Suppliers not on comparison sites

martyp

Hi all,

I'm frantically doing comparisons at the moment and wondered if there were any that you have to go to direct that don't come up on comparison sites for any reason that I could try please?

many thanks

MSE_Dan_L

Hi martyp

Thanks for the post - an interesting subject.

Accredited Ofgem comparison sites such as MoneySuperMarket, uSwitch and EnergyHelpline, are required under Ofgem's comparison site confidence code to provide a full market comparison, so in theory there shouldn't be any suppliers who aren't covered on these sites.

However in practice we're hearing that with so many small suppliers emerging over the past year or so, some aren't very good at proactively sharing their rates (or in some cases appear not to want to). Cheap Energy Club uses MoneySuperMarket's pricing information and we've heard of cases where it has been chasing small suppliers for weeks to try and get hold of the official 'ratecard' which is needed to enter all the region rates and discounts for a provider.

Equally we've also seen some issues where these small providers haven't informed it that a tariff has been removed from sale.

This is an issue which we've highlighted to Ofgem as clearly there needs to be a tightening up of how this works, so that there's a greater onus on providers to share their rates.

So as far as possible Cheap Energy Club will always offer a full market comparison, but there can be a handful of cases where one or two tiny providers might be missing. However, we'll never intentionally not include a provider and when we hear about a new supplier or tariff, we ask MoneySuperMarket to chase to get the information added. A good recent example of this is Iresa which is proving particularly tardy (or completely unresponsive) at providing information though we have been able to get it to provide some tariff info.

I hope this helps.

martyp

Many thanks Dan. Iresa did seem to come up differently on different sites. Some had their Flex4 tariff listed and others didn't. I just had one site suggest that Entice energy would be my cheapest for gas but when I checked on their website directly their unit rates were higher than on the comparison site (my utility genius).
I might just run with Iresa when the collective fix ends next month and hope a new MSE collective switch is cheaper

System

MSE_Dan_L wrote: »

Hi martyp

Thanks for the post - an interesting subject.

Accredited Ofgem comparison sites such as MoneySuperMarket, uSwitch and EnergyHelpline, are required under Ofgem's comparison site confidence code to provide a full market comparison, so in theory there shouldn't be any suppliers who aren't covered on these sites.

However in practice we're hearing that with so many small suppliers emerging over the past year or so, some aren't very good at proactively sharing their rates (or in some cases appear not to want to). Cheap Energy Club uses MoneySuperMarket's pricing information and we've heard of cases where it has been chasing small suppliers for weeks to try and get hold of the official 'ratecard' which is needed to enter all the region rates and discounts for a provider.

Equally we've also seen some issues where these small providers haven't informed it that a tariff has been removed from sale.

This is an issue which we've highlighted to Ofgem as clearly there needs to be a tightening up of how this works, so that there's a greater onus on providers to share their rates.

So as far as possible Cheap Energy Club will always offer a full market comparison, but there can be a handful of cases where one or two tiny providers might be missing. However, we'll never intentionally not include a provider and when we hear about a new supplier or tariff, we ask MoneySuperMarket to chase to get the information added. A good recent example of this is Iresa which is proving particularly tardy (or completely unresponsive) at providing information though we have been able to get it to provide some tariff info.

I hope this helps.

Dan,

I fear that like a lot of things that Ofgem used to have a handle on have been kicked into the long grass post the outcome of the CMA investigation.

martyp

Just out of interest I've found one called Enstroga from the OFGEM suppliers list, not competitive for me but wasn't sure if that shows up on comparison sites?

teddysmum

Don't make your final decision from a comparison site, but visit the actual providers' sites and get quotes there, as they should have the correct current deals on show and will quote for your chosen tariff with no confusing inclusions at standard rates.