Cashback Price Comparison Services Discussion

alared

Iwould suggest that NOW is not the time to make any switch because of the sheep-like behaviour of all these companies in putting their prices up over the coming months.Best wait `til it all settles down.
Surely if one of them had the guts or brains to CUT prices everyone would switch to them.
I would love to hear on the 6 o`clock news that from Jan B.Gas are going to cut prices by 6%.
In your dreams!!!!!

Smartasss

alared wrote:

Iwould suggest that NOW is not the time to make any switch because of the sheep-like behaviour of all these companies in putting their prices up over the coming months

"Waiting to see" - isn't that just what your current supplier would like you to do?

There is never a 'good' time to switch when there are so many competing suppliers.

Much more profitable to switch to the current best buy now - there is no reason why you can't change again if in the near (or distant) future it turns out they have an increase.

alared

Smartass

Great, found a new supplier,cheapest on the market,will take about 30days to switch, if they don`t make an a*s* of it.
Well blow me would you believe it they`re going to put up their prices by 9% now I`ve gone with them.
Never mind lets start the search all over again.

Go to this link and see what energywatch said about the latest UNjustified price hike
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3301413.stm

Smartasss

alared, tariff changes are inevitable - the suppliers always give notice of intended rises, (the one you're upset about doesn't kick in till 10/1/04).

If you don't want to pay the increased tariff you are allowed to switch, and provided you let your current supplier know your intentions their contracts generally allow you out without having to pay any of the new tariff.

There are so many suppliers, they'll never all change tariffs on the same day, so why not play them at their own game, and change your patronage when it suits you.

System

HELLO ALL

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ADD MY 2 PENETH TO THIS THREAD...

I CURRENTLY USE 4200kW/YEAR ELECTRICITY AND 25500kW/YEAR GAS. NOW IN DOING THE ROUNDS ON THE ENERGY WEB SITES I GET CONFLICTING USAGE BILLS. IE ENERGYLINXS SAYS I USE £602/year AS USWITCH SAY I USE £515/YEAR AND ALL THE OTHERS DIFFER. THEY ALL OFFER ME A SAVING ON MY EXISTING SUPPLIER GREAT BUT WHO IS CORRECT.

SO WHAT DO I DO. I LOOK AT THE TARIFFS IN DETAIL OF THE TOP 2 ON EACH WEB SITE AND THEN DO MY OWN CALCULATIONS. THIS IS SIMPLE ARITHMATIC WHICH I FEEL I CAN DO.

SIMPLY TIMES THE TARIFF BY THE USAGE AND ADD ON THE STANDING CHARGE, SIMPLE. WHEN I DO THIS I FIND THE CALCULATIONS ON THE WEB SITE DIFFER FROM MINE, SO IN FACT I AM FINDING THAT THE TOP ONES DO NOT SAVE ME AS MUCH OR ANY MONEY AT ALL.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE ???????

ALSO I HAVE A POINT THAT ANYONE IN A NEW HOUSE WITH NON-TRANSCO PIPING COULD FIND THAT THE GAS SUPPLIER CAN NOT SUPPLY THEM OR THEY HAVE TO PAY A HIGHER RATE FOR STANDING CHARGE. THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME MANY TIMES.

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY TO POEPLE THE ONLY WAY TO FIND THE CHEAPEST IS TO DO THE SUMS YOURSELF. FIND OUT THE ANUAL USAGE YOU HAVE THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART AS YOU CAN ONLY ACCURATLY WORK OUT ANY SAVINGS DOING IT THIS WAY. FIND OUT WHO OWNS THE GAS PIPES AND PLEASE DO NOT TRUST THESE ENERGY WEBSITES AT FACE VALUE.

(THEY DO MISSLEAD, EVEN IF THEY MAY NOT INTEND TO)

alared

Smartass

I`m not upset by the BG price increase,as far as I`m concerned they can hike it by 26% because I don`t use them,in fact I would rather use candles than go with them.
My whole point is these so-called comparison sites must be getting paid to come up with who can save you the most money.Have you ever come across one that said they could`nt save you any?
As I point out in other posts no matter which search you use they all come up with a different supplier.
WHY?
Surely if you input the same info into each one there would be some sort of consistency.
As I`ve said before the only competition out there is to see who can put their prices up the most and at the same time blame everything and everyone but themselves for the increase.(one does it they all do it)
There is no TRUE competition, just a load of backhanders being paid to con the average consumer.
In the financial services world it is known as "churning",
buying and selling products for no other reason than to make commission.
I would rather go to about six supplier`s websites and get the cost of price per unit and standing charges to to give me a better comparison than use a search engine that may not be giving the whole picture.

System

Hi Nimaid,

As one of the guys who runs EnergyHelpline.com and SwitchandGive.com I can totally sympathise with your situation.

A few things to remember when you compare prices however:

1. Suppliers generally quote prices without VAT and price comparison services generally do not - hence you often have to add 5% onto your current figures

2. Lots of tariffs are going up - recently Scottish & Southern, Basic Power and ScottishPower - so do be careful when comparing prices from old bills as these prices may no longer be valid.

3. Make sure you have included all the new discounts

If you ever have questions about energy helpline or switchandgive information feel free to call our helpline 0870 922 0353 (mon-fri 9am-6pm) and we will do our best to talk you through any calculations ::)

All the best,

Mark.

System

I work as a pricing analyst in one of the energy suppliers and as far as pricing is concerned each domestic supplier's website does display prices that include VAT. They also must by law quote domestic prices that include VAT for any telesales operation.

This is part of the current requirements placed on the suppliers and it also applies to all the approved price comparison sites so the last message is actually incorrect.

Each supplier and each price comparison service receives an industry wide price update as soon as prices are altered.

There is therefore no reason other than speed of updating a particular website that prices differ between sites, this is regardless of whether the website belongs to a price comparison service or an energy supplier.

So in short the only reason that prices differ between websites is to do with efficiency of that site.

If you look at the recent British Gas price increase, how many sites have these prices displayed already?

I had a quick look this morning and found that very few energy suppliers had updated these prices and even less price comparison services.

Hope this helps, my advice is to only use the services that are updated regularly.

Archibald

Today I have looked on 4 sites (buy, energylinx, uswitch & save on your bills) quoting the same details for gas (for the Southern area) and looking specifically for internet accounts and only one showed Atlantic's prices which are considerably less than quoted by the others.

The only reason I persisted is that I knew of Atlantic's competitiveness from an earlier search so unfortunately it remains the case, as with other search engines, you need to do similar research (ie check more than one!)when using specialised search engines such as these.

It sort of defeats the point of having them unless you use the argument better some attempts than none at all!

bad_boy_2

???I am a t+ customer i have gas/electric/phone and mobile xtra.
everything was fine until this month , i noticed that my electric bill was twice what it was last month and nothing has been different to last month in terms of use in the normal way and enviormental conditions.
So i have written to them to ask them to consider wheather they have made a mistake i have also sent them new meter readings.

One major problem i have come across in trying to compare and reduce the cost is that on the evaluation q+a's it's hard to estimate what ur annual cost of ur uttility is if it is so different every month also in summer what would be the difference.
you could let them estimate it for u but i just don't know if u would get the right deal of the back of it.