Trapped by comparison sites

FarawayPictures

I signed up to 'Look After My Bills' earlier in the year. It was a good price Utility Point  offered at top of the list, so switched to them. 
However, now it's getting colder they want to increase my bill by 72.5%! 
I can't decide if they were just completely useless at calculating my usage, only calculated at summer usage and didn't consider winter or just dangled a price in front of me, waited for me to bite and then suckered me later?
Oh yes, they want to charge me 103% of my bill if I leave early.
I am leaving (I have no intention of paying a fee to do this under these circumstances) and signed up to the MSE switcher, though I am a little nervous I'm going to experience the same thing here.
Any comments on this?

MWT

Firstly do remember to cancel your account with 'Look After My Bills' or you'll find yourself switched somewhere else at some point in the future.

Secondly, stop using these switching services and take control of your own destiny, they will only ever switch you to somewhere that pays them for doing it, not necessarily the cheapest place for your usage profile.

Finally, when you use any of the comparison sites they use the information you give them to calculate your likely usage so make sure you give them accurate numbers from your previous years actual usage don't just pick one of the standard profiles or you will continue to get surprises when they adjust for your actual use.

Compare the actual cost of a full year of your actual usage, don't believe the 'savings' any of the sites show you.

Robin9

LAMB do nothing that you can't do for yourself (and cheaper).  Take responsibility for your own bills, read those meters monthly and understand those bills.

When you signed up what annual consumption figures did you use ?  How does that compare with the last 12  months - find a November 2019 bill hopefully with ACTUAL readings on it, read your meters today and do your sums (electric is easy, gas needs a 11.2 multiplication of the meter consumption.

Put those consumption figures into a comparison site - Citizens Advice or Which.  Do the exercise three times - gas, electric and dual fuel  - as separate suppliers are usually cheaper. Look for the annual costs and ignore the "savings"

I don't understand the 103% to leave. - please quote exactly what they say.

dogshome

Signing up with Look after my Bills was never a good idea - They are a business and businesses must make profit - The profit for LamB is from the commissions that are paid to them by the suppliers they switch you to, but not all suppliers pay commissions so these will never be listed by LamB

You say Upoint was at the top of the list, if this list was from LaB, then it's a fair bet that it was in that position because it paid the most commission.

You must take back control of your Energy supplier/s

then go onto the Citizens Advice Energy website to look at other suppliers prices, to do this you need a good idea of what your Annual Consumption is - It this a problem post details of your home - Size? / Electric only? / Eco7 meter? /Elec & Gas? / Period & Consumption on past bills?.  Then  responders on the site will help you

Gerry1

Another forumite who doesn't understand that the DD amount is just a top up of a kitty that may or may not have enough in it to pay the bills.  It's like four students in a flatshare each deciding to put a fiver a week into a jam jar to pay all the food and drink bills.  They'll get a shock when they get to the supermarket checkout only to find that they can't pay for their trolley load !

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/#whatyoupay

Assuming the '103%' refers to 103% of the monthly DD amount, that suggests your DD was too low.  If it's £25 per fuel that implies annual consumption of under £600 which seems unrealistic except for a very small flat with the occupant out all day.

You will have agreed to a contract with exit fees, so you'll have to pay them, you can't just walk away without consequences.

Talldave

FarawayPictures said:

I signed up to 'Look After My Bills' earlier in the year. It was a good price Utility Point  offered at top of the list, so switched to them. 
However, now it's getting colder they want to increase my bill by 72.5%! 
I can't decide if they were just completely useless at calculating my usage, only calculated at summer usage and didn't consider winter or just dangled a price in front of me, waited for me to bite and then suckered me later?
Oh yes, they want to charge me 103% of my bill if I leave early.
I am leaving (I have no intention of paying a fee to do this under these circumstances) and signed up to the MSE switcher, though I am a little nervous I'm going to experience the same thing here.
Any comments on this?

So, having been screwed over by one auto-switching service, you're going to sign up with another, whilst planning on not paying the fees you agreed to pay when you signed up?  Why should you get away with not paying something you've contracted to pay?  What do you mean by "under these circumstances"?  Do you mean the circumstances that you've triggered a financial penalty clause in a contract that you willingly signed up to?  The costs of chasing you for your debt will lead to increased prices for other people - thanks!!

Robin9

@Farway  You can't just decide not to pay - you are stuck with LAMB and UP until such time you settle the outstanding bill as UP will block the switch.

Give us some readings, copies of bills (with your personal info blanked out) and monies paid and we will try to help.

Farway

Robin9 said:

@Farway  You can't just decide not to pay - you are stuck with LAMB and UP until such time you settle the outstanding bill as UP will block the switch.

Give us some readings, copies of bills (with your personal info blanked out) and monies paid and we will try to help.

Not me Guv, try FarawayPictures

thorganby

FarawayPictures said:

Any comments on this?

Why do you think that the Dragons signed up, they could smell the steady income stream from lazy gullible mugs signing up thinking that they would save money!

https://www.facebook.com/LookAfterMyBills/videos/658112024627047/

No savvy money saver is going to use sites like these or the MSE switcher which takes the saving that you could have had and generates a steady income stream for them.

I bet that you don't even know how much you are actually paying per kWh and your daily standing charge etc.

You chose to be trapped.

Neil_Jones

FarawayPictures said:

I signed up to 'Look After My Bills' earlier in the year. It was a good price Utility Point  offered at top of the list, so switched to them. 
However, now it's getting colder they want to increase my bill by 72.5%! 
I can't decide if they were just completely useless at calculating my usage, only calculated at summer usage and didn't consider winter or just dangled a price in front of me, waited for me to bite and then suckered me later?
Oh yes, they want to charge me 103% of my bill if I leave early.
I am leaving (I have no intention of paying a fee to do this under these circumstances) and signed up to the MSE switcher, though I am a little nervous I'm going to experience the same thing here.
Any comments on this?

Three basic errors here:

1) LAMB.  Code for the lazy man's switching.

2) "they were useless at calculating my usage" - they can only work with what you give them so if you tell them you use a ridiculously low level of gas/electricity per year then this situation will occur.

3) Deciding its everybody else's fault but your own.  9 times out of 10 "problems" on the Energy forum at MSE are almost always self induced, typically ridiculously low direct debit levels, meters not being read/fed to the supplier (and the huge catch-up bills because of this), situations covered in T&Cs that clearly haven't been read (ie tariff requires you to have smart meters and then complaining they want to install them), and so on and so forth...

Best piece of advice here would be to take responsibility.  If you want to move provider, you're free to do so but you have to pay what you owe already.  Simple as.

FarawayPictures

Thanks for all the comments people.
The one question I need to ask after reading these messages:
Do you not recommend this sites switching service?