Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

NonGeographicalMan

donaldtramp wrote: »

The already very wealthy Martin plugging the links that generate money for MSE???

Martin is just a businessman like the energy companies who makes a packet out of running the MSE site. His slightly disingenuous business pitch (which the idiot BBC always uncritically falls for) is that he is doing it all for our good when the reality is that he is clearly doing it only for his own financial good.

That's why he will continually recommend you to switch, switch and switch again on energy when for many people in a one or two bed flat with bills of only £1,000 a year or so it simpy isn't worth all the hassle involved in relation to the time and energy required.

If you only had to switch once every five years that would be fine but under the current nonsense form of competition you have to switch at least every 6 months in order to get a competitive energy price. And the regulator Ogfem is completely in bed with the industry by allowing your existing energy supplier six weeks to try and stop you leaving them when there is nothing technically about an energy switch (a purely accounting related matter) that stops it going through in only 24 hours just like Porting a mobile phone number.

NonGeographicalMan

patman99 wrote: »

And how do you think MSE pays for it's hosting service and staff wages then?.

I think the size of Martin's wage (or his share dividend if he owns all or most of the shares in MSE) would certainly make for very interesting reading if MSE was subject to an FOI request like government funded bodies are.

You only needed to watch that very tacky money television show he did to know what the real Martin is like. Namely a showman and a salesman to his very bones.

blahblahdoh

nem39esis wrote: »

I used all the main comparrison sites to compare my gas and electricty with my current supplier Ovo, each site said a lot of other suppliers were significantly cheaper proposing savings of 100-150 a year-great i thought. Theyd compared my tarriff (Ovo energy Variable) witht he others. However! Be warned! I looked at what figures the comparrisson sites were using as my existing tarriffs and to my horror the unit rates and standing charges were grossly inflated, they were nowhere near what mine actually are! When i compare my actual tarrif rates from my statements, witht he cheapest the comparrisson site came up with, i was already on a much cheaper tarriff

So be warned, i nearly switched to a supplier that wouldve actually cost me more, even though it said it would be cheaper!

Something needs to be done about this as its likely that all the tarriffs are not correct that theyre comparing against

What are the actual unit rates and charges, and what do the comparison sites quote then? Name and shame.

Terrylw1

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Martin is just a businessman like the energy companies who makes a packet out of running the MSE site. His slightly disingenuous business pitch (which the idiot BBC always uncritically falls for) is that he is doing it all for our good when the reality is that he is clearly doing it only for his own financial good.

That's why he will continually recommend you to switch, switch and switch again on energy when for many people in a one or two bed flat with bills of only £1,000 a year or so it simpy isn't worth all the hassle involved in relation to the time and energy required.

If you only had to switch once every five years that would be fine but under the current nonsense form of competition you have to switch at least every 6 months in order to get a competitive energy price. And the regulator Ogfem is completely in bed with the industry by allowing your existing energy supplier six weeks to try and stop you leaving them when there is nothing technically about an energy switch (a purely accounting related matter) that stops it going through in only 24 hours just like Porting a mobile phone number.

The old supplier only gets an objection period and its not 6 weeks, more commonly 5 days.

The industry only allows for future dated registrations and it involved data communication between old & new suppliers as well as their agents. Its a bit more complicated than consumers know but its not very difficult either as long as their are no standing data issues.

If consumers switched so close, the standing data would be a mess unless extremely strict data transfer targets were put in place.

NonGeographicalMan

Terrylw1 wrote: »

If consumers switched so close, the standing data would be a mess unless extremely strict data transfer targets were put in place.

If the industry is allowed to stick with using quill pens and the pigeon post in order to carry out transfers of accounting records that could take place in seconds electronically then its high time their regulator got with the program and forced them to use modern technology for such processes. In any administrative activity of this kind people will always take as long as they are allowed and not act till near the deadline for taking action. And here they have no incentive to act fast as they continue to earn profit from you as a customer for another six weeks by being slow.

No final transfer of supplier usually involves an actual meter reading and they are nearly always estimated or customer supplied. Hence why they could be done same day. If a customer has a large outstanding balance to pay off then they should be required to pay it before leaving but if the balance is less than say £200 and the customer has a track record of paying monthly or quarterly for a year or more then that should not be a reason to hold up the transfer. If the customer disputes an estimated meter reading (for a meter he/she cannot access in a locked landlord cupboard) then he/she can provide an actual meter reading and if the company disputes that they can send their own meter reader. Only in that last case is there a need to delay the date of transfer of supplier until the meter reading has taken place..

