Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

2010

Biggus_Dickus said:

Ref my earlier post about a possible switch away from Avro ‘Simple&Flow12M’;...I based my £170 saving on figures (Symbio & Zog) from the Citizens Advice comparison site. However, it’s complete bollox because the cheapest three Symbio leccy tariffs on CAB don’t actually exist when you access the Symbio website directly.

The cheapest 12month/fixed tariff that Symbio actually offer is over £100 more expensive than the cheapest Symbio tariff listed on the CAB comparison site,...what’s that all about?

CAB was always my initial go-to site but I haven’t used it for a while. By that measure, as a comparison site, it’s apparently now as much use as the ‘Cheap Energy Club’!...which is disappointing.

I guess the upshot is that if I do move from Avro Simple&Flow12M to Symbio for leccy and Zog for gas I’ll only be about £65/yr better off. Hardly seems worth the hassle. 

https://switch.which.co.uk/

yelias

Biggus_Dickus said:

Ref my earlier post about a possible switch away from Avro ‘Simple&Flow12M’;...I based my £170 saving on figures (Symbio & Zog) from the Citizens Advice comparison site. However, it’s complete bollox because the cheapest three Symbio leccy tariffs on CAB don’t actually exist when you access the Symbio website directly.

The cheapest 12month/fixed tariff that Symbio actually offer is over £100 more expensive than the cheapest Symbio tariff listed on the CAB comparison site,...what’s that all about?

CAB was always my initial go-to site but I haven’t used it for a while.

...

Perhaps it's an exclusive tariff not available direct from the supplier?



Good luck with that as far as Symbio are concerned. The tariff will probably have been revised 3 times over and removed from the comparison site by the time you get any response; a response that probably won't address the question you pose.

I would always advise using 2-3 Ofgem accredited comparison sites to try and find a consistent result ... or possibly hit lucky with an exclusively available tariff that a particular comparison site will actually switch you to.

"Ofgem-accredited price comparison websites

• Energy Helpline 
• Energylinx 
• The Energy Shop 
• Money Supermarket 
• My Utility Genius
• Runpath
• Simply Switch
• Switch Gas and Electric
• Quotezone 
• Unravel It 
• Uswitch 

These websites meet our code of practice and will carry our hallmark: The Confidence Code."

Biggus_Dickus

Ref my earlier post regarding my proposed switch away from Avro ‘Simple&Fow12M’ tariff which starts on 10.8.21

After much consideration and comparison site research it appears that I’ll remain with Avro despite the 33% price uplift from my present Simple&Superglow tariff. My D/D will go from £100/month to £133/month.

There are a few options that would save me a few quid but not enough to tempt me away from a 12-month fixed tariff with £0 exit fees such as Simple&Fow12M offers.

Who knows, prices may fall in the coming months;...I live in hope!    (thanks to all for the replies to my earlier post, btw)

p.s. I’m conversant with how the price comparison sites work (or don’t work!) and I’ve used them on and off for donkeys years but tbh I haven’t used them much in recent months. However, one thing that’s very apparent is that there now appears to be scant consensus across the websites as to which was my best ‘whole of market’ tariff;...the recommended tariffs are all over the place. Even the mighty CAB, which was once the Holy Grail, now seems to be shot full of holes in terms of accuracy and up-to-date tariffs. No doubt cv19 will be to blame.

 

Consumerist

Biggus_Dickus said:

. . . However, one thing that’s very apparent is that there now appears to be scant consensus across the websites as to which was my best ‘whole of market’ tariff;...the recommended tariffs are all over the place. Even the mighty CAB, which was once the Holy Grail, now seems to be shot full of holes in terms of accuracy and up-to-date tariffs. No doubt cv19 will be to blame

I think the situation has been made worse for consumers because energy suppliers can now make exclusive deals with individual comparison sites. In the old days you needed to get a quote from each energy company; nowadays you need to get a quote from every comparison site to find the best deal.
I guess this is the price we pay for a competitive market.

Telegraph_Sam

May be the way to look at it is to accept that there comes a point where it is just not worth hunting down THE cheapest deal at any one time  and settle instead for one that rates as "good" in one or two search engine rankings. Otherwise it becomes a case of ranking the search engines themselves which defeats the object of the exercise.
Re OFGEM-accredited search engines, is MSE CEC not one of these?

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

. . . Re OFGEM-accredited search engines, is MSE CEC not one of these?

MSE CEC is not, itself, accredited by Ofgem (i.e. cannot display the accreditation badge) but Moneysupermarket.com is accredited and is the search engine used by MSE. This has been a useful distinction when Ofgem's mandatory, crazy "savings" calculations were entirely ignored by MSE - and a good thing too (in my view).

2010

Ofgem is reviewing the energy price cap on 6th Aug and have already said it will go up on the 1st Oct by £150.

This will of course send the price of all tariffs skywards, probably well before Oct.

Fixing now is probably a wise move for anyone with a variable tariff, or if on a "no exit fees fixed" as well.

Prices are not going to go down, not even Avro`s.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/news-and-views/blog/energy-bills-are-rising-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

Telegraph_Sam

I agree with you about the way so-called "savings" are displayed in the search engines particularly if this is used as the main criterion for ranking. But I wasn't aware that MSE was the glaring exception in spite of is other criticisms.  It does seem to be a jump in the dark deciding which search engine(s) gives the least worst overall result - which IMHO would include service levels as reflected in forums such as these. It would be interesting to hear other forumites' views and experience with this topic.

I hope I have followed your advice on fixing.

2010

I fixed my current tariff with Avro in mid May.
Searching now, Avro is still the cheapest, but in only that couple of months their current offering , Simple and Flow12M, would cost me an extra £124 a year.

Telegraph_Sam

If your crystal ball is accurate and we are in for an everlasting period of price increases then the logical reaction would be to change no exit fee fixed tariffs every few weeks in order to "lock in" at the present (best available) rates for as long as possible - to the extent of cancelling and renewing one's present tariff. This would probably be viewed as an abuse of the system and somebody would blow a whistle?