Comparison sites useless at the moment

KBZL

I sorted a 2 year fix for my flat a few months ago so I'm OK there.
I've been helping a friend sort the supplier for their new flat. I tried using USwitch today and it's useless. It's not calculated the costs of the existing supplier properly and then says there's no options it can recommend. I also tried GoCompare which has a bug where it won't remember the E7 setting so reverts to single tariffs when giving results.

I've got a decent analysis of consumption for day and night use (Economy 7) and I know what the existing standing, day and night rates are.
I've had to manually trawl through supplier sites obtaining quotes and then extracting the rates from those to make a meaningful comparison. USwitch used to be somewhat approximate in previous years so I'm used to doing this. The downside is that I don't know what suppliers are worth trying now that I've worked through all the big names.

The best option at the moment seems to be to go for the 18 months fix with EON-NEXT which is slightly more expensive than their variable rate but protects my friend from any nasty surprises for the next 18 months.

QrizB

KBZL said:

The best option at the moment seems to be to go for the 18 months fix with EON-NEXT which is slightly more expensive than their variable rate but protects my friend from any nasty surprises for the next 18 months.

Or they can stick with the variable rate until March and see what the market offers then?

bagand96

They're not really the best comparison sites anyway even in normal times as they'll highlight deals that pay them comission but aren't necessarily cheapest for the consumer.  (That said uSwitch does have a whole of market option which I think is pretty good, but you have to find it in the filters).  Citizens Advice Bureau and Which? are the best sites.

But there's nothing cheaper than the SVT at the moment so it's all a bit of a moot point. 

KBZL

QrizB said:

KBZL said:

The best option at the moment seems to be to go for the 18 months fix with EON-NEXT which is slightly more expensive than their variable rate but protects my friend from any nasty surprises for the next 18 months.

Or they can stick with the variable rate until March and see what the market offers then?

I've done a quick calculation and the price cap rate would be very slightly more expensive than going for the 18 month fix, so I'm minded for the 18 month rate. I'm not sure if the variable rate that was offered is the true standard variable rate either, since it's an E7 tariff.

QrizB

KBZL said:

 I'm not sure if the variable rate that was offered is the true standard variable rate either, since it's an E7 tariff.

There is (or seems to be) more variation in E7 rates, due to the way Ofgem presents the cap. This means the best tariff for you will depend on exactly how much energy you use at which rate. Examples in my region:

• EON EnergyPlan day/night 24.249/12.427
• Octopus Flexible 22.01/15.19
• BG Standard Variable 24.077/12.666
  

For all three the standing charge is identical, to within a tenth of a penny a day. So from those three examples, someone using a lot of daytime energy would be better off with Octopus, while someone using a lot of night-time energy would be better off with BG.

(It isn't a huge effect; for someone using 1000kWh of day and 2000kWh of night, BG is £30 cheaper than Octopus. If reversed, Octopus is £16 cheaper than BG.)

Acespok

bagand96 said:

Citizens Advice Bureau and Which? are the best sites.

I like MSE's comparison: https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

It can send you an email when a cheaper tariff becomes available.

matelodave

Just for sport I've done a comparison as I'm now on the EoN-Next Flex default tariff (because SYMBIO went bust) - which now costs me around £1700 rather than the £960 I was paying with SYMBIO.

The best fix I can get at the moment is between £2300-2700+ so I'll be staying where I am at the moment