Cheaper Oil for Fuel?
Comments
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So.... I have been purchasing fuel oil for some 30 odd years now. All I usually do is ring a for a few prices and use the cheapest to barter down my regular supplier whom I have an account with (and whom I pay a monthly sum into, as he pays interest).
So far I think I’ve learnt
1. There is no significant price reduction in having a bigger tank capacity. The rate for 2000l seems to be the same or very similar to that for 1000l. I have now reduced to a slimline tank that takes 1100l.
2. You still get the 1000l rate if they fill you up and the measured quantity comes to less than 1000l, even if it’s only say 800l.
3. They’ve told me on several occasions that the rate applied depends on some ‘import rate’ or ‘spot rate’ that appears to be set every 24 hours.
4. The fluctuation in price on a day to day basis can be significant. So if you’re due to reorder your fuel, there is no way of knowing if it’s going to be cheaper or more expensive to hang on for a day or two or three.
I came across a website the other day called camelcamelcamel.com that tracks prices on, for eg, amazon goods, and will send you an email flagging up when (or if) the price drops of the item you’re interested in. It works and I’d recommend it.
It occurred to me that if the ‘spot rate’ is published anywhere, MSE could perhaps construct a camelcamelcamel type tool which would flag price changes via email. That way we could be alerted to oil price drops and rises.
I guess an example would explain what I’m trying to get over best. Let’s suppose your tank runs down to 25% full or so. You start monitoring the ‘spot price’ by switching on the MSE alert and anytime between 25% and empty and you see a price you’re happy with, you buy then. If you don’t buy early, the worst case is that you’re back to the historical position of ordering on the day the tank shows its empty.
I know it’s not perfect, but I do think savvy consumers might be able to save themselves a bob or two.
What does everyone think? To paraphrase Anne Robinson, is it a gushingly great idea or has my well run dry?0 -
andycopland wrote: »So.... I have been purchasing fuel oil for some 30 odd years now. All I usually do is ring a for a few prices and use the cheapest to barter down my regular supplier whom I have an account with (and whom I pay a monthly sum into, as he pays interest).
So far I think I’ve learnt
1. There is no significant price reduction in having a bigger tank capacity. The rate for 2000l seems to be the same or very similar to that for 1000l. I have now reduced to a slimline tank that takes 1100l.
2. You still get the 1000l rate if they fill you up and the measured quantity comes to less than 1000l, even if it’s only say 800l.
3. They’ve told me on several occasions that the rate applied depends on some ‘import rate’ or ‘spot rate’ that appears to be set every 24 hours.
4. The fluctuation in price on a day to day basis can be significant. So if you’re due to reorder your fuel, there is no way of knowing if it’s going to be cheaper or more expensive to hang on for a day or two or three.
I came across a website the other day called camelcamelcamel.com that tracks prices on, for eg, amazon goods, and will send you an email flagging up when (or if) the price drops of the item you’re interested in. It works and I’d recommend it.
It occurred to me that if the ‘spot rate’ is published anywhere, MSE could perhaps construct a camelcamelcamel type tool which would flag price changes via email. That way we could be alerted to oil price drops and rises.
I guess an example would explain what I’m trying to get over best. Let’s suppose your tank runs down to 25% full or so. You start monitoring the ‘spot price’ by switching on the MSE alert and anytime between 25% and empty and you see a price you’re happy with, you buy then. If you don’t buy early, the worst case is that you’re back to the historical position of ordering on the day the tank shows its empty.
I know it’s not perfect, but I do think savvy consumers might be able to save themselves a bob or two.
What does everyone think? To paraphrase Anne Robinson, is it a gushingly great idea or has my well run dry?
Take a look at http://heating-oil.blogs-uk.co.uk/ as it may help. We track the daily heating oil price by obtaining national quotes for 500 litres kerosene on 5 day delivery. We also publish quotes from anyone and everyone that gets a quote and makes a comment on each daily post for other volumes.
There is a daily chart that shows the trends of both the lowest quotes and the highest. Hopefully we will be able to refine the data to a post code area this year but for now it is national suppliers only.
Heating oil suppliers are welcome to provide daily data.. but thus far they have not been forthcoming.
We also track the Brent crude, the benchmark for UK kerosene, price and the US WTI light crude prices.
We do not sell anything but visitors can use the data to check that their quotes are in the right area and negotiate to "known" pricing from the site. At present the data indicates that Southern England get better pricing than the north. I.e. GL / RG postcodes are way cheaper than a CA, YO and IP post code areas for example. Direct suppliers are cheaper than aggregator's / "so called" comparison websites.
General consensus is that prices will fall in February based on the fall of crude which in turn is based on China containing inflation due to poor Q4 growth results and the US sitting on huge unwanted stock piles... Hope this helps and use the site for reference we update daily at around 11.. as you are right oil suppliers price daily at around 10am.0 -
:jThank you,,that is excellent information and will certainly have a go at this, although we are in the LL area of Wales. I always put what I paid on here straight away in order to try and help others.
I am hoping that some folk on here will follow my lead and write to David Cameron. E mail address as above.
We ring around each time, but they all without exception say have you an account, well the few we do have around here we have bought from so we supposedly have an account. They can vary by as much as three pence a litre.
