Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

NonGeographicalMan

derosasteve wrote: »

I Am now looking to change from economy 7 and have been given 2 different stories, from my current provider Eon they will change my tarriff and just add the meter readings together, however EDF say this is against the Law and cannot offer me their online 5 tarriff untill the meter is changed (this will cost £50 and is something I will probably do) who is correct?

I would hope that the regulator, Ofgem, ought to be able to give you an answer on this although these gloriously overpaid civil servants usually try to avoid giving a commitment on anything to the mere plebs in the general public if they can. They prefer that you raise a query with the utterly useless www.consumerdirect.gov.uk who will undoubtedly not know the answer to this question.

But perhaps if you send an email to one of the following (all email addresses at Ofgem are [EMAIL="firstname.lastname@ofgem.org.uk"]firstname.lastname@ofgem.org.uk[/EMAIL]) you may get a reply. I don't see why Economy 7 meter readings can't just be added to your main reading if you are now on a single tariff so would rather tend to suspect EDF are just being inflexible and bureaucratic.

From www.ofgem.gov.uk/About us/whoswho/Pages/Who'sWhoatOfgem.aspx

Who's Who at Ofgem
Ofgem Group

Lord John Mogg - Chairman
Alistair Buchanan - Chief Executive
Roy Field - Group Secretary
Charles Gallacher - Director, Scotland, Wales & Regions
Wilf Wilde - Director, Marketing & Public Affairs

Ofgem

Markets

Andrew Wright - Senior Partner
Martin Crouch - Partner, European Strategy
Duncan Sinclair - Partner, Legal (Markets)
Ian Marlee - Partner, Trading Arrangements

Local Grids & RPI-X@20
Steve Smith - Senior Partner
Rachel Fletcher - Partner, Distribution
Hannah Nixon - Partner, Regulatory Review
Gareth Evans - Head of Profession, Engineering (Technical Advisor)

Transmisson & Governance
Stuart Cook - Acting Senior Partner
David Ashbourne - Partner, Legal (Networks)
TBA - Associate Partner, Industry codes & licensing and Governance review

Sustainable Development
Sarah Harrison - Senior Partner
Maxine Frerk - Partner, Consumer & Legal Affairs
Irene Hurrel - Associate Partner, Legal

Ofgem E-Serve

Robert Hull - Acting Managing Director, Commercial
Stephanie McGregor - Associate Director, Offshore
TBA - Group Finance Director
David Gillies - Associate Director, Human Resouces
Richard Fawcett - Associate Director, Procurement
Paul Heseltine - Associate Director, Finance
Curt Silver - Associate Director, Information Management and Technology
Andrew Mann - Associate Director, Projects
Charles Hargeaves, Matthew Harnack - Environmental Products

sumsup

Should I switch to firstutility?? According to the comparison site on moneysupermarket, it would save me £500 per year! ( I currently pay £95 per mnth for gas to scottish power, and £65 per month for electricity to EDF, both on standard tarrifs, payment by DD). The saving looks tempting, but most of the customer feedback on that site is really negative about firstutility. Does anyone have any experience of them. I have never had any problem with current suppliers, and don't want to have lots of hassle!

fullstop

No experience of First Utility, but as you have two different energy providers it might be worth you finding out if you can get a better deal if you take gas and electricity from the same provider as sometimes you can make a decent saving on dual fuel (not always)

sumsup

Thank you. I did call both current suppliers, the most they can save me is around £120 per year. The next closest to firstUtility is EON, saving over £400. I wonder what their service is like?

NonGeographicalMan

sumsup wrote: »

Thank you. I did call both current suppliers, the most they can save me is around £120 per year. The next closest to firstUtility is EON, saving over £400. I wonder what their service is like?

Eon used to be Powergen and customer service is reasonable but not outstanding. However even if things are initially messed up a letter to the CEO or other senior director will usually cause an investigation that will get things put right. Some things with FirstUtility suggest they have bitten off more than they can chew and your issues might not get put right for ages.

The £100 a year difference on the amount of energy you are consuming (to go to Eon instead of First Utility) is very small in percentage terms. So the main things to cocnentrate on are how do First Utility and Eon compare on having tricks like big cash bonuses only paid once a year that mean you do not get the advertised price if you leave in month 7 or indeed month 19. You have to give notice at say the end of say month 10 and leave as soon as possible after month 12 to get the advertised price. The Save Online tariff I am moving to with Eon has no penalties for leaving early and that is why I am passing up paying £40 or £50 per annum less on a total of £370 electricity use and £430 gas use because the lack of lock in on on Eon Save Online means in the real world the Eon tariff will cost me less when I come to switch than lock you in for years merchants like Npower or First Utility.

