Uswitch experiences

hodd

My gas and electricity contract ends on 30 October, and as it's confusing to compare proces online now, I gave Uswitch a call for the first time. It's not the greatest experience. They bombard you with numbers but won't e-mail these unless you switch. Yes, you can cancel within 14 days, but it's hassle, and I can't think where else you'd sign up for something after only hearing numbers over the phone.

My current supplier Utility Point can offer me £164 a month fixed for 12 months. Uswitch offered deals fixed for 2 years, but these were £200 a month, i.e. already £432 a year more.

OK, prices will go up, but I'll task the risk rather than pay £432 more in 2022. I expected Uswitch to be more useful. That was some hard sell going on.

JJ_Egan

Its not the £164 that's fixed its the unit price that's fixed /you may pay more or less depending upon consumption.

£164 pm reads as . high usage

hodd

Is £164 high for gas and electricity? I might live in a ten-bedroom villa. OK then, I don't, but it's an old place.

I did look at the unit prices too to compare my current supplier's (Utility Point) offer against USwitch's EDF quote. It'd be clearer to show this in a spreadsheet, but anyone can do this as long as you know your annual usage in kWh.

Utility Point electricity: 17.3114p per kWh; 27.05p per day standing charge
Utility Point gas: 3.1815p per kWh; 22.15p per day standing charge
Total annual cost: £1962.60 (12 month contract)

EDF electricity: 20.23p per kWh; 26.12p per day standing charge
EDF gas: 3.985p per kWh; 26.12p per day standing charge

Total annual cost: £2310.59 (24 month contract)

So I'm £374.99 better off already. Prices would have to rise more than the press predictions for me to lose out in 2023. 

It's worth doing the sums as well as checking comparison sites. 

BUFF

hodd said:

 I gave Uswitch a call for the first time. It's not the greatest experience. They bombard you with numbers but won't e-mail these unless you switch.

why would you call them when you can check their comparison site (& other such sites) & have the results displayed in front of you online ...? 

hodd

BUFF said:

hodd said:

 I gave Uswitch a call for the first time. It's not the greatest experience. They bombard you with numbers but won't e-mail these unless you switch.

why would you call them when you can check their comparison site (& other such sites) & have the results displayed in front of you online ...? 

My contract's due to end in October anyway, so I thought I'd give them a try to see if I'd missed anything online. Somebody must use their help lines or they would've stopped long ago. The operator was friendly enough, but she did say no need to write the numbers down as they'll be e-mailed. Then she said she couldn't e-mail them until I'd verbally agreed to switch. That's unreasonable, so I'll just go online in future. 

I'm no wizard with figures, but an app to do the calculations I did above would be useful along with a comparison site.

greenguppie

hodd said:

Is £164 high for gas and electricity? I might live in a ten-bedroom villa. OK then, I don't, but it's an old place.

I did look at the unit prices too to compare my current supplier's (Utility Point) offer against USwitch's EDF quote. It'd be clearer to show this in a spreadsheet, but anyone can do this as long as you know your annual usage in kWh.

Utility Point electricity: 17.3114p per kWh; 27.05p per day standing charge
Utility Point gas: 3.1815p per kWh; 22.15p per day standing charge
Total annual cost: £1962.60 (12 month contract)

EDF electricity: 20.23p per kWh; 26.12p per day standing charge
EDF gas: 3.985p per kWh; 26.12p per day standing charge

Total annual cost: £2310.59 (24 month contract)

So I'm £374.99 better off already. Prices would have to rise more than the press predictions for me to lose out in 2023. 

It's worth doing the sums as well as checking comparison sites. 

You wouldn't, as a new customer, be offered that UP tariff, especially for gas, today.

You must have been offered it as a special loyalty tariff that UP claim to offer, but when we were entitled to one it was far in excess of what we could get elsewhere so we switched away.

The UP 12M fixed tariff for new customers in the East Midlands supply region (where gas is usually the cheapest) is Just Join Up 21 12M Fixed Wk35.

Utility Point electricity: 17.7020p per kWh; 24.36p per day standing charge
Utility Point gas: 4.2693p per kWh; 23.24p per day standing charge

hodd

I just double checked to make sure I hadn't made an error.

I'm in the West Midands. The current tariff which ends on 30 October is Emerald. The new one is Just Up 21 Spring Renewal v2, and the figures are as per the post above.