Looking at the savings that could be made by switching from our long term supplier.
The cheapest deals generally seem to be variable, with a premium for a fix and more of a premium for a 2 year fix.
However if energy prices get screwed over by all the political in fighting in the next two years it might be worth fixing fuel costs now.
Small players are well priced at the moment but are far more vulnerable to fuel price fluctuation and a long term fix may be risky (if available).
As usual there is too much choice, but it seems to probably boil down to a cheap variable rate from a small player or a more expensive fixed rate from a larger supplier.
My fix came to an end at the end of July, I had been keeping an eye out for good fixes for a while, and none were cheaper than the tariff I was leaving.
I notice today that the two cheapest deals (one fixed, one variable) from a month ago have since got £50 to 75/year more expensive ...
The point of a fixed price contract is that the price will not rise during the contract. If the company goes bust the regulator will immediately appoint another company for your supply BUT at the same time you will have the freedom to seek your own alternative supplier without incurring any penalties.
The smaller players may be cheaper because they do not have to apply some of the stealth taxes imposed on customers of the larger suppliers. As a result they probably will not be offering things like the warmer house discount etc.
The point of variable rates is that they can be raised tomorrow.
The cheaper deals, at least a few months ago, were all fixed price one year contracts from smaller companies.
Two year fixed priced contracts do incur a much higher initial tariff. It's your gamble on how prices are likely to rise during the contract but don't forget that in the first year you may be buying the most expensive energy from the supplier versus the possibility that if prices rise you may be paying the cheapest price in the second year.
My energy bills are around £1100 year and my current 1 year fixed price deal from a smaller company was over £200 cheaper than the best from any of the big suppliers.
I use the cheapenergy club site for comparisons. There is some information on customer feedback as well as some warnings such as ofgen investigations on the (cold) selling techniques from some companies.
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You really do need to know your annual energy consumption and assume that your future consumption is going to be similar. Some deals suit low energy users and some medium or high users. No two households are likely to be the same so you cannot use the average figures that energy suppliers use in their own "typical" comparisons.
One smaller supplier I wouldn't personally recommend is GreenStar energy. After 4 months after changing supplier I still have not received my final bill from them. After numerous emails and phone calls[1] I have now been promised that I will definitely receive the bill next week :(
[1] At least the phone calls were to a 0800 number and to a UK call center.
I wish, just bought 2000l of oil £1050.84, that should last to the spring when another 2000l will be required. Electricity is another £2446.06/year.
Never found their deals to be particulary good value, but the reviews can be helpful. I use Uswitch or gocompare to see what is about in the market place, don't believe the "you'll save £x hundred" eye catchers. This figure is based on your current tarrif ending and you remaining with the same supplier on their default standard rate. That ain't going to happen so the "saving" is fictious. In fact the last time I switched the cheapest new tarrif still meant the annual bill went up £20.
Also although there are many comparison sites there are only two or three backends. Even if the site doesn't say which backend it is using once you've done a few comparisons you start to spot the identical wording in the descriptions.
If Quidco have a cashback offer via one of the comparision sites or direct with the choosen supplier I'll use that. Cashbacks are generally a few tens of pounds.
+1 And use a spreadsheet to crunch the numbers so that you know how much a a given tarrif is going to cost, give or take a few quid.
Yes the TCR's are a waste of space and best ignored. Use your own consumption figures and the tarrif details to get a more realistic prediction.
So what do I do? Unless a variable rate is very good I'll be looking at fixed price offers only. I like the predictabilty. First off look on a few comparision sites to see what's out there, get the actual tarrif info and plug it into a spreadsheet to get the real cost, select the three cheapest, read any reviews, check for Quidco, choose one, switch.
Do you owe them or them owe you? Oweing them I'd enquire once but that's all. If they ever get around to sending a bill, I'll pay it but I'm not wasting my time on their ineffeciency. If they owe me on the other hand I'll be making far more fuss and making sure they know I want paying sooner rather than later.
Beaware that some companies won't automatically refund small amounts, you have to ask. The gotcha is the big wording on websites implying that you "don't need to do anything", but down in the small print is the requirement to ask for refunds of small amounts.
I've already seen that in the not so small wording in the T&C and it was also repeated in an email from my previous supplier when they first learnt that I was changing away from them. I believe that after the final bill 1 will be owed around £30 and I will be asking for the refund.