Don't just accept what the comparison websites tell you but visit the website of the supplier and see what the actual breakdown of charges and any penalty charges actually is between the two suppliers. In my personal view the long lock in merchants are usually worth avoiding like the plague as such pricing plans are usually a sign of a company that has contempt for their customers............

sumsup

Thank you I'll go look at their websites - appreciate the advice I have never bothered to do this before, didn't think I would be able to save much... !

NonGeographicalMan

sumsup wrote: »

Thank you I'll go look at their websites - appreciate the advice I have never bothered to do this before, didn't think I would be able to save much... !

Someone using as much energy as you are can obviously save a lot by switching suppliers (especially if the two supplies are on tariffs that were superseded by cheapers ones several years ago or they have never been switched away from the original incumbent suppliers in the first place - also dual fuel is nearly always cheaper because they are selling you more energy in total and so have lower total admin costs in percentage terms). Although is there any particular reason you use so much energy like having 5 children and living in a drafty 7 bed country mansion? For instance have you changed all your light bulbs to low energy light bulbs and put in thick loft insulation and cavity filled your walls. That saves a lot during the cold dark winter months.

By the way you can get £62 cashback for making a dual fuel switch to Eon starting on the www.topcashback.co.uk website as long as you join as a member (its completely free and the money is credited to your bank account by BACS and there are no catches) whereas there is no cashback available for joining First Utility. So once you take that £62 in to account and Eon being a more established supplier (probably much less likely to suddenly hike up rates for no reason than First Utility) and probably having much less tricky conditions in terms of discounts only paid after 12 months you will probably conclude that moving to Eon is your best bet.

sumsup

thanks we don't have 5 children or 7 bedrooms! but we live in an apartment in a converted victorian building, we do have double glazing and loads of insulation, but the 3.5 metre ceilings mean we have to heat a lot more air!! we are all home all day ( hubby works from home) so use a lot of heating - but this winter I'll be telling everyone to put on a jumper!
thanks for the tip about topcashback, I'll def use that if I decide to use EON.

anias_2

If this is not the right place for this post as I'm not sure where the Referrers section is, I apologise in advance.

I will declare my interest up front - I am an agent for a utility company, which is one of my business areas. I am writing here so that everyone knows that they are not given all the information on these and other comparison sites with which to make a true comparison. Should I inadvertantly upset anyone then I sincerely apologise.

Everyone needs to be aware that there are alternatives - but only if that company pays money to be included - which is then passed on to you the customer - even though you believe you are getting a good deal. Our company is not included - as they will not pay to be included, in spite of attempts by comparison websites to get them to pay .

Our company would rather pay the commission to us, those who make this their business. I'm making this point as I have been taken in myself by the cheap online switching sites - and ended up paying a lot more once I was a few weeks into my switched contract, and I mean about 10p per unit of electricity more than the incumbent supplier:mad:. This was about a year ago, and once the rates were hiked up, I left, went to someone else who was a lot cheaper, before I found my current supplier, for whom I am now an agent. We have one price band for each different supply area (e.g. Southern, Scottish Power etc) and type of dwelling and that's it, no mucking about.

For those of you who want to know more, PM me and I would be happy to let you have the information so that you can do your own true comparisons and decide who you'd like as your energy and telephony supplier. By the way, our Energy and Broadband have recently been voted Best Buy by Which? magazine by miles :j. If you want £100 off your utility bill in 12 months time, you now know where to go for the best deal. Who else offers this, no contracts as well as better rates than the largest suppliers?

Regards, Ania

RRatchet

Hi,

I would like to know if anyone has an insight into our situation.

We are owner occupier farmers and our electricity (no gas as in the middle of nowhere) is classed as a business supply with HydroElectric. We have 2 meters which is a fairly common occurance on a lot of farms one supplies the house and part of the steading and the other the steading only. Most (>80%) of the elecy used is domestic the only business use (about £25) is lights/water pump (which also supplies the house) and occasionally powered hand tools.

Does anyone know of it's possible to have our supply reclassed as domestic? Are there any pitfalls/benefits to changing? Is there a comparison site for businesses that doesn't involve talking to an advisor?

Thanks

R