MSE News: Is it worth paying a monthly membership to get cheap energy? 26 January 2018 at 6:25PM in Energy 16 replies 3.1K views

Former_MSE_Megan_F

Two of the newest suppliers on the market offer a twist on the traditional way of paying for your energy - allowing you to bag cheap rates through monthly membership fees. But are they any good?...

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'Is it worth paying a monthly membership to get cheap energy?'

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footyguy

Not sure there's much difference, as I see it..

£120.00 p.a membership charge or £120 p.a standing charge?

(Who pays £120.00 pa standing charge/membership fee for any fuel? :eek:
- That's perhaps a different topic... )

There is the added complication with OFTM as you say, as the membership fee depends on your consumption. That needs to be taken into consideration if you are near the border. In such a circumstance, I would simply opt for the higher value to be on the safe side (if you don't use the extra, so get away with a lower monthly charge, think of it as a bonus)

Perhaps another thing to check carefully is how the memebership fee is applied. Is it, for example, "per month or part thereof"
Standing charges are applied daily.
Could be important depending on when you leave. (but only up to a maximum of a monthly amount, and if that is about £10, probably not a deal maker/breaker.)

Sadly, neither of these two new entrants (incl. their sister companies) offer a cheap deal for me

jamesd

Are the usage figures per month or per year?

I assume that neither company really provides its customers with 100% or even 0.1% renewable energy and that any claims to actually supply that to the customer are lies intended to deceive consumers about the difference between these firms and those like district heating systems or rooftop solar that really do deliver that.

The reason such claims about actually supplying are lies is that everyone one the street normally has the same electricity substation and gas main and gets exactly the same mixture supplied to them as everyone else in the street. All a firm like these can do is put into the system an amount corresponding to the use of their customers. That will be supplied to the users closest to where it's put in, not their customers, though long distance gas pipelines and the nature of electricity blur that a bit.

It would be good if MSE distinguished between those that actually supply their customers with renewables and those that just put some renewables into the system and supply their customers with the same mixture as everyone else.

boliston

jamesd wrote: »

....
I assume that neither company really provides its customers with 100% or even 0.1% renewable energy and that any claims to actually supply that to the customer are lies intended to deceive consumers about the difference between these firms and those like district heating systems or rooftop solar that really do deliver that........

I use a supplier that is 100% renewable but the point is the electricity purchased and put into the grid as a result of me being a customer still benefits the environment even if the energy is mixed with "dirty" energy in the grid. The more people that sign up to green suppliers the less demand there will be for environmentally damaging forms of power.

lstar337

footyguy wrote: »

Not sure there's much difference, as I see it..

£120.00 p.a membership charge or £120 p.a standing charge?

(Who pays £120.00 pa standing charge/membership fee for any fuel? :eek:
- That's perhaps a different topic... )

Some change the membership fee in bands depending on how much you use. I had one pop up in my recent search and due to my low usage the membership fee was £0. So it seems to be at least a little different to SC.

KTF

Its all about the lowest total annual cost. How they want to do the numbers behind the scenes shouldn't really matter.

[Deleted User]

@KTF
But you do need to know how the supplier does the numbers as some schemes are banded by energy used so your membership fee will increase/decrease depending on usage. That alone could alter which supplier is better for you.
And increases in membership fees are not part of the energy prices so can be increased without giving the consumer recourse to leave without paying exit fees.

boatman

Cheap energy club says I can save £6 a year, think I'll give it a miss.

jamesd

boliston wrote: »

I use a supplier that is 100% renewable but the point is the electricity purchased and put into the grid as a result of me being a customer still benefits the environment even if the energy is mixed with "dirty" energy in the grid. The more people that sign up to green suppliers the less demand there will be for environmentally damaging forms of power.

That's one point and many people will be satisfied with that. But others will want the energy actually supplied to them to be renewable. So clear and correct descriptions of what is supplied matters to help consumers get the best deal for what they are individually seeking.

boliston

jamesd wrote: »

That's one point and many people will be satisfied with that. But others will want the energy actually supplied to them to be renewable. So clear and correct descriptions of what is supplied matters to help consumers get the best deal for what they are individually seeking.

The idea of running a separate set of pylons for each type of power seems like a lot of upheaval and expense to me

NineDeuce

Isnt this just another way of getting your money, like those that 'kindly' offer £50 worth of Amazon vouchers but then put it with a higher tariff?