We use a lot of electricity, bills approaching £3000/year at the moment, this is basically because we have a semi-disabled M-I-L living with us who uses a lot of electricity for heating. There's not a lot we can do about this as we're not on mains gas and our LPG central heating doesn't save a *lot* compared with electricity.
So, I'm checking what's going to help if I move supplier, I'm currently with Green on their Maple variable tariff. I've checked with the Citizen's Advice energy site (as there was a link from Green to that) and the best they could come up with is SymbioEnergy who would save us about £130/year, but they have a two-star rating so I'm not that keen to try them!
Any recommendations for other energy comparison sites would be welcome, especially anything aimed at fairly large domestic consumption.
The comparison sites are much of a muchness, as long as you tick the 'show me suppliers we can't switch you to'. If you aren't on gas it's easier to compare electric-only quotes, but at the end of the day all you need is the unit rate - if you're a high user the standing charge doesn't matter much to you. I normally use Uswitch or Energylinx and then open up the tariff information to see what's actually going on. In general their 'sort by price' is fine for this.
If you're on E7 it gets slightly more complicated given the dual tariffs - I'd much rather look at the unit rates than questions like 'what proportion of energy do you use in the night time?' which is really just a guess.
Symbio are OK, btw. They have consistently messed up meter readings when I've switched to and from them, but if you stick with them the billing is OK. They have different tariffs for each comparison site (probably due to different commissions they have to pay) but they're all very similar.
It takes a little to get your head around. They don't do direct debit guestimates like most companies, what they do is estimate your bill for the month ahead, then expect a reading at the end of the month. When you submit the reading they work out the difference between what you paid and what the actual usage was, and carry that forward to next month. So it is an estimated bill, but it's only a month's worth rather than going 6 or more months before the supplier decides your usage is different to what they're billing you for.
Customer service is a bit pants - I emailed them about upgrading my meter tails and got a reply weeks later. Meanwhile I'd already switched to Octopus, a lot more expensive but free tails upgrades with smart meters. But Octopus do all CS by email and their email response times are also terrible at the moment. So I'm planning on switching back to Symbio once the meter is sorted.
Thanks for the Symbio information, they are the best for me at the moment and I saw they weren't too hot on the customer service side of things. As long that doesn't affect what I pay I'm not too fussed.
They don't demand that you install a smart meter do they?
Why not just do as others do, go to Uswitch, give them your approximate postcode, tell them you only want electricity, and then plug in the rest of the stuff?
Many comparison sites have two lists i) one where the comparison site can switch you ii) one where they tell you of better tariffs but you have to switch yourself.
The default is usually the first list and you have to find a tick box in the filter section to get the other comparisons.
In my experience there is not much difference having to go to the suppliers site, entering your details and instigating the switch yourself
You're probably on a fairly bad tariff then (maybe because it's not dual fuel?) as comparison sites only seem to find me deals that cost £100+ more than I'm currently paying, and it's been a few years since I switched.
Minor exaggeration ... I had filters set to exclude tiny suppliers likely to go bust soon, if I allow them all back in the search, I get offers that "only" coat £62 more than I'm paying.
Does the two-star rating, or any service rating for an energy supplier really matter that much. You use the juice you pay them for it, that simple. The ratings relate to contact with them, which you rarely need to do, they are just resellers.
Yes, true enough, it does depend what the two star rating is for though. If they take too much money from you and don't repay it then you'd want to avoid them.
No, they were actually penalised for not communicating with smart meters - as well as being fined they weren't allowed to take on new customers. When I switched to Symbio with a SMETS2 meter I still had to submit manual readings.
The death penalty of no new customers woke them up and they now receive readings from them via the DCC, but they seem to be in no hurry to install them themselves.
Prices have gone up recently, which means most of the deals on offer are worse than a deal you might have signed up for previously. Moral of the story is to stick with your current deal until it runs out, or until prices fall again.
Well what about benefits? I assume that PIP and other benefits have been explored here. If keeping a disabled person in their home is really the governments home, I'd have thought subsidising the energy bills might be one aspect to the situation. Brian
I'm on a fixed tariff from Octopus and can never find anything significantly cheaper. Just looked at Symbio and the cheapest variable tariff saves about two 'Spoon's beer tokens - mainly due to the high standing charge and the same rate for night and day. I have a simple spreadsheet and just put in the figures whilst keeping the same consumption, just to get a comparison.
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