Advice for a first timer..

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firsttimeever
firsttimeever Posts: 4 Newbie
in Energy
Hi
New to forum. I have been with SSE for over 10 years plus and never switched. I am a typical non switcher using payment on bills every 3 months which is the most expensive and silly way.

I have used the comparison site and can save between £300 - £600 . I have included my actual usage and accurate information. However : i need advice . The best deals are with small independent companies. The 'big uns'. tend to offer smaller quotes but still savings of around £300.

I have read reviews and most are quite negative about almost every energy company. So would you go for a small independent or stick to the big uns ??. And not wanting to risk too much . Do you have any suggestions on a sensible deal for 1 year fixed ??.

Many Thanks
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  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036 Forumite
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    Welcome to the forum.

    People are critical of all Energy companies; it is simply the nature of the beast. Over the years on this forum every major company has been castigated - sometimes with good reason, other times without good reason.

    The two main factors that will affect the choice of your company and tariff is where you live and your level of consumption.

    The various comparison websites often give a level of service 'star rating' for the various companies. Often those companies, who do not give commission to the comparison website, get a low service rating - strange that;)
  • firsttimeever
    firsttimeever Posts: 4 Newbie
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    Thank you cardew for your suggestions. I have undertaken a few comparisons sites and included detailed information. However: the top 20 or so tend to be small independent companies with little feedback or reviews from the site(s). And the best deal from the big un's is EDF 1 year fixed.

    So I suppose my question to forum users is _ will anyone gamble on unknown companies or is the collective 1 year fixed by EDF a safe bet ?. You can tell I am new to this !!
  • buzzard
    buzzard Posts: 227 Forumite
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    I am currently with Avro after Ovo made a total mess of moving me from one tariff to another. I'd say the new small suppliers have to make a lot of effort if they want to stay in the game. Ovo were fine the first year but their billing is now a disaster.

    You can look on the energy Ombudsman site to see who gets the most complaints - Co-op energy have done very badly recently.
  • footyguy
    footyguy Posts: 4,157 Forumite
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    firsttimeever wrote: »
    Hi
    New to forum. I have been with SSE for over 10 years plus and never switched. I am a typical non switcher using payment on bills every 3 months which is the most expensive and silly way.

    I have used the comparison site and can save between £300 - £600 . I have included my actual usage and accurate information. However : i need advice . The best deals are with small independent companies. The 'big uns'. tend to offer smaller quotes but still savings of around £300.

    I have read reviews and most are quite negative about almost every energy company. So would you go for a small independent or stick to the big uns ??. And not wanting to risk too much . Do you have any suggestions on a sensible deal for 1 year fixed ??.

    Many Thanks

    My suggestion is to look at seperate suppliers and take the cheapest for each fuel.

    As you said, all reviews are invariably bad, whether big or small.
    In fact the only supplier I can think of without lots of bad reviews is a small one, but they only supply gas. (but they may not be the cheapest for you anyway)
  • Neil_Jones
    Neil_Jones Posts: 8,913 Forumite
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    Some small providers get great reviews and others get shocking ones - Zog Energy for one is a shining beacon compared to the shambles of Iresa for example.

    If you use this site's Cheap Energy Club you can see the feedback reports for the various companies. Don't forget also it may be cheaper to split your utilities - gas with one company and electric with somebody else. I have SSE for Gas (as I managed to jump in on a cheap collective deal for that one) and Affect Energy for electricity. Prior to this I was with Zog and GB Energy.
  • AndyPK
    AndyPK Posts: 4,241 Forumite
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    I would guess that you could save £500 (or a significant amount) by just changing to a fix tariff with SSE, and would be done simply by picking up and phone and be sorted in 24 hours.

    Small companies are cheap for a good reason, that they don't have lots of people on the end of the phone to sort problems, pay their employees peanuts .... etc.

    So if you want good customer service it maybe best to stick to one of the big named companies and you stand a slightly better chance.

    As said, simply locking into a tariff every year will save you lots
  • footyguy
    footyguy Posts: 4,157 Forumite
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    Cardew wrote: »
    ...
    . Often those companies, who do not give commission to the comparison website, get a low service rating - strange that;)

    Conversely, the supplier that seems to be continually spammed on this site by referrers appears to have great service ... at least from all those referrers who hope to earn money to pay their high energy bills with :cool:

    My motto is never to give business to spammers, and if the supplier involved wanted to stop such spam they could (e.g. by refusing to pay any referral fees to those referrers that spam this site)

    But I suppose there are enough silly people out there to make spam worthwhile, hence why it is so prolific.
  • firsttimeever
    firsttimeever Posts: 4 Newbie
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    I always made the assumption ( wrongly ) that dual fuel is much cheaper. wow...
  • AndyPK
    AndyPK Posts: 4,241 Forumite
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    I guess it depends on your consumption. You seam to be a high user, therefore there is more to be saved by being separate.

    On the MSE energy comparison site, there is a tick box to only show big named suppliers, so you may wish to try that.

    Also scroll down and see what your current provider will offer on a fixed deal
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,036 Forumite
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    buzzard wrote: »
    I am currently with Avro after Ovo made a total mess of moving me from one tariff to another. I'd say the new small suppliers have to make a lot of effort if they want to stay in the game. Ovo were fine the first year but their billing is now a disaster.

    This perfectly illustrates the point I was making in post #2.

    This poster(buzzard) has obviously had a bad experience with OVO and feels justified in slamming them as a disaster with billing.

    However Martin in his article today(Switch NOW and save typically £300/year.) states:
    Better still it's from Ovo, a mid-sized firm with 700,000 customers which is constantly one of the top performers in our customer service poll. Last time 89% rated it 'great', just 3% 'poor', from a strong sample of 569 votes.
    The other comparison websites I use give it top marks for service e.g. Energyhelpline gives it 5 stars, its top rating.

    I have no experience of OVO but it would appear that the majority of OVO customers do not agree with 'buzzard'.
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