Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

Premier_2

moneymel53 wrote: »

Be careful with comparison sites. having just received my new annual estimate plus price hikes letter I went to 4 different sites using actual figures for annual usage,tariffs etc in all 4 - All but money supermarket incorrectly calculated my bill from current supplier EBICO and showed several 'saving' alternatives which were all actually more than current supplier even with price increase when correctly calculated. Only 1 supplier Eon would save me about £40 But they haven't hiked yet so not really comparing like with like - So for now staying were I am. I'm no maths genius and its fairly simple to do the calculation so why are the other results so way out-one said that i could save over £100.00 - after all they make their money thru customers using their site to switch - makes you wonder ?

Hi moneymel53, and welcome to MSE :hello:

Could you give us the details you input to the respective sites please (i.e. site name, annual usage figures, supply region, etc)

We often get posts suggesting the comparison sites are not accurate, but no one to date has provided the evidence to support such allegations. Perhaps your data will?

Otherwise, I'm sure someone will explain the confusion you appear to have

Premier_2

Old.Bonezee wrote: »

I've been on an Economy 7 (E7) dual rate meter for 20 years since moving into my current house. But I ripped out the old storage heaters almost immediately and replaced with central heating.

So for years I've been on a Night & Day rate, on the assumption that I was getting a good deal as long as I tried to schedule washing machine & dishwasher to run at night, as well as the immersion heater in summer when the CH is off.

All the comparison sites ask if you have Economy 7, and some ask you to input the percentage of night-time use on the Low Rate. (Ours is about 25%).

So imagine my surprise when a cold call from an energy company revealed that I could be much better off switching to a single rate meter & tariff.

A kind lady at the Call Centre did some masterly calculations to work out my total kWH per annum, and compared the dual rate cost, assuming 25% at the low rate, with the single rate cost p.a.

Since the dual rate tariff costs much more during the day, and is indeed much cheaper at night, it seems that dual rate tariffs, such as E7, are only generally more cost effective if you use around 50% (or more) night time electricity.

Since we use most electricity during the day, I followed the recommendation, and converted to a single rate tariff, even though that meant changing my meter. The net saving can be significant (about £10 per month for us), and even though we were locked into an online tariff with EDF, the change to single rate was possible within the same tariff, so no penalty. AND THE COST OF A NEW METER? ZERO...£0... FOC..!!

So bingo!

You can work it out yourself by calculating the total kWH p.a. and try un-ticking the E7 box on the comparison sites, to see the comparitive cost of single rate tariffs. You can't get single rates and dual E7 rates on the same pages, but it's easy to try both methods.

Good luck MoneySavers!:money:

Anyone can simply do an independent check for themselves using a comparison site.
Run the comparison site twice, once using the E7 data, and again using the non-E7 data (simply add your total usage together) and manually compare the total annual cost.

I'm surprised much of a saving is available at 25% overnight usage; this is a typical breakeven point where E7 is comparable to non-E7 although this can vary from >0% (yes sommestimes E7 can be cheaper than the comparable non E7 tariff no matter what usage) to >45%.

I suspect most of the suggested saving was more due to you not being on the best value supplier/tariff anyway, rather than you being on E7.

The fact you were able to be offered non-E7 with an E7 meter suggests the person who cold called you were working for a particular company rather than a whole of market agent.
Don't be taken in by cold callers; check for yourself using a comparison site that will compare the whole of market.

The good news is, if you've only just been contacted, you are still within the 7 day cooling off period if you find you can get a better deal elsewhere

rcgood

Just received a letter from NPower, telling me the Sign Online 21 Tarrifs are increasing. Yet when i try the switch sites, i find what i am on is still cheaper for electricity only. I have no Gas, i use LPG so no dual fuel.
My yearly usage is approx 3000kw.
So i don't understand the results.

moneymel53

Premier wrote: »

Hi moneymel53, and welcome to MSE :hello:

Could you give us the details you input to the respective sites please (i.e. site name, annual usage figures, supply region, etc)

We often get posts suggesting the comparison sites are not accurate, but no one to date has provided the evidence to support such allegations. Perhaps your data will?

Otherwise, I'm sure someone will explain the confusion you appear to have

I used moneysupermarket, simplyswitch, uswitch and energyhelpline. Currently have prepayment meter which I want to keep at moment for reasons other than financial, live in Merseyside so North West suppliers. Projected costs at new rate from14.09.11 - Electricity 3681.38kwh £568.22, Gas 10761.48kwh £515.26 from EBICO on equipower and equigas with no standing charges. As I said only Moneysupermarket got calculation correct.
Also now very annoyed now that even though I ticked all boxes (or unticked) as appropriate - I have had 4 phone calls from Eon in the last 24hours - and the 4th one was after I told them not to contact me again! Find this the most annoying thing about comparison sites, same happened in December when I did car insurance calls went on for weeks and even from Accident claim companies- I have had one accident ever in 1981! If I was so determined to get the best deal I would stop using these sites altogether especially as all it has proved both with utilities and insurance was I was already getting best deal anyway.

Premier_2

moneymel53 wrote: »

I used moneysupermarket, simplyswitch, uswitch and energyhelpline. Currently have prepayment meter which I want to keep at moment for reasons other than financial, live in Merseyside so North West suppliers. Projected costs at new rate from14.09.11 - Electricity 3681.38kwh £568.22, Gas 10761.48kwh £515.26 from EBICO on equipower and equigas with no standing charges. As I said only Moneysupermarket got calculation correct.
Also now very annoyed now that even though I ticked all boxes (or unticked) as appropriate - I have had 4 phone calls from Eon in the last 24hours - and the 4th one was after I told them not to contact me again! Find this the most annoying thing about comparison sites, same happened in December when I did car insurance calls went on for weeks and even from Accident claim companies- I have had one accident ever in 1981! If I was so determined to get the best deal I would stop using these sites altogether especially as all it has proved both with utilities and insurance was I was already getting best deal anyway.

