Comparison sites lying about tarrifs

Ovation1357

Hi All,
I'm in a state of confusion about my current enery situation. Every time I put my information into a comparison site it proudly tells me that I could save hundreds of pounds per year but my own research appears to show that the opposite is true.


I have not switched energy providers for 5 years, which most sources would say means I'm paying too much however:


My electricity comes from Scottish Power and their website plus my latest bill tells me that I'm on a May 2016 Fixed deal. I'm clearly being billed 10.345p/kWh plus 19.507p/day standing charge, yet the comparison sites, including MSE's one, are insistent that I'm on "standard rate" paying about 18.431p/kWh and about 21.872p/day standing charge - not only are these figures very wrong but then the 'cheapest' providers turn out to be charging more than I'm currently paying (e.g. 13.116p/kWh and 22.260p/day!)


Scottish Power are not helping this situation for me: I accepted a smart meter in January, which claims I'm paying 12,33p/kWh and 20.42p standing charge which doesn't seem to match any of these tarrifs! They also don't seem to realise that they've switched my meter - there's nothing on my account and I'm still bombarded with calls/texts asking me if I'd like one :-(


I get a similar situation with gas prices: I'm with Daligas now - any kind of dual fuel comparison either suggests that I pay more for my gas whilst 'saving' on electricity, or in at least one case (again) tells me that my current gas tariff is way more than it actually is.


So I'm now wondering whether I am special, or whether enery comparison sites are regularly lying to people and convincing them to switch to a supplier which will actually cost them more. What are other people's experiences with this?


Does anyone know of a website where I can obtain a list or do a much simpler comparison of the raw unit and standing charge prices for myself? My google-fu is exhausted: I find either the big-name comparison sites, or documents pertaining to commercial/industrial prices.


Any shared experiences or advice very welcome :-)
Thanks

oldwiring

My electricity comes from Scottish Power and their website plus my latest bill tells me that I'm on a May 2016 Fixed deal.

Are you sure, 2016 being well past. I think SP quotes ex VAT, but comarison sites with it.

Thomas_Edison

Your fixed deal should have ended May 2016, and this would have put you onto their standard tariff.

Check your bills to see the unit rates you're actually being charged. You also need to get your supplier to update the meter details they hold for you as it sound like any bill will have been incorrectly estimated.

You should address these issues before switching, and then you can look at the cheapest deals and their rates to work out what's best for you.

And no I don't believe the comparison sites are lieing. It's very easy to check if they are so they wouldn't get away with it.

nigelbb

Thomas_Edison wrote: »

And no I don't believe the comparison sites are lieing. It's very easy to check if they are so they wouldn't get away with it.

If they are not actually lying there are in most cases very misleading as they produce completely different answers. They only promote those suppliers who give them a backhander. The problem is that they confusingly promise savings rather than simply showing what the actual tariff will be. It's very difficult to drill down & find the actual tariffs used to do a proper comparison.

Cardew

Ovation1357 wrote: »

Hi All,

My electricity comes from Scottish Power and their website plus my latest bill tells me that I'm on a May 2016 Fixed deal. I'm clearly being billed 10.345p/kWh plus 19.507p/day standing charge, yet the comparison sites, including MSE's one, are insistent that I'm on "standard rate" paying about 18.431p/kWh and about 21.872p/day standing charge - not only are these figures very wrong but then the 'cheapest' providers turn out to be charging more than I'm currently paying (e.g. 13.116p/kWh and 22.260p/day!)

If you are paying 10.345p/kWh plus 19.507p/day standing charge it is a mistake - not unknown with SP.

Ovation1357

Well, I'm certainly open to the possibility that it's a mistake. My online account plus my bills all say I'm on the May 2016 tarrif and they are definitely calculating my bill based on the 10.345p (+VAT) rate.
If I add 5% VAT, that works out as 10.862p which is still well below the comparison rates.


It sounds to me like I should just stick with this rate from Scottish Power for the time being. I do wonder though how many other people are led to believe that their tarriff has ended when they're actually still getting it.

molerat

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/customer-services/gas-electricity/previous-tariffs/


https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/pdf/tariffs/2015/SCP5263March15.pdf



The only May 2016 tariff I can find was available from March/April 2015 and ended on 31 May 2016, the prices line up with the ones you quoted for the southern region. The comparison sites are not lying as you should not be on that tariff and by failing to switch you should be on their standard variable in accordance with the terms of the May 2016 tariff.

PennineAcute

Your tariff ended 2016.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/tilpdf/H-SVRAK-BDM-1R-ELEC.pdf

Cardew

Ovation1357 wrote: »

Well, I'm certainly open to the possibility that it's a mistake. My online account plus my bills all say I'm on the May 2016 tarrif and they are definitely calculating my bill based on the 10.345p (+VAT) rate.
If I add 5% VAT, that works out as 10.862p which is still well below the comparison rates.


It sounds to me like I should just stick with this rate from Scottish Power for the time being. I do wonder though how many other people are led to believe that their tarriff has ended when they're actually still getting it.

Some years ago I had similar situation with SP. I elected to switch my running out SP dual fuel fixed tariff to another 1 year fixed SP tariff. They changed the name of the tariff on my account but continued to charge me the same rates as the previous tariff. Sadly the situation didn't last as long as yours.

ElwoodBlues

I've noticed similar previously with Eversmart. They said the price of their current standard rate was inclusive of VAT, but according to my invoice, that was the ex vat price. This was what they started charging me after my fixed deal had ended, so I didn't have any documentation/record of their standard price, so it could have been anything. Just seems a huge coinncidence that my ex vat price was their currently advertised inc vat standard tariff....