Consistently underquoted energy costs
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harrym1byt
Posts: 64 Forumite
I use the MSE energy quote system each year and each year it consistently and massively under quotes my dual fuel cost for the year.
I pay by direct debit and the company I move to get the amount of the direct debit wrong too and always on a 12 month fix. Both my predicted gas and electric consumption figures proved to be very accurate each year.
Last year I was quoted around £48 for the DD, that £48 DD had to be increased, almost every month and ended up as £92 per month.
This year I was quoted £56 per month, since the switch last month my supplier has twice suggested I boost the £56 to a higher figure, the most recent suggestion £107 per month.
For the past few years I have kept a spreadsheet, where I log my consumption of E, G and Water, each Sunday. It calculates my cost for each week and also attempts to predict based on past use, my likely consumption figures and cost for the coming year, based on what my current provider charges. This year, it is predicting my combined E & G cost per month as ---- £107. It was equally accurate the past year and the year prior to that.
So how come the MSE Cheap Energy or maybe the Energy companies so badly underquote the cost?
I pay by direct debit and the company I move to get the amount of the direct debit wrong too and always on a 12 month fix. Both my predicted gas and electric consumption figures proved to be very accurate each year.
Last year I was quoted around £48 for the DD, that £48 DD had to be increased, almost every month and ended up as £92 per month.
This year I was quoted £56 per month, since the switch last month my supplier has twice suggested I boost the £56 to a higher figure, the most recent suggestion £107 per month.
For the past few years I have kept a spreadsheet, where I log my consumption of E, G and Water, each Sunday. It calculates my cost for each week and also attempts to predict based on past use, my likely consumption figures and cost for the coming year, based on what my current provider charges. This year, it is predicting my combined E & G cost per month as ---- £107. It was equally accurate the past year and the year prior to that.
So how come the MSE Cheap Energy or maybe the Energy companies so badly underquote the cost?
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Comments
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Don't know why you're judging it on the monthly direct debit amount if you know how much you've used in the last 12 months and are expecting the next years usage (in units not in money) to be roughly the same.
Use the calculator to show the total cost estimated for the year then you can use the unit price and any standing order charges to double check the sums yourself.All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.0 -
harrym1byt wrote: »I use the MSE energy quote system each year and each year it consistently and massively under quotes my dual fuel cost for the year.
I pay by direct debit and the company I move to get the amount of the direct debit wrong too and always on a 12 month fix. Both my predicted gas and electric consumption figures proved to be very accurate each year.
Last year I was quoted around £48 for the DD, that £48 DD had to be increased, almost every month and ended up as £92 per month.
This year I was quoted £56 per month, since the switch last month my supplier has twice suggested I boost the £56 to a higher figure, the most recent suggestion £107 per month.
For the past few years I have kept a spreadsheet, where I log my consumption of E, G and Water, each Sunday. It calculates my cost for each week and also attempts to predict based on past use, my likely consumption figures and cost for the coming year, based on what my current provider charges. This year, it is predicting my combined E & G cost per month as ---- £107. It was equally accurate the past year and the year prior to that.
So how come the MSE Cheap Energy or maybe the Energy companies so badly underquote the cost?
I agree with the above poster. I do not understand why you have opted to use what MSE tell you is a less reliable way to indicate your annual usage, when you already seem to have the usage figures in kWh to hand.
Presumably, with all your record keeping, you also know the actual amount you spent on the energy consumed over the period of the fixed tariff (rather than the monthly DD figures which as you state kept changing)
If so, it shouldn't make any difference that you use your annual cost figures (and select the correct tariff you were on) as opposed to specifying the annual consumption figures (as the site will be able to calculate your usage figures based on what you were charged)
So unless you are using more and more energy each year, I'm afraid I don't really understand your post.
And if you are using more energy per year, I still don't really understand your post, sorry, as you say you have managed to accuartely calculate the cost yourself in advance of such usage.
The thing with computers is GIGO - so if you are getting garbage out, then you must be putting garbage in somewhere
Perhaps if you provide us full details of what exactly you input into the CEC, and the exact details & results of what you have attempted to calculate yourself, we can take a look at where it is all going wrong for you.0 -
I agree with the above poster. I do not understand why you have opted to use what MSE tell you is a less reliable way to indicate your annual usage, when you already seem to have the usage figures in kWh to hand.
I am signed up to MSE's energy comparison system. It knows exactly what energy I use and what my supplier charges for my energy and the standing charges - each year I receive an email from the site, indicating how much it will cost me at the end of my current fix and how much I can save using other suppliers.
The figures it quoted on, entered by me were from 2016/2017 -
Gas 1061 Kw actual consumption was 1081 2017/2018.
Elec 3162 Kw actual consumption was 3191 2017/2018
The site said that including standing charges, I would need to pay £48 per month DD and that is what Bristol Energy charged me initially from Nov 2017. They revised that figure up repeatedly, until in Nov 2018 I was paying £92. That was on a fix.
I slightly corrected the consumption figures again this year, to use the above 2017/2018 data. My quoted cost per month was £56 and I swapped supplier in November. Before I had even given them meter readings subsequent to my initial swap readings, they were suggesting I increased my DD to £107.
I accept the higher DD's are needed (my own spreadsheet agrees), but why such a massive difference between the quoted cost and the actual? I fed the correct consumption figures in to the site.
How can MSE possibly accurately recommend a cheapest supplier when it seems not to be using the consumption figures I am feeding it with?
My new supplier has access to my previous years consumption figures, via the MiDATA system, so why are they underestimating the DD at all.