I'm confused as to which supply area you are in.You say you are in the Merseyside region, but then say you are in the North West region :huh:

Anyway, according to Ebico's own site your gas costs 4.788p/kWh. That's as you say £515 p.a.

Your electricity in each area costs:
Merseyside/Manweb: 15.435p/kWh
North West/Norweb: 14.784p/kWh

This gives annual costs for electricity as:
Merseyside/Manweb: £568 (this is the price you say is correct)
North West/Norweb: £544

So total annual bill would be:
Merseyside/Manweb: £1083
North West/Norweb: £1059


Using energyhelpline, it gives the total annual price for each area as:

Merseyside/Manweb: £1083
North West/Norweb: £1059

Now concentrating on just the Merseyside/Manweb region, the following comparison sites gives the following total annual costs as:

moneysupermarket.com: £1083.40

simplyswitch: £955.52
(This company doesn't appear to have yet updated it's prices ... but the unit prices still appear incorrect at least for gas, not sure about electricity. They are using 4.2p/kWh for gas and 13.68p/kWh for electricity - last updated 10-Dec-2010)

uswitch: £1095.59
(No idea where this company is getting it's unit rates from. They are using 4.851p/kWh for gas and 15.582p/kWh for electricity)

Edit: No phone calls yet ... but then I don't give them my true details

Edit 2: Using energyhelpline, it suggests there are 4 other suppliers that are cheaper than Ebico using PPMs, that could save you up to £166 (15%) per year.
(However these suppliers may not have declared any recent price changes.)

HalloweenJack

and the cheapest fix is now back:

http://www2.savetodaysavetomorrow.com/Fixed_Saver_version_2.html?__utma=1.503401768.1311231171.1313481361.1314467582.4&__utmb=1.9.10.1314467582&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1314467582.4.6.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=edf&__utmv=-&__utmk=239402883

EDF Fixed [EMAIL="S@ver"]S@ver[/EMAIL] V2

Premier_2

HalloweenJack wrote: »

and the cheapest fix is now back:

http://www2.savetodaysavetomorrow.com/Fixed_Saver_version_2.html?__utma=1.503401768.1311231171.1313481361.1314467582.4&__utmb=1.9.10.1314467582&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1314467582.4.6.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=edf&__utmv=-&__utmk=239402883

EDF Fixed S@ver V2

If it was the cheapest for everyone, then they wouldn't be able to handle the demand as we would all be rushing to sign up to it.

I suggest people use a comparison site to see what is cheapest for their individual circumstances.

ferrari042

I've been with Scottish Power for a while and am fairly happy with them, I was on an online discounted deal which ended on 31 July. I decided to wait and see what happened with prices so didn't opt for their new offer which I think was called Online Energy Saver , this offered 2 or 3% below standard prices. Phoned them yesterday and was offered Online Fixed Saver December 2012 "which guarantees that prices will remain fixed 13.9% below our standard monthly charges" but this is only being offered to existing customers if you ring them you can't switch online as this is not on offer when you log into your account and select change my service so by waiting I'm around 10% better off. This is a very sneaky way of getting existing customers to opt for something which is not the best deal SHAME ON YOU Scottish Power

[Deleted User]

moneymel53 wrote: »

Be careful with comparison sites. having just received my new annual estimate plus price hikes letter I went to 4 different sites using actual figures for annual usage,tariffs etc in all 4 - All but money supermarket incorrectly calculated my bill from current supplier EBICO and showed several 'saving' alternatives which were all actually more than current supplier even with price increase when correctly calculated. Only 1 supplier Eon would save me about £40 But they haven't hiked yet so not really comparing like with like - So for now staying were I am. I'm no maths genius and its fairly simple to do the calculation so why are the other results so way out-one said that i could save over £100.00 - after all they make their money thru customers using their site to switch - makes you wonder ?

Hi moneymel53 - My fixed price runs out on 30 September this year. I've spent a while trying to work out the cheapest prices with fixed price, dual fuel and cashback etc.

After all this, as a low user of both gas and electricity, I would like to consider EBICO. Do you know if they have already increased their prices already or if this still has to happen? I don't want to switch before 1st October as I would have to pay a penalty.

I'll be grateful to hear any comments about EBICO as it seems to have quite a low profile and it seems to be good for low energy users.

Thank you all.

Crimson

Niemand

Npower have sent me a letter informing me that if I'm on SOL4-16 or WEB14-16 my tariff will change to Go Save. I'm On Sign Online 11 so that means I will go onto this new tariff.

It's a standard letter, so I expect most Npower users will get it.

The old prices for electricity (all incl. VAT) are: <= 728 kWh: 16.95p, > 728 kWh: 13.41p
The new prices for electricity (all incl. VAT) are: <= 728 kWh: 18.20p, > 728 kWh: 14.40p

The old prices for gas (all incl. VAT) are: <= 4572 kWh: 7.616pp, > 4572 kWh: 2.789p
The new prices for gas(all incl. VAT) are: <= 4572 kWh: 8.712p, > 4572 kWh: 3.240p

I thought it might be interest to some on here.