Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

purplestar133

I've only been paying utility bills for three months since I moved in to my flat. I've been with E.On paying by direct debit so have been waiting for my first statement/bill before switching. I've just done a comparison using the prices I paid rather than kilowatt usage, as the options only allowed me to enter kilowatt usage for the year and I've not been there long enough.

Does it make a significant difference comparing based on price paid per quarter rather than kilowatt usage per year?

I'm thinking of going to Scottish Power on their Online Energy Saver 9 tariff as, although expected spend is £14 more than with other suppliers, they are offering £130 cashback on Topcashback until midnight tonight.

NonGeographicalMan

purplestar133 wrote: »

Does it make a significant difference comparing based on price paid per quarter rather than kilowatt usage per year?

Not as long as you give the correct tariff associated with your current monthly money spend based consumption costs.

Anyhow you can leave Scottish Power early by paying an exit fee of only £50 if you want to move before the end of the first 12 months. This still leaves you £80 in profit. Expect them to take about three and a bit months to pay out on the cashback though. I only just got mine a week ago from a transfer back in early December.

Anyhow the cashback comfortably exceeds the £14 extra annual usage cost with Scottish Power so it seems like a no brainer to me.

purplestar133

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Not as long as you give the correct tariff associated with your current monthly money spend based consumption costs.

Anyhow you can leave Scottish Power early by paying an exit fee of only £50 if you want to move before the end of the first 12 months. This still leaves you £80 in profit. Expect them to take about three and a bit months to pay out on the cashback though. I only just got mine a week ago from a transfer back in early December.

Anyhow the cashback comfortably exceeds the £14 extra annual usage cost with Scottish Power so it seems like a no brainer to me.

Which tariff did you choose? I might have known, when I clicked through to Scottish Power from Topcashback, the tariff I wanted, Online Energy Saver 9 was not listed. So, I might try again tomorrow when the special offer on the cashback is reduced and see whether it is listed then. Other than that I suppose I would have to settle for the (around) £30 cashback from the comparison sites like energyhelpline etc. That's a lot less than the £130 I was hoping for on Topcashback!

NonGeographicalMan

purplestar133 wrote: »

Which tariff did you choose? I might have known, when I clicked through to Scottish Power from Topcashback, the tariff I wanted, Online Energy Saver 9 was not listed. So, I might try again tomorrow when the special offer on the cashback is reduced and see whether it is listed then.

I was on Online Energy Saver 4 with Scottish Power for just over two years up till September last year and it remained their most competitive tariff throughout this period. Then the lunatics appeared to take over the marketing asylum at Scottish Power and they bought out Online Energy Saver v5 and v6 but would only let me change to those cheaper tariffs by becoming subject to a £50 penalty if I left within a year. At that time Eon Energy Save Online was cheaper than Scottish Power Save Online v5 or v6 so due to my annoyance at them having bought out a tariff only marketed to new customers and not to me as an existing customer I moved to Eon Energy Save Online and earned £68 cashback. After about a month with Eon Scottish Energy bought out Save Online v7 and this was both £60 per annum cheaper than Eon Save Online and also offered £111.10 cashback (£1.10 due to the Topcashback further top up). So I moved back and finally got paid the £111.10 cashback three months after I had rejoined.

Now I find a new Npower tariff is about £60 year cheaper than Scottish Power Online Energy v7, although the more recent Scottish Power Online Energy v9 only costs £15 more a year than the Npower tariff but I would have to pay the £50 exit charge from Online Energy v7 to move to Online Energy v9. So in theory I am better off moving to Npower and also getting £90 cashback except that sneaky Npower have a huge once a year discount on that tariff that they only pay at the end of a full year with them so if they put the tariff up after four months and you leave not only do you pay a £50 early exit charge but also pay far more for your gas or electricity than the price for the full year on which you based your decision to switch across to them.

Basically its a mad, mad world in which the marketing men only value those who ditch and switch and don't seem to consider that if they don't give existing customers the good new deals too that they may all keep on ditching and switching across to other companies.

They are trying to stop you ditching and switching by now imposing these £50 early leaving charges except that the cashbacks of up to £130 payable for moving to some companies by topcash.co.uk or quidco.com then tend to counteract this........

purplestar133

Yes, I agree, it's all very frustrating (and not to mention confusing)!

purplestar133

purplestar133 wrote: »

Which tariff did you choose? I might have known, when I clicked through to Scottish Power from Topcashback, the tariff I wanted, Online Energy Saver 9 was not listed. So, I might try again tomorrow when the special offer on the cashback is reduced and see whether it is listed then. Other than that I suppose I would have to settle for the (around) £30 cashback from the comparison sites like energyhelpline etc. That's a lot less than the £130 I was hoping for on Topcashback!

Still trying...The Scottish Power website is still not showing Online Energy Saver 9 as an option when I click through Topcashback. Really annoying! Is my best option now to just switch via the comparison sites like Martin suggests, for a maximum £30?

gt94sss2

The MSE article states that SimplySwitch is currently offering upto £35 in vouchers if you use the MSE provided link to switch.

However, the T&C state that:

This offer is available from 5th November 2009 to 31st March 2010. MoneyExpert have the right to remove or extend this offer an any point during this term.

EDIT: The offer has now been extended to the end of May.

Regards
Sunil

NonGeographicalMan

purplestar133 wrote: »

Yes, I agree, it's all very frustrating (and not to mention confusing)!

They used to provide a good deal on a tariff so long as you switched at least every two or three years but now that more people are switching you seem to have switch at least every 6 months for the best tariff and cashback combination. Otherwise you soon get dumped off on to a lousy uncompetitive tariff.

John_Pierpoint

You will have to be very quick on your feet to avoid paying extra once some people will be being paid to use electricity.
Will you be paying their share?:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Get your FiT payment here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2244389

kevin.rd

can you convert a gas cooker to electric, or are you stuck with gas?