MSE Cheap Energy Club

SpideressUK

I joined the MSE Cheap Energy Club when I took out a fixed rate/term energy deal. From what I understood I would be paying more initially on the fixed rate deal but the plan/hope was that by the end of the term (about 18 months/2years later) I would be paying less than if I had not gone onto the fixed rate. MSE Cheap Energy Club kept emailing me to say there were cheaper tariffs available which it is logical there would be initially as I knew I was overpaying initially in the hope of longer term benefit.

Is this system still the same with the MSE Cheap Energy Club and is it only useful for those who are not on fixed rate tariffs so that it can constantly auto compare for them?

Thank you

System

Hi. I am not sure that I understand your question. MSE CEC will e-mail you when you can save between £25 and £250 depending on your profile setting. Whether you are on a fixed or variable rate matters not: they are telling you about a saving that you could make by switching. That said, you need to check the true saving if your fixed term has less than 12 months to run.

I am not sure why you are on a long-term fixed term contract when fixed term contracts have fallen significantly in price over the past year or so. Even cheaper energy can be purchased if you use separate suppliers.

If I were you, I would run a CEC comparison based on your projected usage in kWhs not £s. You might be surprised at the savings that can be achieved. Factor in any exit fees if you are thinking of switching.

SpideressUK

Thank you, I will run a comparison as my fixed rate expires June 2016. What I am meaning is similar to how you pay a slightly higher % for a fixed rate mortgage than you would for a variable rate. So for eg when I took my fixed rate energy 2 year tariff in June 2014 at that time everyone on a none fixed rate might have been paying 1p for every unit of electricity but because they knew they were fixing me for 2 years I would be paying for eg 1.5p or 2p for every unit of electricity....the idea being that by now 18 months later I am still paying that 1.5p or 2p for every unit whereas everyone else might be paying 3p per unit now. When I initially started on the fixed rate tariff and joined CPC I was getting emails telling me "you could be paying cheaper" - which I knew as I could have initially gone on the variable tariff (I was expecting to initially pay more than everyone else) so CPC wasn't "helping" me keep track as such at that time. Hence my question of is CPC the same now. If I get a new fixed rate tariff for say another 12 months or more I expect I will be initially paying a bit more per unit of Energy than I would if I were on a variable rate? So will CPC keep telling me I could get it cheaper again like it did last time. Hopefully I have explained my question a bit better now.

System

Your logic is sound when the cost of energy is increasing as was the case before the oli price crash. The cost of energy - particularly, the cost of gas - has fallen significantly over the past year so you have probably been paying more than you needed to. I have switched 5 times in the past year just to get lower prices. The best deals - that is, lowest prices - are fixed deals. Standard variable tariffs tend to cost more at the moment. Have a look at Zog for gas and GBEnergy for electricity. Bear in mind what I said about inflated savings. As you have less than 12 months to run on your present contract, then your costs for the next 12 months will be based on 3 months on your current tariff plus 9 months on your supplier's standard tariff. Inflated costs lead to inflated savings.

lstar337

You have been unfortunate. You fixed just before prices started to go down.

It is always a bit of a gamble. You need to know prices are going up if you are going to jump on a long term fix.

I expect by this point that cheaper tariffs will take care of any exit fees, so you should be able to switch and still save.

Good luck.

premiamark

Cheap Energy Club DOES NOT GET YOU “permanently cheap, no-hassle energy”!.
I applied on 9.2.16 for Npower Fixed Energy Online March 17 via CEC. I received acknowledgment from Npower on 24th Feb. Having heard nothing more I called them today to check progress and Npower say they didn't get the information from Money Saving Expert Cheap Energy Club and therefore will now have to close my account!
CRAP SERVICE from Money Saving Expert and their Energy Club and CRAP Service from Npower.
I have missed a cheap tariff and £30.00 cashback.
My Npower account was 1868xxxx
I tried to register a complaint with Npower which they would only do ‘if I closed the complaint’!!! Complaint number 1005xxxx
Try and do better….

molerat

You were in the unfortunate situation of going with NPower who manage to lose all sorts of information. I have changed suppliers / tariffs 5 times in the past year, twice with CEC, and all have been faultless. I have saved money every time except with my last electricity switch which was £8 pa dearer but extending my fix, the CEC cashback makes it a net gain.

Pincher

It seems to me, the Spanish property boom ended, so time share salesmen moved into the energy market, over ten years ago. The whole emphasis is on luring new customers in with headline grabbing introduction deals, and then fleece them once they are in the pen, using over priced standard tariff. It's more or less the same idea as the first year bonus rate on deposit accounts.


Essentially, you have to stay alert, and switch to the latest deals, on a permanent basis.


With 20:20 hindsight, there were long term fixes that were good deals, but it's always afterwards that you know it. If I was a long fix person, the Scottish Power Help Beat Cancer is a good bet.




The shorter one year fixes work by saving you money in year one, so even if the price goes up in the following year, you end up paying the same or less than if you went for a two year fixed.


Let us say you have two choices right now:


1. One year fix for £1,000 a year
2. Two year fix for £1,100 a year


Let us say prices go up for the second year to £1,200 a year, a 20% hike.


If you had chosen Option 1, you would pay £1,000 in year one, and £1,200 in year two, so £2,200 over two years.


If you had chosen option 2, you would pay £1,100 in both year one and year two, so again £2,200 over two years.







If the price stays the same, or even go down, the one year fix wins.

For a lot of us here, the one year fix has been a good thing for years, but you must keep switching. Exit penalty is obviously an impediment to avoid, but the cashback on switching, if any helps.

MSE_Dan_L

premiamark wrote: »

Cheap Energy Club DOES NOT GET YOU “permanently cheap, no-hassle energy”!.
I applied on 9.2.16 for Npower Fixed Energy Online March 17 via CEC. I received acknowledgment from Npower on 24th Feb. Having heard nothing more I called them today to check progress and Npower say they didn't get the information from Money Saving Expert Cheap Energy Club and therefore will now have to close my account!

Hi Premiamark

I'm sorry to hear that you've had some problems with the switch. I see that you've emailed us directly so we'll get this looked into.

However I can assure you that the switch was passed to Npower and it did receive this, but must have had a problem processing this for you. We've a warning about Npower's poor service on the CEC results and unfortunately it seems like the person you spoke to didn't give you the correct info.

We'll get back to you by email when we've heard back from Npower.

lstar337

NPower are terrible, there isn't much CEC can do about that unfortunately.