So what tariffs have you found that would do that?
Most are daily standing charge + energy used that day, I haven't seen any domestic tariffs that have the usage-related stepped unit charge you speak of.
What fuel do you use for central heating? If it's gas the amount seem wrong.
If you are over-paying and are in credit by X £100s this is possible an overestimate by the amount you are over paying.
Based on the figures you gave before I would be paying £940
Looks like the old Avro fixed price with no exit penalties deal (now superseded with a more expensive fixed deal). I'm on this contract and currently cannot find cheaper deal (for my energy usage figures) which indicates that prices across the board are rising.
A few months back there were a few deals cheaper for me but by only £10 to £20 per annum.
Erm, everything that appertains to us and our energy supply in this instance?
Cheers, T i m
and don't forget that if you are on a "standard" and "variable" tariff that £1150 price is not what you are paying NOW - it could be the equivalent of £1250/year. But having said that, when I was looking recently I could find a deal that was as good as the one I'm currently on. The best from a company with a reasonably reputation was £70 more. This would still be a saving of around >£200 over the price you are paying.
We don't have 'central heating' as such but we use a mix of gas and electricity for heating.
Quite possibly ... but any 'estimated' value is pretty worthless isn't it.
Yes, it is. We are paying £16 pm for our Gas but haven't been (even) using that much, hence why we are £250 in credit. But better that then in debt and we can request a refund if we want (and probably will after the next submitted value bill has gone though).
Cheers, T i m
If a company is going to pay a commission to other comparison sites they will pay the same to Flipper? Or do they, after choosing the best deal, pay the commission back to you if the chosen supplier offers it?
What do those Nectar points work out at, in terms of hard cash? Maybe you can't turn them into cash but you can use them to buy milk or petrol at Sainsbury's, which works out into roughly the same thing because you were probably buying those things anyway.
Would I be right at guessing it only turns into £10-20 of shopping? So not actually a big deal in terms of the ~£1000 a year you might spend on energy?
Theo
At our current usage we would be paying roughly £90 for lekky and £10 month for gas, so that's £1200 per year.
However, I probably have a pretty large background load with numerous bits of (small) kit on 24/7 plus things like the 3D printer that is often on the best part of the day and other electricity based projects (like battery powered mobility scooters and other battery based kit (that all need charging).
But some of that is a function of us being at home a lot so can be offset by a reduced vehicle fuel bill (because of Covid) and (also) not eating / going out.
Cheers, T i m
That's what I usually do. Use the comparison sites to find the best tariff (being sure to untick 'show me suppliers we can switch you to today') and then sign up direct, seeing if I can snag some TCB / Quidco on the way.
Theo
The 'Help Me Choose A Tariff'' would be ideal for T i m, as it lists the deals available yet leaves the choice to him. It doesn't seem to have a 'find the most expensive tariff' option, though, so I'm not sure he'd like it.
Looking at my rolling 12-month energy usage costs, I'm paying slightly less now than I was ten years ago, although I changed to LED lighting some years back while retaining the inefficient non-condensing gas boiler. I do switch energy suppliers regularly, though, depending on what the spreadsheet says.
Its a gamble but in times of rising energy prices, as now seems to be the case, a fixed price deal for 12 months is probably going to give you a saving of £150 to £250 over the next year compared to a "standard variable" tariff which is virtually guaranteed to be the most expensive.
If you want cast iron guarantees you will never switch and probably be paying 10 to 20% more than the rest of us who are will to take the gamble.
Why are the big six less of a gamble - they have well proven track record of screwing the public.
Companies that want more frequent meter readings are likely to have more accurate billing. Those of the big6/8 are fond of having estimated usage where they can extract many £100s extra from your bank account by the end of the year.
I pay by DD a month in advance and if I miss a meter reading it is estimated for that month - no big deal. I'm actually £150 in credit because I was away for the best part of a month but again no big deal - I know that a quick email and I can get that credit refunded - I have done this in the past with my current (small) supplier with no hassles.
No paperwork involved with any of my switches in a long time. I have had a few emails and and requests for final meter readings.
