Collective Fixes

ASavvyBuyer

Extracted the following from a post by Sosumi, :T :

Collective fixes on EHL are only visible on the EHL comparison site.

Collective fixes on MSM are only visible on the MSM comparison site.

Collective fixes on U-Switch are only visible on the u-Switch comparison site.

Collective fixes on iChoosr are only visible on the iChooser comparison site.

Can anyone add addition companies/sites that organise collective fixes?

I think it would be useful to have them all listed in one thread so that it is possible to sign up for them all, in order to try to get the best deal at the appropriate time. :money:

footyguy

A collective tariff is simply an organiser who acts on behalf of a large number of people to arrange a special price (which hopefully is cheaper than available to the general public ... but not necessarily so)
If is a collective purchasing agreement, essntially.

There are many organisers, such as switching sites, local councils, housing associations, charities, cummunity groups etc.In fact if you are a member of a golf club that has sufficient members to make the collective purchase prospec t attractive enough to a supplier, you too could be an organiser.

The organiser sets the rules as to who may participate ... but the best schemes are open to all (who pre-register) as that does not then limit the size of the group. The bigger the group, the more attractive it would be to a supplier.

However, just becsue someone has orgainsied a collective tariff in the past does not mean they will ever do so again, and even if they do, there is no guarantee when they will do so.

I think it is this uncertainty over timing that puts may people off. I look to switch when my current deals are coming to an end (or if a really amazing deal happens in the meantime, but it rarely does if I pick wisely in the first instance).

So if I know a collective tariff is coming up to coincide with when I plan to switch, I may register for it.

However, I may not. Whilst MSE Martin takes a sensible approach and refuses to even offer a collective tariff that does not beat the market, (and he can do this as he usually does get good offers since he claims to have a group of interested people in excess of 10 million signed up) the reality is that there are still many 'collective tariffs' suppliers offer, usually to smaller or less well known groups, which just mimic an existing tariff that supplier offers anyway.

For this reason, I am not prepared to give my personal details to every Tom, Richard (apparently we can't use his shortened name here ) & other named organiser in the hope they might save me some money. (but usually can't)

Edit: But there will always be those that will I suppose. Remember when everyone was going mad for signing up for a collective purchase, cheap 'fuel card'? Did anyone get cheap petrol.or diesel as promoted as a result? No.
What they did get was bombarded with spam about so called cheap electricity & gas I think from that supplier we cannot mention here (as the organiser became a "distibutor" for that supplier so made money out of anyone unfortunate to succomb to his spamming lies)

Sosumi

ASavvyBuyer,

You’ve quoted what I wrote (elsewhere) somewhat out of context and stripped of its qualifying remarks but it’s certainly true enough.

And I agree wholeheartedly with the principal thrust of your posting. I’ve always thought that a sticky thread in which people could post links to upcoming collective deals would be extremely useful and helpful.

(A great deal more useful and helpful than MSE Andrea’s “Energy: Important and Popular Discussions” sticky thread, here, that has been locked and devoid of any public input for almost two and a half years.)

A cynic might suggest, however, that a website owned and run by a major comparison site would be unlikely to perceive any benefit in promoting the offerings of its competitors.

Especially when “Typical” is out on the stump, plugging tirelessly on television and radio his (actually, MSM’s) “Cheap” Energy Club – the “Cheap” aspect of which being that it’s too cheap to spend money on a telephone line at which it can be contacted. :money:

So, I guess we’ll all just have to keep our eyes open and see what fredandwilma can get away with posting surreptitiously when Big Brother isn’t watching.



footyguy,

I realise that it’s wise to dispense some cautionary advice on this subject but I think you’re putting an unduly heavy dampener on the process.

Several of the major comparison sites do offer collective fixes three or four times a year that offer huge discounts on the Big Six’s conventional tariffs. The last Energy Helpline collective (in June/July), for example, included a two-year fix on E.ON that, for me, was some £450 a year cheaper than what E.ON offers on its own site. (I certainly welcomed that!)

I think you also have to bear in mind that most small energy companies couldn’t handle a sudden influx of 200,000 new customers (let alone 10 million), as has been proved in the past, and are thus deterred from offering MSE a tariff fix that would undercut the market. Particularly if they’re going to have to accept every application and then pay MSE a £60 commission for each one. They are already offering a stripped-down service and working on very slim margins in order to survive and remain competitive in a ruthlessly cut-throat and cannibalistic market.

Whereas, (most of) the Big Six have the resources to buy and process new customers in bulk with a bargain lure. British Gas, in particular, seems happy to offer massive loss-leaders in an attempt to replace the hundreds of thousands who have left it in disgust or despair.

The best solution that I have found to the spamming problem is to open a new and dedicated email account on Gmail (or whatever) to give them and then let them bombard that to their hearts’ content. When one reads of a new collective fix, one can roll up one’s sleeves, open the mailbox, delete en masse all the accumulated rubbish and extract from it the golden email containing the link necessary to obtain access to the offer.

It’s also a good idea to register more than once, giving, as your current supplier, an energy company that you wouldn’t touch with ten-foot flamethrower so that the more unscrupulous comparison sites don’t screen you out from seeing the offers from suppliers that you do like. :cool:


PS. You can, incidentally, sneak Diçk and Di¢k past the S!!!!horpe smasher.