The only reason it takes six weeks to carry out an energy supplier transfer is because Ofgem, the regulator, is run in the interests of the energy companies and not in the interests of energy consumers. Their massively unambitious program to install more advanced electricity meters over the next 12 years or something with no requirement at all for those of us living in flats with meters we can't access to be able to insist on getting GSM data transmitting energy meters installed right now on demand tells us everything we need to know about Ofgem. Slow, complacent, bureaucratic and not there to act as a champion of the energy consumer.

Speaking of which the GPO began billing people from meters back at their exchange from as long ago as the 1920s. How the energy industry has got away without doing this for all these years when they sell a far more expensive product where accurate billing is therefore even more important is quite beyond me.

diceydeb

I want to switch to First Utility via this site to get £30 cash back but could I also get £30 from my Topcashback account as they are doing the offer to ?

boobbby

My british gas websaver 11 finishes today so I thought I would move to EDF blue star which is virtually the same rate and is guaranteed until September 2013. Low and behold british Gas phone and offer me £150 if I will stay with them on their standard tariff. I nearly say yes but realise that they do not guarantee a fixed price and their standard rate is a lot higher than their websaver 11.

NonGeographicalMan

jenifferhomes wrote: »

Anyone know if the uSwitch wine offer can be combined with Quidco?

No it can't be combined with it. Qudico will only pay cashback on cookies generated by a direct click through from their site to the energy company's website. If MSE's site is involved on the way then the energy company will instead pay the cashback to MSE and not to Quidco and hence you will only get the wine and not the Quidco cashback.

NonGeographicalMan

diceydeb wrote: »

I want to switch to First Utility via this site to get £30 cash back but could I also get £30 from my Topcashback account as they are doing the offer to ?

No you can only get one cashback or the other by clicking through from your choice of these two sites.

The only way you can ever get a double discount is in those cases where you click through from a cashback site to company's site and you can also find a valid discount code to enter in the discount code box on the website of the company you are buying the product from.

Terrylw1

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

If the industry is allowed to stick with using quill pens and the pigeon post in order to carry out transfers of accounting records that could take place in seconds electronically then its high time their regulator got with the program and forced them to use modern technology for such processes. In any administrative activity of this kind people will always take as long as they are allowed and not act till near the deadline for taking action. And here they have no incentive to act fast as they continue to earn profit from you as a customer for another six weeks by being slow.

No final transfer of supplier usually involves an actual meter reading and they are nearly always estimated or customer supplied. Hence why they could be done same day. If a customer has a large outstanding balance to pay off then they should be required to pay it before leaving but if the balance is less than say £200 and the customer has a track record of paying monthly or quarterly for a year or more then that should not be a reason to hold up the transfer. If the customer disputes an estimated meter reading (for a meter he/she cannot access in a locked landlord cupboard) then he/she can provide an actual meter reading and if the company disputes that they can send their own meter reader. Only in that last case is there a need to delay the date of transfer of supplier until the meter reading has taken place..

The only reason it takes six weeks to carry out an energy supplier transfer is because Ofgem, the regulator, is run in the interests of the energy companies and not in the interests of energy consumers. Their massively unambitious program to install more advanced electricity meters over the next 12 years or something with no requirement at all for those of us living in flats with meters we can't access to be able to insist on getting GSM data transmitting energy meters installed right now on demand tells us everything we need to know about Ofgem. Slow, complacent, bureaucratic and not there to act as a champion of the energy consumer.

Speaking of which the GPO began billing people from meters back at their exchange from as long ago as the 1920s. How the energy industry has got away without doing this for all these years when they sell a far more expensive product where accurate billing is therefore even more important is quite beyond me.

Its all electronic data transfer and was from the moment deregulation commenced.

The 4-6 weeks is actual time, not the time time you pay up to with the old supplier. A registration date is stipulated by the new supplier and providing no objection is upheld, that's your contract end date. This means the old supplier has no control of the switch date so cannot keep you longer.

I agree on Ofgem, I've never had much faith in them...they only act when forced to.

The transfer is not delayed by a need for a meter reading, it can be Deemed and resolved using the disputed Readings process afterwards. In fact, I would be surprised if any suppliers wasted their money on leaving customers.