True. I have also have friends that have signed up to a fixed price energy deal (/mortgage) and the rates have gone down and they were stuck on it.
See above.
Depends what you value though doesn't it?
Agreed.
Yup, that you can sometimes even earn interest on (we are informed here).
Quite. ;-)
I can do it online with BT it seems (not done it yet).
As have we (with a phone call).
Part of the 'bigger picture' could be to include *all* your living costs. Like, I do as much of our vehicle maintenance work, I do all the appliance repair work, all the decorating, shopping (electronics list sent to daughter due to Covid), cooking etc etc, so I'm making savings where many others (non d-i-y'ers) aren't, so I consider that I've got a bit of slack (proportionally) where things like energy costs come in and the effort / risk / gable re their reduction.
If I wanted to 'save' £150 / year (and possibly only for the first year I do it) I could re-design my electrical load or buy less toys, or fancy foods or many other things. I'm paying nearly £150 / *month* for some secure storage, potentially still a saving over the cost of moving to and running a bigger house. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
I fail to see why 14/10/2019 to 15/11/2020 does not give you a useful baseline (adjusted as I did for the period being longer than a year). If really want to test it you can always adjust for the differences between temperatures in that period and the average of (say) the last 5 years. Then adjust further for any differences between your use that year and expected use in future years - e.g. for retirement, absences, guests, global warming, and no longer roasting large joints and birds.
Short answer: The lack of control I have over others accessing my bank account.
Long answer: There is fraud possible in every system, but it is particularly easy with DD (
Now it might be possible for this to occur if your bank screwed up a standing order payment for the premium to the insurance company, but then it would be obvious who was at fault and the bank would have to pay up for your losses. But with a DD, the bank is not at fault because they were following your instructions "to pay variable amounts on variable dates" under the DD scheme. So the company who received the payment would have to pay up. What if they refused? You'd have to take it up with the Financial Ombudsman (I did check this with Bacs Services who administer DDs). You'd no doubt get there in the end, but how long would it take? What would happen if the company went broke or moved abroad and refused to pay? With the standing order scenario, the /only/ party at fault would be the bank, and the bad publicity from a refusal to pay just wouldn't be worth it.
Yes, it's all theoretical, and billions of transactions take place by DD without problem. But when it does happen, you can bet it won't be sorted out easily. One simple way to avoid excessive overpayment issues would be to allow, and record, a "maximum" agreed amount on any DD agreement. It should be pretty easy to set this up in a DD database, so why isn't it done?
The other point particularly appertaining to DDs and utility bill payments is why they don't seem to be used in the way they should be. As far as I can tell, most people seem to pay an agreed fixed amount each month. Why? Shouldn't the utility companies be billing them each month or quarter on exactly what they've used? It's meant to be a /variable/ amount after all! If it's a standard amount monthly (which usually appears to be to the benefit of the company as the customer seems to always be in credit - ie you are lending the companies money at no interest), why won't they accept a standing order instead, with a "correcting" payment once a year?
The only other constraint I'd applied was dual fuel. Everything else was left optional such as paper/online billing; contract length; penalties for early exit from contract, etc
We did a shop at Sainsbury's recently and traded in years of points. Got £38 off the bill.
I think it's 1p in the £
I'm not aware that you can (but never tried).
Quite.
We currently have £7.50 on ours which would be a few basics for doing nothing. It used to be quite a bit more (more often) when we got them with fuel, energy and our shopping (we would get targeted offers that would often yealds loads of points, either directly or (extra 200 points) or times X (10 x points if you buy y).
No, but worth having and the key point is that you don't have to *do* anything to get it, unlike say 'shopping around' for the best price on insurance / energy and having to deal with the minefield of options.
See, every time I read here "I just check it against my spreadsheet" I'm reminded how happy I am that I don't bother with all that and would generally prefer to spend my time doing 'anything else', even wasting it here. ;-) [1]
Cheers, T i m
[1] I would though be happy to spend some time / money in creating / integrating an automated means of monitoring and logging our energy usage, especially the idea of ANPR / OCR the gas meter. ;-)Also, It would be quite easy to automate the E7 periods by driving a PSU fed from that circuit.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.