Cheaper Oil for Fuel?

Xbert
Xbert Posts: 12
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Insert From Martin

Where to find the cheapest fuel oil isn't easy. While gas & electricity price comparison services are common place, the same isn't true for fuel-oiled heating.

The discussion that follows is a merger or two that contained much information. The answer seems to be 'get lots of quotes, and don't believe the hype'.

In the third message of this discussion you will see a list of comparison sites, and then in the sixth a press release from a newly launched company. Please do enter the discussion, hopefully together as collective MoneySavers we'll find a solution.

Our fully researched Cheap Heating Oil guide may also be helpful.

Martin

_______________________________________

Original Post below....



I posted this first in the 'I wanna ..' forum, this looks more appropriate.
First price is 24p/litre last week in Cornwall. I'm going to start getting some quotes for myself. If people think it's useful I'll put them up here. I know the suppliers respond to the spot market for oil, but at least some idea of what the going rate is might be useful to somebody, somewhere!

Quotes will be for 1000 litres of standard 28ps heating oil, excluding VAT.

Target price for domestic heating oil
Does anybody know where to find target prices for domestic heating oil (1000 litres of 28ps)? It's pretty unrewarding phoning around all the distrbutors and the boilerjuice and greenwelly (yes really!) websites both returned prices that were worse than I could get straight off the bat.
It's hard to believe that in this day and age of consumer regulation up the Ying-Yang there appears to be none that applies to heating oil.

Thanks.

First post so please be gentle with me!
«134567106

Comments

  • Not that its a lot of help (as i live in N.Ireland) but it might give you something to go for a comparrision.
    I had 900 ltrs. delivered to-day at a cost of £215.00.
  • Xbert
    Xbert Posts: 12
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    £215 for 900 litres sounds good (23.9p/litre) did that include VAT?

    North Dorset, Northover Fuels, 02/02/05, 1000 litres, 23.5p ex VAT

    Today (in North Dorset) I paid 23.5p/litre ex VAT for 1000 litres. I was quoted a range of prices from 23.5p to 24.95p. Boilerjuice came in at a disappointing 24.3p.
    I did find some useful resources,
    https://www.maxoldirect.com give prices for Ireland (23.8p) for Belfast,
    https://www.silvey.co.uk (24.91p - I used their own postcode BS2 9LU for the delivery as I am outside their range)
    https://www.scf.co.uk (24.95p)
    https://www.wellieboot.co.uk - didn't respond to email
    https://www.boilerjuice.com, (24.3p)
    https://www.tincknells.com (23.5, 24.95 premium)
    https://www.northover-fuels.co.uk (23.5p) - My usual supplier, quick, friendly reliable
    https://www.watson-petroleum.co.uk, couldn't seem to answer their phone to give me a price, but are offering a £10 voucher with an online order for 1000 litres and £25 for 2300 litres

    If anybody feels the burning desire to keep this thread alive could we adopt a convention quoting something like Location, Supplier, date, quantity, price/litre with or without VAT, e.g.

    North Dorset, Kaptain Kerosene, 02/02/05, 1000 litres, 24p ex VAT, any offers/discounts available

    Cheers.
  • iris
    iris Posts: 1,376
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    After phoning round several suppliers on the 25th January 2005 CPS Fuels of Wisbech (Cambs) were the cheapest at 24.75p per litre (excl. VAT).
  • Xbert
    Xbert Posts: 12
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    Response ffrom https://www.wellieboot.co.uk for quote for 1000 litres in North Dorset.

    "Our group buy this week, closing today Friday 4th Feb, will be 23.95p per litre + 5% VAT for 28 sec heating oil"

    Not bad at all if they're consistently competitive - not the cheapest but saves some phoning around.
  • MSE_Martin
    MSE_Martin Posts: 8,272
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    Money Saving Expert
    I've just received this press release. I haven't had time to look into it in detail yet. However I would be very interested to hear pricing feedback from anyone who checks/trys it out with their own circumstances.

    10 Feb. 05
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Collective Domestic Oil Buying at BoilerJuice Drives Down Costs


    According to Oftec*, an estimated 1.5 million homes in the UK and Ireland use oil for domestic heating. Most people buy their oil individually and pay higher than necessary prices. Now, thanks to BoilerJuice (http://www.boilerjuice.com), a new oil users’ buying group, consumers can take advantage of collaborative buying and keep warm at lower cost.

    Run by husband and wife team, Paul and Sarah Ward, BoilerJuice is successfully placing orders for homes nationwide, with its membership numbering thousands and growing daily. BoilerJuice uses collective buying power to negotiate the lowest bulk oil prices for members. It automatically selects the lowest price from its affiliated oil suppliers in any given postcode area and allows the oil user to place an order online at any time.

    Behind the BoilerJuice website lies a powerful database that enables members to join forces with other oil users in the same postcode area so they can obtain favourable quotes and place orders based on their group’s total volume requirement. This facility allows oil users to order their heating oil alongside local friends, family and neighbours; meaning everyone achieves significant cost savings. Group orders are easily managed via http://www.boilerjuice.com and individual orders can be placed too.

    Nationwide oil suppliers are welcoming the benefits gained from coordinated deliveries clustered in one area, which reduces their costs and increases competitiveness. Once an order has been placed with BoilerJuice, the supplier contacts the oil user directly to arrange delivery and payment.

    There is no charge for oil users to obtain a quote from BoilerJuice and the service is also free. Users simply enter their postcode and the quantity of oil required. To place an order, the user completes a brief registration process confirming delivery address and tank location.