The real sharp practice to watch out for is the one used by British Gas. They will produce a final bill and automatically take any outstanding amount by DD or automatically refund by DD. However the penalty for changing within the contract of say, £30 per fuel, does NOT appear on any of their bills. This is taken by a separate direct debit and the only way you will find out is by carefully checking your bank statement. There is a period toward the end of your contract, or after a price change on your contract, where they cannot charge a penalty fee but this does not stop them from doing so. I had a small battle with BG many years ago when they erroneously charged me a penalty and according to a radio interview a few weeks back it looks if the regulator has fined BG for doing the same more recently.
My annual energy bill is less than £500. Including about 75% of my tra nsport fuel costs. I have a FIT income of £2600 from solar PV panels. You lot are very badly organised.
Hmm assuming no smart meter compatibility issues, I always take at least a year of fixed tariff from EDF. I seem to be better off than the normal tariff and none of the hassle of chopping and changing, plus I keep my old analogue meter and get it read every three months as well, since I'm blind. Obviously if the costs went down rather than up, which is unlikely then I;d be stuffed.
I have no gas, so all my energy is electric. Brian
You are usually stuffed by staying with the same supplier. My experience with checking each year is that I've only had a decent deal from one supplier for a second year - and after that they became one of the most expensive suppliers for fixed price deals.
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread there is also the misleading way that the regulator allows energy companies to calculate your "savings".
One common ploy is for your existing company to suggest by changing to one of their other fixed priced contracts (without imposing a penalty fee) you will be better off. In reality what they do is assume that, say, if your fixed price contract has 3 months to run the yearly cost will be 3 months at your current fixed price rate plus 9 months at the much higher standard variable rate. They then compare this with 12 months at a new fixed tariff which is usually a lot more than you are currently paying. As the regulator allows this devious calculation your supplier is allowed to say that you will be saving even more by taking out a new contract with them.
It much like the headline monthly cost figures the companies use for for an average household. If your consumption is different by even 10% then these figures become somewhat meaningless as different companies may prefer to have you as a low or high energy user and price accordingly.
My pet annoyance at the moment is the local council sending out letters stating that I WILL save by signing up for a area club discount. with the energy usually coming from EVO. When I compare this tariff, with my usage, I find that it's a lot more expensive than I can get for myself.
I'm aware that it is agreed with OFGEN but IMO a bit immoral for energy companies to use it in such a way to indicate to existing customers that a more expensive deal than they currently have is cheaper. They don't use it to compare one fixed tariff with another fixed tariff but to manipulate the figures to distort the truth.
The baseline comparison here is the 'do nothing' option, which will get you put on the standard tariff. If you're on a fixed tariff which is expiring, there's no way to get the same deal for the next year.
Since the wholesale prices of gas and electricity go up and down, it's meaningless to compare against what you paid last year - it's like comparing about what you paid for a tank of petrol last year. It might be more expensive going to Shell today over BP this time last year, but that's not useful if the price of petrol went up in between - you can't travel back in time to fill up again at BP. The only useful information is the best deal you can get today.
If you want to compare two other tariffs, say you're on a tariff which won't expire within a year (eg one you can take out today, and could have taken out yesterday). Then the figures calculated will be compared to that tariff, without any standard rate.
I've managed in the past two years to get an almost comparable deals (cost wise) by changing suppliers.
I don't disagree
Take Scottish Power, they claimed that they notify customers if one of their other deals is cheaper BUT they use the approved calculation in a misleading way. Say that you are 6 months into a 1 year fixed price contract and SP introduce a new 1 year fixed price contract at a higher tariff. They calculate the cost of your existing deal as 6 months at the rate you are currently paying plus 6 months at the standard rate that has just had a price hike. They then compare this with their new fixed price deal with tariffs higher than you are currently paying and the figure for a year comes out less than the first calculation - hence a cheaper deal! They then inform customers that a saving can be made by changing. If customers now change over (without early termination penalties) they are tied in for 12 months from the date they switched. For 6 months they are paying more than they did before for energy. Switching to another supplier incurs the early termination penalties during this new 11/12 month period.
It gets worse in the way they present the information as a saving. The small print may say a saving of X amount compared with their Standard Variable Rate but the bill just indicates a saving of X amount. The unwary may assume that this is a saving on what they are currently paying.
It's the misleading way that the energy companies use this method of calculating a yearly cost to hide the true nature of the price rises, and implying a higher tariff saves customer money over a deal that they previously had that I object to.
If you want the better deals you are probably much better off waiting to approx 5 weeks before your current deal ends, still paying the lower tariff you obtained 11 months ago, and then looking for the best deal.
Currently fixed price 1 to 2 year tariffs appear to give some of the better deals but this may not be true in the future if energy prices become more volatile.
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