Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

Consumerist

thorpemeister said:

Just cancelled switching suppliers with the new auto-switch facility. On the last step of the process, the new supplier told me I'd be paying £30/month more. Anyone else tried and had a better experience? 

Energy prices are on the increase across the board at the moment so you might not be able to get a tariff which is cheaper than your current tariff. Longer-term tariffs tend to be pretty expensive too.

The question to ask yourself is can you get your energy any cheaper elsewhere using the same preferences. If you can't then try changing your preferences.

Doc_N

Consumerist said:

thorpemeister said:

Just cancelled switching suppliers with the new auto-switch facility. On the last step of the process, the new supplier told me I'd be paying £30/month more. Anyone else tried and had a better experience? 

Energy prices are on the increase across the board at the moment so you might not be able to get a tariff which is cheaper than your current tariff. Longer-term tariffs tend to be pretty expensive too.

Too right. My People's Energy one year fix ending in February is currently showing as around £300 a year cheaper than anything at all currently available. 

Still plenty of time for prices to fall again,  which I suspect they will given the global impacts of the second wave. 

eezyrider

I'm struggling to see how reliable energy comparisons are.
Firstly if I enter my usage on a spreadsheet and use individual tariff prices they are somewhat more expensive than the annual figures quoted.
Secondly, in the last day or so I was offered a £100 credit to switch so I agreed to do so. My current supplier then contacts me and offers me 15% ''loyalty'' discount to stay with them which wipes out any saving by switching.
It's as much of a minefield as mobile phone packages.

Gerry1

eezyrider said:

Firstly if I enter my usage on a spreadsheet and use individual tariff prices they are somewhat more expensive than the annual figures quoted.

Secondly, in the last day or so I was offered a £100 credit to switch so I agreed to do so.

Make sure 5% VAT is always included.  Ignore any projections and claimed savings, Ofgem's formula is daft.

If there are signing up bonus or cashbacks it's unlikley to be the cheapest tariff (with the possible exception of the first year).

Consumerist

eezyrider said:

I'm struggling to see how reliable energy comparisons are.
Firstly if I enter my usage on a spreadsheet and use individual tariff prices they are somewhat more expensive than the annual figures quoted.
Secondly, in the last day or so I was offered a £100 credit to switch so I agreed to do so. My current supplier then contacts me and offers me 15% ''loyalty'' discount to stay with them which wipes out any saving by switching.
It's as much of a minefield as mobile phone packages.

Hi eezyrider and welcome to the forum

I have found MSE's Cheap Energy Club comparisons to be consistent with my spreadsheet calcs but I always re-check them. It's a good way to verify that your spreadsheet is calculating properly.

Don't forget you have a 14-day cooling-off period so you can cancel the switch if you act quickly.

accorian

I

eezyrider said:

I'm struggling to see how reliable energy comparisons are.
Firstly if I enter my usage on a spreadsheet and use individual tariff prices they are somewhat more expensive than the annual figures quoted.
Secondly, in the last day or so I was offered a £100 credit to switch so I agreed to do so. My current supplier then contacts me and offers me 15% ''loyalty'' discount to stay with them which wipes out any saving by switching.
It's as much of a minefield as mobile phone packages.

Over the past fortnight, I've received three emails from EDF, asking me to reappoint the company as our family's energy supplier. (I switched from EDF 4 years ago, but it seems they're retaining customer data for as long as they feel like it.)

The bait is £150.

EDF will credit that amount against my account after I've returned to the fold.

Our energy is currently supplied via Bulb. We have no problems with Bulb and like its level of customer service and evident honesty.

Fortunately, I have absolutely no problem at all in organising my own ultra-reliable energy comparison.  I add up the billed consumption for the preceding 12 months, make a note of the costs, then use those consumption figures as a guide to the next 12 months' usage, costing that out on the basis of the promised kwH prices provided by the suppliers. I don't let any third party tell me what my "saving" will be because they're highly unlikely to know: even the MSE Energy Club has mis-estimated in the past.

Will I accept the EDF £150 bribe? Nope. I'm happy where I am and my peace of mind has a monetary value far in excess of whatever EDF is offering. I'm not even going to bother doing the math on a comparative Bulb/EDF consumption check.

Consumerist

accorian said:

Over the past fortnight, I've received three emails from EDF, asking me to reappoint the company as our family's energy supplier. (I switched from EDF 4 years ago, but it seems they're retaining customer data for as long as they feel like it.)

I recently received a refund/compensation, out of the blue, from Ovo into my bank account. I left Ovo three or more years ago.

With the compensation being ordered recently by energy regulators, it seem likely they need to retain customer details for that long, these days.

eezyrider

accorian said:

I

eezyrider said:

I'm struggling to see how reliable energy comparisons are.
Firstly if I enter my usage on a spreadsheet and use individual tariff prices they are somewhat more expensive than the annual figures quoted.
Secondly, in the last day or so I was offered a £100 credit to switch so I agreed to do so. My current supplier then contacts me and offers me 15% ''loyalty'' discount to stay with them which wipes out any saving by switching.
It's as much of a minefield as mobile phone packages.

Over the past fortnight, I've received three emails from EDF, asking me to reappoint the company as our family's energy supplier. (I switched from EDF 4 years ago, but it seems they're retaining customer data for as long as they feel like it.)

The bait is £150.

EDF will credit that amount against my account after I've returned to the fold.

Our energy is currently supplied via Bulb. We have no problems with Bulb and like its level of customer service and evident honesty.

Fortunately, I have absolutely no problem at all in organising my own ultra-reliable energy comparison.  I add up the billed consumption for the preceding 12 months, make a note of the costs, then use those consumption figures as a guide to the next 12 months' usage, costing that out on the basis of the promised kwH prices provided by the suppliers. I don't let any third party tell me what my "saving" will be because they're highly unlikely to know: even the MSE Energy Club has mis-estimated in the past.

Will I accept the EDF £150 bribe? Nope. I'm happy where I am and my peace of mind has a monetary value far in excess of whatever EDF is offering. I'm not even going to bother doing the math on a comparative Bulb/EDF consumption check.

It was EDF who made the £100 offer.

accorian

Consumerist said:

accorian said:

Over the past fortnight, I've received three emails from EDF, asking me to reappoint the company as our family's energy supplier. (I switched from EDF 4 years ago, but it seems they're retaining customer data for as long as they feel like it.)

I recently received a refund/compensation, out of the blue, from Ovo into my bank account. I left Ovo three or more years ago.

With the compensation being ordered recently by energy regulators, it seem likely they need to retain customer details for that long, these days.

Thanks for that info: I did wonder about the seemingly lengthy retention of my personal data by an energy company I no longer do business with. Glad to hear you got something back from Ovo; sadly, my family's experience has been that the Regulator has rarely stepped in on the side of an individual consumer, whilst that other meaningless bureaucratic entity, the Energy Ombudsman, has never ordered a rogue supplier to pay anything like as much in compensation as the hundred and fifty quid now knocking around for free from EDF.

accorian

eezyrider said:

It was EDF who made the £100 offer.

It was EDF who made the £100 offer. 

I'd be inclined to get back onto EDF and ask why you're not being offered the same £150 deal that friends and relatives of yours are receiving:

The hapless infants running EDF's marketing department ought to wake up to the fact that not every ex-customer welcomes an email visualising them as an inert Candy Crush obsessed moron who couldn't even win third prize in a Jimi Hendrix lookalike contest.