    Paul Ward explains the reason for setting up the buying group: “It seemed crazy to see oil tankers delivering a relatively small amount of heating oil to one household and then returning the next week to deliver to a neighbouring home! We thought we could do something about this and bring savings to householders in the process. It is in everyone’s interest to minimise heavy traffic on our country roads and reduce harmful emissions.”

    “It also seemed obvious that, if two or more buyers group their orders, they can obtain a better price for ordering a larger volume of oil. A recent example that shows the idea works was a 40 house delivery to one village. Instead of 40 individual tanker journeys, two tankers did the job in two days. Savings of up to five pence per litre were made, with an average saving of three pence per litre.”

    The service is currently available in England and Wales and BoilerJuice is looking to expand into Ireland and Scotland.

    • Oil firing technical association – http://www.oftec.co.uk

    Boilerjuice isn't the only one! Do read this too


    This is not the only company doing such offers, it's just the latest (and the press release helps explain things), a post earlier in this discussion listed the following others, for ease I've copied them here. It's worth trying as many as possible - after all a 1p drop in cost is a saving of 4%

    https://www.maxoldirect.com
    https://www.silvey.co.uk
    https://www.scf.co.uk
    https://www.wellieboot.co.uk
    https://www.boilerjuice.com
    https://www.tincknells.com
    https://www.northover-fuels.co.uk
    https://www.watson-petroleum.co.uk
    Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
    Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
    Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.
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  • Marigold123
    Marigold123 Posts: 1,164
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    That's excellent. I don't have oil-fired central heating myself, but I am very interested in co-operatives. They've been around for a long time, but many people still have no idea about what they are or what they are for.

    I belong to a newly formed housing co-op, which, when we get a proper business plan together, should enable us to actually buy a house at last, (or at least live in a house which doesn't belong to somebody else!)

    The main three kinds are workers' co-ops, housing co-ops and also buying co-ops, which are a really useful way to save money on buying any number of things. If there is something you buy fairly regularly, (like the fuel oil in Martin's post), and which is much cheaper to buy in bulk but which would either be too expensive or impractical for a single household, it is worth thinking about joining a co-operative.

    If you can't find one in your area that meets your needs, you could get together with a few like-minded people and form one yourself. There is a cost involved in setting up what is effectively a limited company, (owned and operated in a mutually beneficial way by its members), but the more people you can get on-board, the smaller proportion of the set-up costs each member has to pay.

    Martin, do you think there is room on this forum for a section on co-operatives? I spent a while searching, but couldn't find anything on the subject. I apologise if there are already posts on this, but if there are I couldn't find them.

    I think it is an aspect of money saving that it would be nice to explore. Co-ops are great because they encourage people to think in a more community-based way, (not that there's a lack of that on these boards anyway!), and allows the individual consumer to benefit from the economics of scale that are normally only available to a commercial operation.

    I'd be interested to know what people think.

    PS. There is plenty of info out there on the Net if anyone wants to find out more. You may have to wade through acres of stuff about the Co-operative Bank and the Co-op supermarket, but this should help focus your thoughts on how effective co-ops can to be!
    EDIT: I don't really want to spam up Martin's thread, as this post isn't strictly about fuel or energy, and I'm not sure this is really the right section for it, anyway. Is anyone able to suggest a better place for it? (Mods?) Thanks.
    A penny saved is a penny gained
  • I have been trying to find on the web for ages, information about domestic oil. We will be moving into an area which has oil, rather than mains gas. We are trying to find price comparisons between gas and oil, this is proving difficult as oil is always quoted in volume (litres) and gas is quoted in energy terms, (BTU or KWH), so it is difficult to do a proper comparison. We wanted to know whether it was worth paying to have the conversion to mains gas, or even to go to LPG instead. We can then make a decision on whether this company that you mention is the goer or not. Any ideas??
  • powie
    powie Posts: 22 Forumite
    Working for an oil company myself, we often get asked to do comparisons with gas usage etc. It can be hard to work out, as it depends on what size the property is, how often the heating is used, if there is any extra installation in the property etc. Please also be aware that the normal minimum delivery for home heating oil (kerosine) is 500 litres for health and safety reasons. Also prices are quoted in pence per litre without the VAT added on. Prices can also vary daily or weekly, depending on the company.

    Hope this info might prove useful to someone out there.
  • Xbert
    Xbert Posts: 12
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    While boilerjuice seems like a great concept I was disappointed with the quotes I received.

    boilerjuice came in 0.8p/litre higher than other quotes. For my area https://www.wellieboot.co.uk, another group buying outfit came in cheaper. I fear boilerjuice is playing the seductive old scam of telling you they're cheaper and playing on the intuitive sense that 'If I'm buying in bulk I must be getting a better deal - right?' - wrong! Check the target prices from my thread. Sorry to be negative, but for me boilerjuice was far from a saving!
    It grates with my bone idle nature not to let somebody else do the legwork, but for the sake of 5 phone calls I saved 0.8p litre - it might not sound like much but multiplied by 1000 litres and with the 5% VAT is £8.40. I didn't even ask for a discount, just the price on the day for a 1000 litres.
  • N9eav
    N9eav Posts: 4,742 Forumite
    Re bolier juice. Good idea. Although I just tried the quote icon. It was £22 more expensive for 1000ltrs. Bearing in mind I got a fill up last week. I think the idea is good, but it may be best to organise a local group and approach local suppliers and barter. Trouble is we never need oil at the same time.
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