Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

GDB2222

Should I switch my energy provider when my fixed tariff comes to an end?

There's a £9 a month saving, plus a once-off £60 incentive, if I switch to npower from Scottish power.

There's a £37 a month saving (but no incentive) if I move to a firm I have never heard of, called Toto Energy.

This is all based on tariffs fixed for one year.

Scottish Power are easy to deal with, by the way. So, I'm not particularly looking to move.

What should I do?

PasturesNew

I have a "missing grandfather". Not even sure which country he died in as I know he left the country, but I also know he came back ... but he could've gone again.

Trouble is - nobody's got him on their trees that I can google/find online... and I've always looked for him, never found him.

So I've just started a "Master List of everybody that I can find with that name that died between 1939 and 1990". My best guess would say he died 1950-1965. Some of that list will end up with several sources, some will be untraceable and some can be crossed off the list ....

This could take years.

Currently making the initial list, from the Probates/Administrations books - and just in 1966 I've got FIVE fellas that died that year with his name in England. Only two list a widow (I've no evidence he remarried, but he could've .... but I have to assume at this stage there's no widow). Of the remaining three they don't yield much information at all.

Over time I'll add in records from FreeBMD - I'll be able to dismiss some at that stage based on age and match those up with the Probate/Administration.

And I'll add in records from FMP/ANC as I discover them.

Then there's all the old newspapers.

.... years .... maybe I'll never know.

michaels

GDB2222 wrote: »

Should I switch my energy provider when my fixed tariff comes to an end?

There's a £9 a month saving, plus a once-off £60 incentive, if I switch to npower from Scottish power.

There's a £37 a month saving (but no incentive) if I move to a firm I have never heard of, called Toto Energy.

This is all based on tariffs fixed for one year.

Scottish Power are easy to deal with, by the way. So, I'm not particularly looking to move.

What should I do?

£37 per month is not to be sniffed at (£450pa). Can you switch via one of the energy price comparison companies like uswitch through quidco / topcashback as quite often you get the same cashback from the comparison site whichever energy supplier you switch to even if that supplier does not normally offer cashback.

GDB2222

Uswitch list Toto amongst the companies they cannot switch me to. So, no cash back. And the Trustpilot reviews for Toto are simply awful! i don't know how much that matters?

Pyxis

If the reviews are that awful, would £37 a month be worth an enormous amount of hassle if it goes pearshaped?

Those reviews.....are they just one person's view or multiple?


Why can't uSwitch switch you to Toto? Is that meaningful?

GDB2222

Quite a few people reporting horrible problems.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/totoenergy.com

Uswitch probably doesn't get commission from them, which is why they list Toto but don't offer to switch.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

Quite a few people reporting horrible problems.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/totoenergy.com

Uswitch probably doesn't get commission from them, which is why they list Toto but don't offer to switch.

"Quite a few" with problems would put me off. I know that people who haven't had problems are less likely to post a review, but still.

I do sometimes wonder if the best offers come from the companies most desperate for new custom, which makes me wonder why they are desperate.

But then, I see evil everywhere.
Cassandra should be my middle name, really.

silvercar

I've done about 5 switches. One wasn't worth the hassle (and that was to Sainsbury Energy fronting for British Gas). Eventually it was sorted out, but I wasted hours on the phone and sending emails. I suspect if I hadn't been commenting in the energy board on MSE about it, it would have taken even longer to sort. I would only move to someone who has decent reviews.

vivatifosi

I have e10. It is really difficult to switch as so few providers offer it, or worse still, offer it to new users.

michaels

vivatifosi wrote: »

I have e10. It is really difficult to switch as so few providers offer it, or worse still, offer it to new users.

Do you meters support e7 as well? I did read elsewhere that those with e7 meters could also pay standard tariff as the supplier then just adds the two meter readings together?