contrast to what is claimed) in many cases don't amount to much, regardless of whether these come from fixed or variable charges - the chances are that one would tend to balance the other.

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

" .. obsessed .." .  Not to overlook that provided you haven't been taken to the cleaners in the first place, the actual net LSD spreadsheet savings that can be achieved by switching (in contrast to what is claimed) in many cases don't amount to much, regardless of whether these come from fixed or variable charges - the chances are that one would tend to balance the other.

I think the overall objective is to avoid being taken to the cleaners when your current fix ends. The differences between the options available to you might be small but the consequence of being put on a default tariff is something quite different, methinks...

In an upward-moving market, it is not uncommon for there to be no actual savings to be made - but there are pitfalls to avoid.

polymaff

Telegraph_Sam said:

... savings that can be achieved by switching (in contrast to what is claimed) in many cases don't amount to much ...

Don't let Martin see that ...