I am confused by it all, I just don't understand where the massive error is coming from.0 -
Thanks for your query
I agree with you, the quoted price and DD's based on your projected kWh appears correct and the actual years kWh consumption confirms your projections
The subsequent DD hikes by the supplier are ridiculously high. The supplier is deliberately overcharging so that there is a massive credit at the end of the contract, a scam.
Suggest you arm yourself with all your information and contact them. Have a notepad, record the person's name, date, time and who said what and tell them to reduce the DD's and payback the credit0 -
Thanks for your query
I agree with you, the quoted price and DD's based on your projected kWh appears correct and the actual years kWh consumption confirms your projections
The subsequent DD hikes by the supplier are ridiculously high. The supplier is deliberately overcharging so that there is a massive credit at the end of the contract, a scam.
Suggest you arm yourself with all your information and contact them. Have a notepad, record the person's name, date, time and who said what and tell them to reduce the DD's and payback the credit
You are still misunderstanding....
At the year end, what I pay them actually is a quite reasonable match. I owed Bristol, my last supplier £2.50 on closing my account with them last month.
My issue is with the massively underquoted likely monthly cost of the DD, when I have quoted my predicted consumption over the year so accurately. Any adjustments needed should only be slight, not almost double.0 -
harrym1byt wrote: »I am signed up to MSE's energy comparison system. It knows exactly what energy I use and what my supplier charges for my energy and the standing charges - each year I receive an email from the site, indicating how much it will cost me at the end of my current fix and how much I can save using other suppliers.
The figures it quoted on, entered by me were from 2016/2017 -
Gas 1061 Kw actual consumption was 1081 2017/2018.
Elec 3162 Kw actual consumption was 3191 2017/2018
The site said that including standing charges, I would need to pay £48 per month DD and that is what Bristol Energy charged me initially from Nov 2017. They revised that figure up repeatedly, until in Nov 2018 I was paying £92. That was on a fix.
I slightly corrected the consumption figures again this year, to use the above 2017/2018 data. My quoted cost per month was £56 and I swapped supplier in November. Before I had even given them meter readings subsequent to my initial swap readings, they were suggesting I increased my DD to £107.
I accept the higher DD's are needed (my own spreadsheet agrees), but why such a massive difference between the quoted cost and the actual? I fed the correct consumption figures in to the site.
How can MSE possibly accurately recommend a cheapest supplier when it seems not to be using the consumption figures I am feeding it with?
My new supplier has access to my previous years consumption figures, via the MiDATA system, so why are they underestimating the DD at all.
I am confused by it all, I just don't understand where the massive error is coming from.harrym1byt wrote: »You are still misunderstanding....
At the year end, what I pay them actually is a quite reasonable match. I owed Bristol, my last supplier £2.50 on closing my account with them last month.
My issue is with the massively underquoted likely monthly cost of the DD, when I have quoted my predicted consumption over the year so accurately. Any adjustments needed should only be slight, not almost double.
If you started off paying £48pm, and then had that figure revied up repeatedly to £92pm, and still ended up owing the supplier £2.50 when you left them, then plerase tell us how much you gave them in total over the 12 months for the energy they supplied you.
It doesn't seem like you chose the best deal.
e.g. for the annual consumption detail you provided, you could have bought that energy last year for no more than about £50 pm, every month from a supplier such as Ebico, who may not be the cheapest deal either, but it would have been less than you seem to have paid.
As I said previously, you need to provide us full details of what you have given MSE CEC
e.g. your current supplier & tariff
Your supply region (or first part of your postcode)
(we now have the unusually low annual usage figures in kWh)
The MSE CEC estimate your monthly cost by simply calculating the annual cost based on the usage figures you provide, and then dividing that annual figure by 120 -
I think I know what the OP means. I reckon its a marketing hook to make you choose them. Its a bit dishonest imo. Surely they would know from the outset what the proper monthly cost would be.
Same has happened to me, I'll be careful to check ALL the figures next time I switch.0 -
I think I know what the OP means. I reckon its a marketing hook to make you choose them. Its a bit dishonest imo. Surely they would know from the outset what the proper monthly cost would be.
Same has happened to me, I'll be careful to check ALL the figures next time I switch.
Agreed,
And man has never landed on the moon
Crop circles are the result of visitors from outer space
The truth about the harmful effects of vaccines is being deliberately hidden from the public
and
Elvis Presley is alive and well and working in a chip shop in Barnsley.0 -
OP, how do you heat and hot water your property ? With an electric consumption of only the UK average and a gas consumption of less than 10% of the UK average it is likely not one of those.
MSE CEC and all the other comparison sites simply multiply your annual predicted kWh use by the unit price then adds the annual standing charge giving you the annual cost and divides by 12 to give you the monthly DD cost. I suspect your gas usage to be based on meter units and not kWh as there is no way you would be paying in excess of £100 per month for your quoted figures.0 -
OP, how do you heat and hot water your property ? With an electric consumption of only the UK average and a gas consumption of less than 10% of the UK average it is likely not one of those.
MSE CEC and all the other comparison sites simply multiply your annual predicted kWh use by the unit price then adds the annual standing charge giving you the annual cost and divides by 12 to give you the monthly DD cost. I suspect your gas usage to be based on meter units and not kWh as there is no way you would be paying in excess of £100 per month for your quoted figures.
Gas heated and gas HW, apart from electric shower - three bed semi.
I think it is maybe beginning to dawn on me where the error is - gas meter in M3 and units in gas unit in Kw. I have not looked into that properly yet, but - Might that be the cause?0
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