Changing Energy Suppliers

[Danemouth]

A couple of years ago following advice I received here I switched my dual fuel energy from Eon to Ovo and found them very good.

 

However the current deal ends in August and the replacement deal will cost me about £200 p.a. more than I currently pay.

 

So I've gone to Uswitch and found I can save by going to EDF (£251 saving on new OVO deal), back to Eon (£202) or a host of companies I've never heard of:

 

• One Select
• AVRO Energy
• Bulb
• Breeze
• Economy Energy and the list goes on!

My gut reaction is to go back to Eon where I had good service for the eight years I was with them.

 

I would be most appreciative of any advice or experiences my friends on RMWeb can offer,

 

Many thanks,

 

Dave

 

 

[gwrrob]

I'm currently with EDF Dave and I'm reasonably happy with the current tariff I'm on .Shopping around is easy if you know your details for comparison.

[Derekl]

The Uswitch and other comparison web-sites can be misleading - check that they are actually comparing to the new Ovo deal or some variant of it. One of the things they do is compare to a version  of the Standard Variable (SVT), not necessarily the one you would be on, and there might be variations which could reduce the cost of staying with current provider. You do need to work from the base line that the whole system is a total mess and that those responsible for trying to sort it out (Ofgem and the ministry) are basically totally incompetent. Listening to these people responding to queries on the various money programs tends to confirm that they have little idea.

 

There is a sort of base principle that unless people have changed energy supplier they probably are not doing well, so the emphasis is on switching using the various web-sites which of course has benefit to them (and, incidentally, adds yet another layer of cost to the supply chain). Switching may or may not be of benefit, but if you were thinking that the comparison web-site is producing a direct comparison, forget it, it is comparing to some hypothetical formula. 

 

I am supplied by NPower, for better or worse (on some special tariff, not SVT, but otherwise meaningless) - I have tried price comparisons which suggested switching would save £200 pa (worth considering) but a closer look at the alternatives suggested that the real saving might be £30 pa, which is not worth bothering about.

 

The privatisation of energy is a bit like the others - massively financially beneficial to the people at the top end of the organisations and for shareholders (who are not "Sid", but a bunch of multinationals, some of whose profits may benefit UK pension funds), but has totally screwed the consumer - the fannying around now with ineffective sticking plasters suggests that may have been realised

[Danemouth]

Thanks Derek,

 

OVO supplied as part of their reminder a schedule of their tariffs including rates for next year. I will be extra careful to compare new rates with their rates to ensure I am paying less!

 

The OVO tariff increase for next year will result in me paying almost £200 more.

 

I always go for fixed one year tariffs and make sure I never end up on the SVT. My real aim for next year to to keep paying the same as this year.

 

Best regards,

 

Dave

[russ p]

I'm with these and we have saved loads

 

http://www.pfpenergy.co.uk

[Torper]

Have you phoned Ovo to see if they can do any better to stop you switching?  It would be a shame to leave them as they score very highly for customer satisfaction.

 

Otherwise, I suppose it might be illuminating rather than see comparisons that might or might not be based on your own circumstances, as Derek rightly points out above, instead to take it a little further and check just what the actual unit and standing charges are being compared.

 

DT

Edited July 13, 2017 by Torper

[ejstubbs]

I use the Money Saving Expert Cheap Energy Club to monitor when my fixed term deal is coming to an end, and to provide a list of recommended suppliers I could switch to.  It even tracks the market and lets you know if you might be able to do better by switching out of your current deal early.  I find the information presented comprehensive and sufficiently easy to understand to be able to make an adequately informed decision.

 

I don't worry too much about the supplier's customer service: they're all much of a muchness in my experience to date.  Anyway, it's not them I call to find out what's going on if the electricity goes off, which is what really matters IMO.  Wrangles over accounts are pretty much business as usual for utility companies, I reckon.  At least if you switch every twelve months the outgoing supplier pretty much has to get everything properly reconciled before signing off - and if the dispute does drag on, the old supplier isn't in a position to cut you off if you withhold payment.

[60159]

Be very careful when assessing "savings" being offered by price comparison sites as the information they are required to provide can be misleading. If you have say 2 months left on a deal of some sort which then automatically reverts to the suppliers "standard tariff", the comparison cost used for your current supplier is 2 months of your deal plus 10 months of the standard tariff, a tariff which your should be unlikely to continue to accept. Your current supplier may actually have a more attractive tariff to which you can switch. In addition the "saving" quoted may actually be an increase as the "saving" is in this case by comparison to the expensive "standard tariff" that can almost always be bettered. Are the energy companies trying to mislead you in this case - not really, they are required to use this method of comparison, but they could make this flawed method of comparison more evident.

 

To me the best way of comparing is to compare the actual available annual costs given to you by the comparison sites based on your actual consumption data (not annual or monthly spend) and not to be misled by a comparison with your existing supplier cost if it is near to coming to an end. The comparison site will likely show the best tariffs for you but they ain't necessarily a cost saving from what you are currently paying. 

[Danemouth]

I keep a spreadsheet of my energy consumption and costs and always use my own figures when using comparison sites.

 

This year has been interesting, had a new boiler fitted last July (condensing not combi, SWMBO wanted to keep the airing cupboard). The previous boiler was 35 years old and rated at 64% efficient - the new one is in the 90%+ efficiency range.

 

OVO bills monthly so I am able to compare this year with last year - initially the boiler temperature was set where the engineer recommended 75C.

 

Little by way of savings were identified in the first few months of the winter, the heating would go off as the hall thermostat reached temperature and the radiators and pipework would go cold, as the temperature then dropped the boiler would reheat it all from cold.

 

So I turned the boiler down to 60C the house feels just as warm but I am using less gas and starting to see some of the claimed energy savings.

 

My contract doesn't finish until 26th August so I will make my final decision at the end of this month and initiate the switch-over depending on the latest information then available.

 

Many thanks for all your replies,

 

Dave

Edited July 13, 2017 by Danemouth

[Danemouth]

Well I've just changed to EDF.

 

My current OVO fixed price deal is expiring and their cheapest new fixed deal is a 22% price hike.

 

EDF is cheaper than my current deal and was the cheapest I could find. One thing to watch when completing the on-line application - you get an error message if you put an "&" in the Bank Account name. Trouble is the error message is generic rather than telling you precisely where the error is!

 

Dave

[gwrrob]

I wonder how many leave British Gas after this week's announcement.

[Torper]

I'm one of those who have never changed my electricity supplier, largely due to laziness and the fact that I was happy with the service I was getting (and a stupid, old fashioned and, in todays age, entirely misplaced concept of loyalty).  Anyway, I'm registered with one of the money saving sites and it regularly informs me how much i could save if i switched.  I began seriously to think about it, but then i got a letter from my own supplier (SSE) telling me that if I switched to a new tariff they were introducing i would in effect save every bit as much as the cheapest deals that the comparison site was offering me.  So I did.  No hassle, no switching of supplier, everybody happy (except presumably the comparison site).  I've an awful feeling, mind you, that when my tariff runs out in a year I'll find myself in just the same position as Dave has been experiencing.

 

DT

Edited August 3, 2017 by Torper

[Danemouth]

Torper,

 

You are right. I switched to OVO two years ago, the first year offered savings over my previous supplier and last year was o.k. This year I feel they are extracting the p1$$

 

I suspect that many suppliers may offer good deals to attract new customers and the hope that inertia means you won't switch suppliers.

 

I am always most careful to ensure I don't end up on an expensive SVT!

 

Regards,

 

Dave