Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

deshepherd

One big problem I'd appreciate advice on is the direct debit with EDF. They are putting up my monthly payment, despite the fact that I am £300 in credit already and am overpaying each month on DD.
If I switch, how do I get my credit back from them, how do I monitor how not to be ripped off on this - and how long should it take to get my refund?

Had a similar sort of issue when I switched from nPower to Eon a couple of years ago. I'm afraid the bad news is that EDF will probably continue to take the DD until the switch is completed at which point they will issue a final bill along with a refund - think this came through fairly promptly after the switch completed - but in my case this was a couple of months after the actual switch date as while the electricity supply switch went thorugh with no issues the gas switch needed several phone calls from me to get things sorted out as somewhere between nPower, Eon etc the switch request/final readings etc got "lost". Result was for a couple of months I was paying the increased nPower DD that had made be decide to switch + the electricity part of the Eon DD.

Huewey

Hi, I currently have the "key & card" set-up for my electric and gas. It is essentially, pay as you go. I heard paying by direct debit is much cheaper, so would ideally like to switch over to that. Factoring in cash-back, and all other incentives, what would currently be the best deal for me? Any help, much appreciated. Thanks.


P.s I'm currently with british gas and N-power, and I live in the B12 post-coded area.

Catbells

Just been on the phone to Southern Electric and they decided yesterday to bring the gas price down by 4.5% on 26 March but only for some customers on certain tariffs which doesn't sound fair. Its a help but not much - I owe them £220 for gas and £10.61 for electricity! AND I'm on direct debit and online too.

I posted on another thread a question which wasn't answered. Is it more economical to heat the room I work in during the day with a 3kw oil filled radiator OR is it better to keep the gas central heating on a lower setting all day? If anyone knows the answer I would be grateful. Thanks.

pigeonpie

does anyone know how long it takes for price cuts by the energy suppliers to be accurately reflected on the cheapest supplier comparison sites?
Presume that if prices are going down in Feb or March, the site won't reflect that until the revised tariffs are in place?

I still don't know whether to fix or not fix with OVO/EDF...

beatinertia

hello does any one know of the best socail tarriffs available for families with a disabled child?
many Thanks

Berks_Saver

I am with Eon on their E.ON EnergyOnline dual fuel tariff

I've played with the comparison site and even tho I enter my annual usage in kwh and it shows I will save upto £100 switching to a list of other companies, when I look at their tarriffs, they don't appear to be any cheaper

Currently my tarrif is:

Electricity
First 900kWh each year = 26.50p each
Next kWh = 12.94p each

Gas
First 2,680kWh each year = 8.57p each
Next kWh = 3.73p each

Plus these discounts:
6% for paying by fixed monthly Direct Debit
and
2% Dual Fuel Direct Debit Discount

I have found it difficult to compare accurately tho beacuse other companies have different cut offs for the higher rate tarriff and I just can't work it out!

So, anyone found an online tool that will help me?

thanks
Berks Saver

DragonQ

I reckon I've just saved £115 per year by switching. Electricity went from E.On Age UK to E.On SaveOnline 11, gas went from E.On Age UK to EbiCo EquiGas. My 8% discount on both gas & electricity is now a 6% discount for electricity and 0% for gas but I'll save much more than that with the switch.

It was much easier than I expected too. Electricity was just switching tariffs so that was just a case of calling E.On up. It's 12 months "fixed" but they said the £10 cancellation fee didn't apply if we wanted to just change tariffs (and not companies) or move house in that period, which is good. Switching gas was a case of calling EbiCo and just giving them my name, address and meter reading. Done!

Shame I couldn't use a comparison site for cashback though - staying with E.On meant I couldn't do it for electricity (plus their online system wouldn't let me change tariffs anyway) and none of the comparison sites I tried let me switch to EbiCo directly through them.

purple-daisies

Last time I changed I had a massive settlement bill from my previous dual fuel supplier. I know I'm paying OTT from my present supplier, but having recently lost my job, I can't afford to pay a huge bill.

danielcrews01

i decided to switch my energy supplier after using comparison sites to find that i was not on the cheapest deal that i assumed i was on.

i found the cheapest supplier, began the process, used a cashback site and the new provider then sent me their tarriffs.

having been told that they were going to be cheaper than my current supplier and also receiving cashback, i was feeling rather smug. but with half an hour to spare on a sunday morning, i decided to check some of my older bills and found to my chagrin, that actually, on every bill i checked (using the updated increased prices from my current provider) that even with the cashback factored in over the year, my current supplier was cheaper on every bill.

i'm not sure how this can be allowed to happen for them to claim they are cheaper simply based on an arbitrary direct debit montly amount, but apparently they can.

so just a note of caution, just because these comparison/switching sites tell you they are cheaper, it ain't necessarily so......

in case anyone is wondering, i am on the v11 web tarriff for dual fuel with british gas and haven't been able to find anything better based on our specific usage. we are low users and the british gas tarriff doesn't have a standing charge in the way that lots of other energy providers do.

