Switch or no switch

Oldman

I have been checking the various switching sites and found discrepencies in their figures, which makes switching even harder to work out.
My current supplier OVO, has unit charges of £0.1151 for electric and £0.0268 for gas. Yet when I check the savings being trumpeted on the various sites, I am told I can save anywhere from £200-£350, which looks good. Then I check how this figure is calculated and they are using £0.1692 for electric and £0.0419 for gas!
Standing daily charge from OVO is £0.274p and the new company is £0.3327 a day.

So you can see, they are grossly inflating the figures to get the savings they claim. Unless my maths is way off.

If the rate goes from 0.115 to 0.169 some 68% increase, then no wonder it looks good.
Anyone else seen this? Or am I looking at this wrong?
thanks

Neil_Jones

The way a lot of these sites work is they assume that you roll over onto the default/standard tariff when your current one expires and this is why the savings look incredibly high when they're nothing of the sort.

The savings are more accurate if you're already on a standard (ie ridiculously expensive) tariff wanting to move to a cheaper one.

Talldave

If you're on a tariff with an end date, the switching sites will assume that after that date you will be on your supplier's most expensive standard tarrif and create these imaginary savings on the assumption that you remain on that ludicrously expensive tariff for the remainder of the year from now.

IIRC it's the regulator that thinks this is helpful for you. Sadly, people like me and you who can do maths consider this to be really stupid. More worryingly, it could persuade someone less mathematically gifted that they should switch - to a more expensive tariff. It's a broken nanny state.

brewerdave

I'm afraid the only way to guarantee that the "savings" are real, is to spend a few minutes constructing a simple spreadsheet to allow varying usage,standing charge and actual p kwh rates. Just use comparison sites as a guide.

Gerry1

Talldave wrote: »

IIRC it's the regulator that thinks this is helpful for you. Sadly, people like me and you who can do maths consider this to be really stupid. More worryingly, it could persuade someone less mathematically gifted that they should switch - to a more expensive tariff. It's a broken nanny state.

Yes, that's the crazy way comparison sites have to work. It's yet another example of why Ofgem is completely unfit for purpose.

Ofgem also lets many companies, including British Gas, to give fake quotations for Economy 7. They make an arbitrary and unjustified assumption about your night usage which means that the true cost can be much higher than they claim. Ofgem has been aware of this scam for more than three years but has chosen to do nothing.

Gerry1

brewerdave wrote: »

I'm afraid the only way to guarantee that the "savings" are real, is to spend a few minutes constructing a simple spreadsheet to allow varying usage,standing charge and actual p kwh rates. Just use comparison sites as a guide.

Just compare the annual cost of what you're currently paying with that of their competitors. The comparison websites usually give these figures accurately, only the savings figures are wrong.

JJ_Egan

About time MSE put a sticky on top of this forum with the basics for users that dont know .

Oldman

thanks to all the replies. I didnt realise ofgen was not on our side. So my figures are correct and dear old OVO is probably a lot cheaper than it appeared. Useful things spreadsheets.