Getting a new energy tariff - or not

Doubt you'll find one on offer.

That's probably your main problem. Most of the best deals are monthly DD only.

Hardly surprising, either.

It is a long time since I paid a utility bill at a bank using a cheque.

These days nearly all suppliers want paid monthly by direct debit. One difference is how often they change the amount that they want to take. It is poaaible to ring your bank and ask them to reclaim a direct debit. I did once do this. The bank were a little reluntant but they did do as asked.

I only use electricity and have been using Symbio since learning about them on Newsnet.

I've just changed my preference on the cheap energy club from monthly DD to cash/cheque and all I was offered was fixed price deals 33% to 40% more than I'm currently paying for a fixed price deal that started around 30 days ago.

That's what happens when everyone is intent on getting the lowest possible price.

Changing supplier is easy and it appears that the worst customer service is often from the large suppliers that change the most. This tale of woe possibly has more to do with the method of payment that is not available on the better tariffs. Industry wide, the energy companies really don't want customers who pay by cheque or cash and it is more likely they don't want customers who are unwilling to manage their account on-line.

... and they're not "energy companies" they're just manipulators of paperwork between us (the consumers) and the actual businesses which generate the electricity. Wholly pointless except as a money making exercise for them.

Nor do I. For some reason the energy companies still call it "paying by cheque or cash", but I've been paying by BACS for years.

Of course - it's damned if you do and damned if you don't:

For years, customers have complained that energy firms can hoard thousands of pounds of overpayments and would only return it on request.

Now the regulator has proposed balances are cleared once a year, claiming suppliers held a surplus of £1.4bn.

It said some were using the money for "unsustainable business practices".

It's a fiddle: "On behalf of suppliers, Energy UK said: "Paying by direct debit helps customers budget by ensuring they pay a regular amount each month even though their actual energy usage varies significantly over the year."

I'll happily do that by Standing Order, so I remain in control - not the fat cats running the energy companies. Or they can fit a smart meter and bill me for what I've actually used, not an unrealistically high fixed amount.

Most of my energy expense is gas for central heating.

Not really pointless. Agreed that for the most part they are just billing organisations. The volts are actually supplied by the likes of UK Power Networks, not by such as npower etc.

But the billing side is a largish chunk of the cost. Why shouldn't there be a mechanism to reduce the cost of that part? It's no different to no longer queuing up in a shop to wait your turn for some klod to take a tin of cocoa off the shelf behind him and hand it to you. You may as well do that yourself while you wait. And so the self-service idea takes off: cheaper for you, quicker, and thus better for the environment.

And we no longer sit in the car while some geezer fills up our tank. What did your last servant die of anyway?

Supply of volts and stinking gas is no different: cost reduced by automated payments. It's also why they're after us to put smart meters in.

None of which argument tells me why there's a pointless 'middleman' making a profit for no gain to anyone except themselves.

I quite agree that paying efficiently by DD makes sense but that isn't a reason for the extra 'layer' of paper pushers (or DD pushers) between me and the actual producers of electricity.

Enter any valid postcode. Select cash/cheque as payment method, then click on "Apply filters", Then Cash/cheque Whole Amount (Quarterly).

Quite a few tariffs will appear (eventually - it's a slow website).

Yes. No real point for the consumer with quarterly given the very low interest rates. But cash flow matters to the companies.

Most of the best deals seem to be variable monthly DD.

Why would anyone want to use cash or cheque? If you have a bank account - as you obviously do - paying by direct debit is more convenient, may give you a better tariff and is protected by the direct debit guarantee if anything goes wrong..

Why a monthly direct debit? Mine produces a bill every three months and collects the sum due by direct debit.

So you were proved correct. d-i-y, for sure.

Move on - and the less restrictions you apply, the better the deal you'll find on any of the numerous energy-switching sites.

PA

But by paying by cheque the cost per unit (kWh) is 10% to 11% higher compared with paying by monthly DD. This is for both electricity and gas.

The daily standing charge is around 20p whereas I'm paying around 15p per day with my supplier. I'm also paying less per unit with my supplier than the EDF monthly DD fixed plan.

So slow I'd have given-up and gone elsewhere

only a 1.5p/kWh 'sting' for quarterly cheque vs monthly direct debit.

Don't be silly. If these middlemen didn't do it, then the actual power companies would have to do it. As it is, they just sell a few large chunks of power to the middlemen, who set up tarriffs which they offer to us. The middlemen also insulate us from risk due to changes in the price *they* have to pay to get power. It's a form of forward buying, similar to forward selling by coffee growers or other such producers, but I imagine you don't approve of that either.