PhylPho

danielcrews01 wrote: »

.. . we are low users and the british gas tarriff doesn't have a standing charge in the way that lots of other energy providers do.

British Gas was the first to 'abolish' the Standing Charge, and to the gullible that would surely have looked like the energy giant was putting its customers first. When other major suppliers likewise followed suit, their customers might've been daft enough to think their suppliers were putting them first, too.

The reality is the only people the energy suppliers were putting first were their own shareholders and executives. Why? Because there's far more profit to be made out of customers who don't understand what they're paying than there is to be made from customers who do.

Put it this way.

If you need energy for your car, you fill up with petrol or diesel. The price you pay per litre is posted on the pump. The retailer does not have a large sign saying that to buy fuel there, you must pay a standing charge to help cover the garage's fixed overheads. Nor does the sign say, your first so-many litres will be at such-and-such a price, your next so-many litres, at a different price.

You buy your fuel per litre. And that's that. If you want to buy cheaper, you go to a forecourt where it's obviously cheaper because tyhe price is plain for all to see.

Gas and electricity fuel a home just like petrol and diesel fuel a car. It's an energy supply. But can you find a single gas and / or electricity supplier anywhere that says this is the price per unit of gas, and this is the price per unit of electricity? No. Of course you can't.

The companies want you -- need you -- to at least cover some of their operating overheads up front, because it may be that you won't use enough gas, or electricity, in a year to make your business with them profitable. Hence: the Standing Charge, a cost you pay regardless of however much gas and/ or electricity you use.

But what happens when the Standing Charge is 'abolished'? Answer: you wind up not having much clue what you're paying, because the first so many units of gas are at one price and the next, at another, and the first so many units of electricity at one price, the next at another.

And then during the course of a 12-month period, your energy supplier decides to change the ratio so that now you pay less for the first so-many units. . .but you now have more chargerable units than before at that price. Or it decides to charge you more for the first set of units, but reduces the number of units at which such cost is applicable.

Scottish Power, for example, excelled at this kind of stunt last year, where in the course of 12 months it was well-nigh impossible to fathom out what was being charged for what at what time because it slammed through price increases on different tiers and varied the tiers as it did so.

All that the abolition of the Standing Charge has achieved is that which it was always intended to achieve: to obfuscate the bills which customers receive -- and make it as difficult as possible for them to compare the prices of one energy major with another.

The regulatory authority is well aware of why this stunt was implemented and why it helps to make meaningful comparison of supplier services so inordinately difficult. But the regulator is supine.

It would take but a stroke of the pen to bring clarity to the marketplace by requiring that all suppliers of domestic electricity and gas in the UK make just one charge per unit -- just like garages do per litre -- or a maximum of two charges, viz:

1) Annual standing charge / monthly standing charge;

2) Cost per unit of gas / cost per unit of electricity.

That way, there'd be none of the confusion created by comparison sites which are anything but reliable, and every consumer in the UK would be more easily able to see if, for example, it's worth moving from Scottish Power's £500 per annum standing charge / 12p per unit gas / 10p per unit electricity, to British Gas's £450 per annum standing charge / 13p per unit gas / 11p per unit electricity. You'd simply look at your previous 12 months' consumption of units of gas and units of electricity, and go from there.

Such clarity is the absolute last thing the energy majors want to see in the UK. They'd likely fight tooth and nail to stop the regulator from doing any such thing. But then, the regulator isn't going to fight any way

All of which means, as long as you're taking gas and electricity from a company that touts the absence of a Standing Charge as some kind of virtue, you could well end up with\one hell of a headache trying to make sense of your bills over a 12-month period: Scottish Powerr was by no means alone last year in finessing its price bands and unit prices, and there's nothing to stop it or any other supplier from doing the same thing again in 2012.

Bottom line: not paying a Standing Charge ain't necessarily a good thing.