Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

. . . This as an alternative to fathoming out how one source's claimed savings compares with another.. .

With apologies for harping on about this but I'm convinced that what people should be interested in is the comparative COSTS of the various tariffs on offer and ignoring any claims about "savings".

Sadly, too many people can't even multiply using a calculator or mobile phone let alone populate a spreadsheet with formulae.

It is a sensible solution for those who can, however.

Telegraph_Sam

Expressed rather better than my own words. You would think that the CEC or whoever would provide a simple downloadable spreadsheet template to help compare the costs.

johnbhoy70

It's not hard to do. It's just something i've never felt i've had to check in the past. The calculations are probably, and i'm guessing here, no more advanced than late primary/early secondary Arithmetic although i know figures aren't everyone's bag. It's come to something when CEC doesn't even have my tariff on it!!

Consumerist

johnbhoy70 said:

It's not hard to do. It's just something i've never felt i've had to check in the past. The calculations are probably, and i'm guessing here, no more advanced than late primary/early secondary Arithmetic although i know figures aren't everyone's bag. It's come to something when CEC doesn't even have my tariff on it!!

A spreadsheet can be helpful if you like to play around with your consumption figures but to encourage people to switch, it seems to me that the primary objective is to keep it simple.

The costs of a tariff (providing you can find it on the comparison site) is usually pretty-well accurate on all sites so comparing costs and completely ignoring any claimed savings leaves prospective customer with a simple comparison of costs - just like shopping in a supermarket or when buying a new fridge or whatever. Just about anyone can do that.

Zanzib

My year is almost up, and they sent me the new rate if I continue- £30 more than what we pay now! We're in credit too, more than our usual energy costs.
My job this weekend is to compare providers.

Telegraph_Sam

Consumerist said:

The costs of a tariff (providing you can find it on the comparison site) is usually pretty-well accurate on all sites so comparing costs and completely ignoring any claimed savings leaves prospective customer with a simple comparison of costs - just like shopping in a supermarket or when buying a new fridge or whatever. Just about anyone can do that.

Such are the variables (cash back, dual fuel, online discount etc) that can or can not be included in the search engine's calculations (have you compared the same tariff in different search engines?!) that I would even take the quoted costs with a little caution.  I use the search engine(s) purely to see which are the top runners, and download the individual quoted costs into my template for comparison purposes. Before taking reported customer service, exit fees etc into consideration.

Consumerist

Zanzib said:

My year is almost up, and they sent me the new rate if I continue- £30 more than what we pay now! We're in credit too, more than our usual energy costs.
My job this weekend is to compare providers.

Compare the annual cost of tariffs with the annual cost (not the direct debit amount) of the tariff your current provider is offering and then you shouldn't go too far wrong.

polymaff

Telegraph_Sam said:

With apologies for harping on about this but I'm convinced that for the sake of a peaceful life there just is no substitute for constructing one's own simple spreadsheet template, and running the numbers through it.

Agree, TS.  The back-of-an-envelope works quite well, too...

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

Such are the variables (cash back, dual fuel, online discount etc) that can or can not be included in the search engine's calculations (have you compared the same tariff in different search engines?!) that I would even take the quoted costs with a little caution.  I use the search engine(s) purely to see which are the top runners, and download the individual quoted costs into my template for comparison purposes. Before taking reported customer service, exit fees etc into consideration.

But shoppers can cope, albeit in varying degrees, with BOGOFs and other such supermarket discounts so they should also be able to cope with tariffs with offers and discounts.

wrongplanet

Telegraph_Sam said:

 I use the search engine(s) purely to see which are the top runners, and download the individual quoted costs into my template for comparison purposes. Before taking reported customer service, exit fees etc into consideration.

Plus you can look at the result of increasing/decreasing consumption on tariffs giving the same cost but with differing standing and unit charges - that was what made me do my spreadsheet some years back.