We go on oilprice check website which gives some indication but it is not always accurate, but helps a bit. This time we nearly ran out so were forced to pay the price but it had come down from Christmas so we were glad we were very careful with it, even during the very cold weather, extra cardi on.!!
Thanks again for this valuable information. oap0 -
If it is of any help to anyone best price we could find in Anglesey today was 52.35 plus vat, gone down since Christmas when I believe it was 70 something
which to me stinks of demand raising prices, ie snow etc.,
We have hung on until we had none left, so were forced to buy today, but ringing around were quoted 55.98, 55.88, 54 and 61.85 from one that is far away. Does not seem to be a shortage though, as coming tomorrow.
We are grateful for our two hundred and fifty pounds from the government, but this bought us a full tank not that long ago!!
We were allowed 800 litres at the same price, anything below that we had to pay more.
Cheers oap:eek:
Hello OAP, we to are on Anglesey but have been quoted 54.95ppl +vat for 1000lts from our regular supplier, where did you get 52.35ppl quote from?
Thanks0 -
home-heating-oil wrote: »Take a look at http://heating-oil.blogs-uk.co.uk/ as it may help. We track the daily heating oil price by obtaining national quotes for 500 litres kerosene on 5 day delivery. We also publish quotes from anyone and everyone that gets a quote and makes a comment on each daily post for other volumes.
There is a daily chart that shows the trends of both the lowest quotes and the highest. Hopefully we will be able to refine the data to a post code area this year but for now it is national suppliers only.
Heating oil suppliers are welcome to provide daily data.. but thus far they have not been forthcoming.
We also track the Brent crude, the benchmark for UK kerosene, price and the US WTI light crude prices.
We do not sell anything but visitors can use the data to check that their quotes are in the right area and negotiate to "known" pricing from the site. At present the data indicates that Southern England get better pricing than the north. I.e. GL / RG postcodes are way cheaper than a CA, YO and IP post code areas for example. Direct suppliers are cheaper than aggregator's / "so called" comparison websites.
General consensus is that prices will fall in February based on the fall of crude which in turn is based on China containing inflation due to poor Q4 growth results and the US sitting on huge unwanted stock piles... Hope this helps and use the site for reference we update daily at around 11.. as you are right oil suppliers price daily at around 10am.
Nothing like a bit of Middle East unrest to kick all that into touch. On hearing the price of oil is back over $100 a barrel again for first time since 2008 I've put in an order for another 1000L today, to 'brim' the tank before the oil companies have the next excuse to jack the prices up. Ashamed to say too that I used BJ again as out of ringing round companies here that I could see weren't on the DCC list, it was actually those on BJ that were cheapest at 52.55ppl. First time I used them it was OJWilliams that supplied the oil, so it's probably them again (wont know till it's processed tomorrow morning). Minster Fuels (who from what I can see aren't part of DCC) for example who I have ordered off twice before, quoted 56.9ppl. When I said I would ring round they said come back after and we can negotiate a price. Well if as a previous customer you can't give me your 'best' price straight off you can sod off.
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i ordered 1000litres for my parents' house last friday - they're at CF71. i rang 6 companies and prices varied from 52 to 63.
also ordered for me today (decided to gamble and fill up in case the cold weather comes back as predicted this month)
watson fuels in cardiff were the best both times.0 -
haggling is good. the british are reluctant to do it but it works.
another strategy is, as you mentioned, to use price comparison sites. there are many but not all of them are impartial and unbiased. one i know for sure that is impartial: comparefueloil.co.uk. it offers Group Buying Days, this also seems like a great way to help the environment because you can order with others which helps to keep tankers off the roads more, reducing CO2 emissions.0 -
FYI : Ordered 2000ltrs @ 50.85p/ltr + VAT yesterday evening from Butler.
South Worcs/North Glos
Same price anything over 1000ltrs, but decided on 2000ltrs 'cause of Middle East unrest.Maybe it's just me0 -
This may not be the right place,but as we are all on oil heating and I have posted many times here before wondered what you thought about bio fuel
At our over fifties club yesterday there was a notice on the board saying heating oil was 40p a litre, this is reconditioned oil similar to what they use in diesel cars.
However, they say it is cleaner than kerosene and work perfectly well in domestic boilers, may ask our boiler chap what he thinks, but if anyone is interested in this or has tried it please can you let me know, many thanks
A saving of around fifteen pence a litre is not to be sniffed at, on the other hand a wrecked boiler would not do either:rotfl:0 -
This may not be the right place,but as we are all on oil heating and I have posted many times here before wondered what you thought about bio fuel
At our over fifties club yesterday there was a notice on the board saying heating oil was 40p a litre, this is reconditioned oil similar to what they use in diesel cars.
However, they say it is cleaner than kerosene and work perfectly well in domestic boilers, may ask our boiler chap what he thinks, but if anyone is interested in this or has tried it please can you let me know, many thanks
A saving of around fifteen pence a litre is not to be sniffed at, on the other hand a wrecked boiler would not do either:rotfl:
If you are talking about "BioDiesel", well I do know oil boilers can be converted to use it - but it follows the diesel price, and so is far more expensive than kerosene, unless you can make it yourself from free or very cheao waste veg oil . (WVO is fetching 50p / litre ATM)
If you know where to get cheap bio diesel, please tell me.Maybe it's just me0
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