We are with EON for energy. The tariff I'm on has worked very well for some years and I like EON: they're very clear, have a very good website, etc. Also: they seem honest.
They have been pestering me for over a year to see if I wouldn't like to change tariff with them, because "you could save money". (I appreciate that the Government requires companies to offer changes in tariff, and to make sure that customers are on "the best one for them", so some of this pestering is not EON.)
The latest letter from EON to persuade me to change tariff states that if I move to their 12-month Fixed Tariff, I could ["could"] save about
158 pounds in the coming year. Prices are going to increase anyway from 26th April.
So I'm finally going to cave in, and move to their recommended tariff.
I just wonder what's in it for them -- anyone have any comment?
I'm not greatly pleased with E.On. Despite my calling in January to get onto their fixed price tariff, they omitted to do so, and sent me a letter saying that the price of my Standard Variable Tariff was going up. Althought they acknowledged I had called & retrospectively put me back on the fixed price tariff, it took 4 telephone calls totalling nearly an hour to sort out.
They now have to offer you their cheapest tariff, you don't have to accept. They were not the cheapest when I switched three months ago even though they had been for the previous four years.
You really should check with a switching site to see what is cheapest for you as you can probably save another hundred or so. Make sure you choose the option to show all tariffs and not just the ones they can switch for you.
I don't know but my edf deal runs until June and they say wait till then and see what we offer. I guess its all a bit in the wind. I just wonder really how they can be any different as presumably they are all effectively passing on costs from the people who generate it and it seems as an electric only person, they cannot help me very much. I suppose it is different for gas as they can buy that like oil, even if in effect its all the same gass.
I cannot help but think this extra layer of complexity over the top of the generator is just a way to make a profic from admin. Brian
Pretty much. They rely on inertia selling to price gouge the people who do not pay attention to when the cheaper fixed price deals end and you are automatically put on the default "standard" (aka ripoff) tariff.
I have also been with eon for several years, and happy with them, they have generally been within a fiver/year of any other deals I could find, so I switched to their own better deals as they came along, but didn't switch suppliers for trivial savings.
My eon fixed deal finished last month, and I found their latest fixed about £140 quid higher than I could get by switching, I ruled out the "never heard of them" suppliers and went with Scottish Power.
Have you tried Flipper? They do all the legwork for you in comparing the different deals - and charge you an above board fixed sum for doing so, and check you are on the best deal regularly. Rather than the concealed commission others take. They also do the changing of supplier for you - if needed.
This may not be a £158 saving with respect to the tariff you are currently on. It is likely to be a saving on their standard rates if you were foolish enough to be on them.
The savings quoted by the energy companies and comparison sites may not be a good as you think.
If, for instance, you are on a fixed price contract with 2 months to run the energy company or comparison web site will calculate your current pricing as 2 months at the fixed rate and 10 months at the _standard_ (highest price) rate. They will then compare this with another contract offering a fixed rate for 12 months and come up with savings of £ hundreds. Anyone who shops around shouldn't be caught paying standard rates for 10 months so the comparison is somewhat bogus.
I'm currently on a fixed price contract with Scottish Power which ends at the end of this month. Just after they raised their prices they sent me an email suggesting that I change to their new tariff 2 months before my current contact ends to "save" approx £150. The savings was based on the flawed method of calculating the price for my next 12 months of usage with 10 months at a standard rate against 12 months at their new increased rate for a fixed price contract. I rejected their recommendation.
IMO the ONLY way of determining if you can save is to keep a record of your annual consumption, assume your next years consumption is going to be the same/similar and to use the published tariff and standing charge figures to calculate a yearly spend.
For my energy usage I've found that all the companies that claim simple/fair tariffs, easily understandable bills or no shocks when the bills arrive tend to be more expensive overall. Looking around recently I've also seen 'standard rate' tariffs re-branded as phone Apps accounts pay as you go energy usage. In fairness they don't claim any monetary saving - they are advertised more as you being in control of your bills. This control can easily be achieved with the better energy suppliers with one of their cheaper price contracts.
In the energy supply business, your loyalty is seen as being a mug to exploit.
Do yourself a favour and check with a couple of comparison sites before making a decision. Do this each and every time your minimum contract is about to expire. You may find yourself see-sawing between the same two suppliers, it's silly I know, but they make the rules and we play to them.
I use uswitch, it only takes a few minuets of your time and they email you a reminder when the next switching window arrives.
Fuck f*ck f*ck Listen, I know I am somewhat blind to minuets/minutes. I've embarrassed myself here before. So much so that I pasted the word into Google to check, and look>>>
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I thought I was on safe ground! but Google (or at least the in-line search) seems to think no one would want more than one once fashionable musical/dance style and decided I must have meant minutes!
I am now in the habit of meter reading on the 20th of each month, and keep a pad of paper with all readings. I keep meaning to convert it to a spreadsheet, but, TBH, calculating the units used over a year then trying various comparisons with a calculator does not take long.
Plenty of people are timed out. Notably the elderly who are not net savvy and assume that being loyal to their prehistoric geographic supplier and buying house insurance from SAGA is a "safe" thing to do.
You have to pay attention to the small print, but if you don't switch tariffs every couple of years will will be paying more than you need to. The default action of utilities suppliers is to rip customers off for as much as they can get away with. There is now a requirement to tell you if you could save money by switching but many people don't.
It is mostly the elderly that suffer incredibily high bills due to their reluctance to switch.
I saved my mum nearly 30% off her bill by making the first ever switch (and 50% off the house insurance for better cover!).
Same applies to mobile phone tariffs too. If you are not talking to customer retention every couple of years you are paying over the odds.
Good rant John :-) TBH, it is only since I retired that I have started looking at these things, and saved quite a lot of money. When I was working, I just didn't have the inclination, much less the time.
Well that's the rub, ain't it? How to get nationalised industries (and civil servants in general) to understand that they are there to provide a service to the public, not to each other.
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