Getting Frustrated Trying To Switch

GunJack

Anyone else finding this? I've been monitoring uSwitch for a month or so, as my fixed tariff with EDF ends in May, but for our useage the only companies that are coming up cheaper than my current fix+rest of year on standard tariff are the very new, small companies which we're not keen on chancing it with, especially with that one going bust the end of last year

Also, related but not quite the same....why is it when you base things on full-year actual useage, does my energy company base next year's useage on an estimate (which is invariably more than your actual useage)??

Bah!!

footyguy

GunJack wrote: »

Anyone else finding this? I've been monitoring uSwitch for a month or so, as my fixed tariff with EDF ends in May, but for our useage the only companies that are coming up cheaper than my current fix+rest of year on standard tariff are the very new, small companies which we're not keen on chancing it with, especially with that one going bust the end of last year

Also, related but not quite the same....why is it when you base things on full-year actual useage, does my energy company base next year's useage on an estimate (which is invariably more than your actual useage)??

Bah!!

If you want to filter out the small newbies, use the MSE Cheap Energy Club that now has a filter to only show the big, established players if that is what you want.

You need to ask your supplier why they estimate you will use more next year than you actually used last year (assuming you have been with them for a full year already so that they can know that full year's usage.)

My experience, although admittedly that was with a smaller supplier (Zog), is they continued to use the annnual estimate I originally provided, until they had actual evidence to the contrary.

Neil_Jones

There's no problem with going with a smaller provider, when GB Energy did go bump nobody lost their supply and customers were transferred to the Co-Op. GB's main issue was their sailing too close to the wind with their fixed pricing which as it turned out was their ultimate undoing when the wholesale price shot up.

I haven't been with a "big" supplier for at least the last four years and I can count the number of issues with the companies I went to on a hand with no fingers. In that time I have saved a packet compared to the last big company I was with previously.

If you use the MSE Cheap Energy Club you can filter the prices to the big suppliers if that's what you prefer.

As to the usage thing when switching, the suppliers have to estimate what you're going to use next year as figures can change from one to the next for a host of reasons. What you pay for by direct debit goes on the account as a credit and if you don't use that amount of energy you can get it back or use it for future bills.

teddysmum

We can't switch yet, without a penalty, but like you, did some comparisons. Things are moving quite a bit at the moment, so changes in the lists are to be expected.


Two weeks ago our supplier, Npower was about 6th best for us , with just one Big Six company ahead by a few pounds, but last week, they were well down the page with a couple of the Big Six ahead but lots of small companies, many I'd never heard of.


I don't know whether this is still so, but until their client base went beyond a certain figure, some kind of incentive meant they could charge less, but as they became popular (for obvious reasons) they had too many customers to be given the incentive.


I, too, notice that on their last account summary, Npower forecast a higher than actual usage, but calculations with both sets of figures made very little difference.


I suppose putting up the estimate makes them look better, as they give you the forecast assuming you will (impossibly) stay on your current much cheaper tariff, so higher usage makes your present deal seem a little less cheaper when compared with, vastly more expensive, new ones.