Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

Tarian

Someone above wrote"
"The unit prices are irrelevant"
Sorry, for many of us unit prices are the ONLY factor that we can trust.
As the MSE intro describes, each comparison site comes up with different results - because they use "black box" calculators with all sort of assumptions.

When switching first became possible Ofgem (?) had an easy to read table of unit prices.
Sure, some suppliers had a Standing Charge while others expensive initial units (but that's just another way of expressing a Standard Charge).
The tables for each fuel also made it easy to see that (at the time) dual fuel was worse than cherry-picking the cheapest gas and cheapest electric supply.
Side by side units provide a reliable indicator - with a very simple spreadsheet providing confirmation.

So we switched both gas and electricity several years ago.
Since then, salesman have called and we always asked what the unit price is.
Half the time they could not tell us (a curious obfuscation) - but when they did the unit price was always higher than our existing supplier - even though prices had gone up.
There was nothing more we needed to know !

[With 99.9% of restaurants posting menus with itemised prices, how many people would be comfortable with one posting an estimated bill? (NOT a fixed price menu. That might be attractive)]

Q1. So how can comparison site calculators be trusted if each produces a different result?

Q2. If e.on comes up cheapest in a comparison site, why when one visits the e.on website e.on do everything BUT spell out the unit price ? (If someone can provide a link to e.on's unit prices I would be very grateful).

OK, rant about lack of unit prices over....!

harryhound

It is called confusion marketing and it is deliberate.

The idea is that the average punter is so befuddled that they stay where they are like a rabbit in the headlights.

Wywth

Tarian wrote: »

Someone above wrote"
"The unit prices are irrelevant"
Sorry, for many of us unit prices are the ONLY factor that we can trust.

Why don't you trust the advice MSE Martin has given? :huh:

Tarian wrote: »

As the MSE intro describes, each comparison site comes up with different results - because they use "black box" calculators with all sort of assumptions.

Which article are you reading, because the one in the OP says:

The easiest way to find which is cheapest is to use a comparison site.

Tarian wrote: »

Q1. So how can comparison site calculators be trusted if each produces a different result?

They don't usually, especially if you input your consumption in kWh

Tarian wrote: »

Q2. If e.on comes up cheapest in a comparison site, why when one visits the e.on website e.on do everything BUT spell out the unit price ? (If someone can provide a link to e.on's unit prices I would be very grateful).

The unit prices are included on every comparison site, as well as all the other info that makes up the tariff cost.
As previously advised
"The unit prices are irrelevant"
for most tariffs. The total annual cost is the important figure, and that you will get from a comparison site

lazystar

My electric company has raised the price of gas/elec despite my price agreement fixed until aug2013
Are they allowed to do this ?
and what is the point of switching & comparing if i have already locked a price but they have renaised on this ?
N POWER

Wywth

lazystar wrote: »

My electric company has raised the price of gas/elec despite my price agreement fixed until aug2013
Are they allowed to do this ?
and what is the point of switching & comparing if i have already locked a price but they have renaised on this ?
N POWER

Which tariff are you on, exactly?

A FIXED tariff is just that, one where the tariff charges will not alter (except for possible VAT rate changes) over the term of the agreement.

If you have been advised your tariff charges are changing, it doesn't sound like you are actually on a FIXED tariff.

mcculloch29

My sister, (a pensioner), received a fixed price agreement offer in the post from British Gas, that has to be taken up by November 15th and runs until November 2013. She has to sign a form to accept the offer and send it back.

The form contained a printing error stating the offer would run from November 2013 to November 30th 2013.

She worked with legally binding contracts all her working life and is very reluctant to sign anything with such a glaring error on it - she felt that British Gas could use this to go back on the deal.

So she asked on the phone if a correctly dated form could be sent out. The answer was "No, we know there's a mistake on it". British Gas fully expect their customers to sign binding agreements that are factually incorrect. Yes, the mistake is obvious, but surely British Gas must realise that many people would not be happy to agree to signing it.

My own recent experience of British Gas (dealing with boiler cover) was absolutely dire. (I related it elsewhere on the Forum some time ago)

I wish they'd stop spending such vast sums on producing freakish adverts; then concentrate more fully on customer service - and proofreading!

Edit. Confusion very helpfully cleared up by Wywth. See below.

Wywth

mcculloch29 wrote: »

My sister, (a pensioner), received a fixed price agreement offer in the post from British Gas, that has to be taken up by November 15th and runs until November 2013. She has to sign a form to accept the offer and send it back.

The form contained a printing error stating the offer would run from November 2013 to November 30th 2013.

She worked with legally binding contracts all her working life and is very reluctant to sign anything with such a glaring error on it - she felt that British Gas could use this to go back on the deal.

So she asked on the phone if a correctly dated form could be sent out. The answer was "No, we know there's a mistake on it". British Gas fully expect their customers to sign binding agreements that are factually incorrect. Yes, the mistake is obvious, but surely British Gas must realise that many people would not be happy to agree to signing it.

My own recent experience of British Gas (dealing with boiler cover) was absolutely dire. (I related it elsewhere on the Forum some time ago)

I wish they'd stop spending such vast sums on producing freakish adverts; then concentrate more fully on customer service - and proofreading! :mad:.

Why doesn't she follow the advice in the article in the OP? :huh:
She could probably save about £300 a year :beer:

Edit: Btw, just checked a copy of the correspondence they sent "My sister" and it doesn't say what you claim, so I don't understand why she was told waht she says she was when on the phone to BG. :huh:

I suggest you get your sister who allegedly "worked with legally binding contracts all her working life" to check again what it actually says

Wywth

Here's the voucher your sister is being asked to sign



Note that 'Fix & Fall November 2013' is the name of the tariff and not an indication of the start date.

Refer to full terms on the reverse

"The Fix & Fall November 2013 gas and electricity prices are capped from and including 16th November 2012..."

mcculloch29

Thank you very much for taking the time to post that - I could only go on what my sister (who does exist and dealt a lot with legal docs!) said.
I'm not with British Gas due to previous poor experiences so didn't know anything about it.

I feel sorry for the person she spoke to at BG, perhaps others have been similarly confused which is why they referred to a misprint.

Personally speaking, I'd have put "Fix and Fall November 2013" in inverted commas, as it's the name of the tariff.

She lives 300 miles from me so I only had her word over the phone to go on.

Anyway, I've just rung her and explained what it all meant, and that it was the tariff name . She's not an unintelligent woman but does like to dot the i's and cross the t's. Thanks again for your help.

lazystar

Wywth wrote: »

Which tariff are you on, exactly?

A FIXED tariff is just that, one where the tariff charges will not alter (except for possible VAT rate changes) over the term of the agreement.

If you have been advised your tariff charges are changing, it doesn't sound like you are actually on a FIXED tariff.

i have bill saver aug2013 electricity & gas with npower.there is an anual bill increaseof 11.4% and 8.6% on gas .
if its not fixed why does it quote aug2013 ?
and lots of old/new prices i dont understand with & excluding vat.
thankyou for your reply ive only just nioticed as i didnt receive a notification.