Was it really worth switching?

Admiral_Barbarossa

Having been a main supplier customer for over 20 years, I have not switched to another one in that time. My supplier has regularly given competitive rates, withing £20 a year of the fly by night outfits, two more of which have ceased trading today. Even the uswitch site last year gave me a good deal, that withing days said no other deals, should I switch could beat my rates! Then the switch I pulled off, in contract free with them went through early this month. Sergie has not bothered to compare and uswitch has not got that one yet!

Of course I have hovered around here to see what was happening and for me it ...

So if I switch, I get hassle of a transfer, will it go through!
It takes moths to get the credit back from previous supplier because they got the DD wrong!
New supplier realises that they gave inaccurate estimate (sweetener?) and rack up new DD!
I get upset and switch again, to go through it all year in, year out! Losing out on the WHD as you do so!

All that for a jar and a steak in the bar a year? Is that hassle worth it?

My main supplier does this in about two days to the best tariff, or in 7 days if from the uswitch site!

Verdigris

You're using the switching site wrong if you were only saving £20.

Liku

I switch every year to a new one and for me it saves more than £20/year. Perhaps if you can get them to give a good deal but for me it is less hassle to just switch than try to get a deal from a main supplier. Before the price cap I could save a lot more though. It really depends on your individual situation. £20/year wouldn't be worth it but it was more like £10-20 per month saving for me over main suppliers.

[Deleted User]

Admiral_Barbarossa said:

My main supplier does this in about two days to the best tariff, or in 7 days if from the uswitch site!

That’s because it is not a switch: it is in fact a mutual variation of an existing contract that has to be actioned within 5 days.

Swipe

£20? I saved £400 on my last switch in April for the 20,000kWh I use on Economy 7

Admiral_Barbarossa

Just done my monthly check since a few cowboy outfits have exited the market to see my current saving with SP and their December fix they gave me in September!

All now 50% more than the £97 I got back then!

Effician

Swipe said:

£20? I saved £400 on my last switch in April for the 20,000kWh I use on Economy 7

 
Wow, you saved almost what i spend in a yr & i've never switched .

wakeupalarm

No, it wasn't worth it. 

We first switched to a non big 6 supplier 5 years ago.  We generally switched to a 1 year fixed deal throughout that time.  In that time we have probably saved around an average of £60-70 per switch compared to the lowest we could have got from a big 6 supplier.  So over 5 years that worked out to a £300-350 saving overall.

Unfortunately, we last completed a switch just a couple of weeks before our supplier went into administration.  That means we were moved onto the SOLR default tariff and  our current tariff is £400 more then what we were paying and the price is only guaranteed up to April 2022.

If we had stuck with the big 6 suppliers our prices would be lower as we would be on a fixed deal and they would be guaranteed until September next year.

So after 5 years of switching to the cheaper newer suppliers we are down overall and facing even higher bills after April, compared to if we had just stuck with the big 6 suppliers 

5 years of switching and saving wiped out in a couple of weeks. Competition is a myth in the energy market.  Stick to the big 6 suppliers which now includes Octopus Energy and don't bother with the newcomers who have no capital backing and just use customers advance payments to support their flimsy business models.

wittynamegoeshere

They're all cowboy outfits, I don't understand your snobbery.

You would have wasted many £100s by not switching over the years.  It's not relevant at the moment because basically the market's ceased to function.  The current prices offered by most are "Go Away" prices, as they don't want new customers.

Gerry1

You probably saw only the expensive suppliers that pay Uswitch commission.

The option to see the whole of the market is well hidden.  That's why it makes sense (or did, when switching made sense) to start comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch'.

QrizB

wakeupalarm said:

No, it wasn't worth it. 
... So over 5 years that worked out to a £300-350 saving overall.

Unfortunately, we last completed a switch just a couple of weeks before our supplier went into administration.  That means we were moved onto the SOLR default tariff and  our current tariff is £400 more then what we were paying and the price is only guaranteed up to April 2022.

You moved to Avro in early September? The "Big Six" fixed rates available then might have saved you 1p/kWh on gas and 4p/kWh on electricity. For an average 12000/2900 consumer that's £120 on gas and £120 on electricity, and I don't think you can be using much more than that otherwise your savings in the previous 5 years would have been larger.

Also, there were warnings that Avro was in trouble from mid-August (link) so you had the choice then of cheap-but-wobbly Avro or expensive-but-stable B6. You chose cheap.