The amount you save by paying by DD, aggregated, over the years, is going to cover a loss caused by a DD payment going wrong. And I thought these things were automated. You telling me its all handled by gnomes writing with quills on parchment to effect the transfers, and perhaps one gnome got agitated when the Dark Lord came into Gringotts and demanded the keys to Harry Potter's vault, so his hand shook when he was scratching the amount onto the parchment, and the decimal point went in thw wrong place?
Perhaps I'd better check the imp inside my iPhone, in case he's drunk.
...which is a perfectly fine reason to stick with what you have. It'll cost extra but it's worth it. Money isn't everything.
But it's not a reason to moan that it's all so complicated to switch, when it isn't. You've decided not to go there, end of story. No need for dozens more posts.
What about the change of occupancy by a factor of 1/3rd and the energy consumption habits of said person?
I'm guessing you have those figures handy. ;-)
No, I'm happy to accept that most of it is no more that putting a finger in the air ... and why I'm not in any particular rush to jump out of the frying pan, into another *could / might / should be* (even) cooler frying pan. ;-)
It was like when I designed, built and raced an electric vehicle. I stripped it down, weighed all the parts to see where I might be able to reduce weight, and came to the conclusion I could do *loads* more weight saving by tipping all the change out of my pocket before competing or going on a diet. ;-)
People moaning, here, in a 'discussion group', heaven forbid!
And you might be missing the spirit of the issue here, I have never suggested it's difficult to do the actual switching, it just might not be that easy for *me* to make the switch, all things considered.
However, If switching was *very likely* to be painless, not come with any additional questions / technical difficulties and was supported in principal by the Mrs in a 'Yes, I'll do that as it seems like a good idea' POV, then we could be good to go.
No I haven't, I've just stated that it's not as 'black and white' as some people seem to think?
Got somewhere else to be Theo? ;-)
Ah, I know, you want to get back to looking at the most predictable / tested / straightforward / cost effective / user-friendly d-i-y home energy datalogger and live display project (as it looks like many here might be interested in such). ;-)
You will not be saving an ADDITIONAL £150/£250 every year but you will still be saving the £150/£250 a year, and every year, compared to what you are paying now if you continue to switch.
When friends downsized they were warned by the moving firm that when most people put things in storage very little they want actually comes back out. Sure enough after a year and a cost of £1400 only one wanted box was removed. The storage was then emptied but with around 30% going to the tip, 30% sold cheaply or given to charity and the rest still residing in garden shed purchased for the purpose, but with the contents still untouched for another 12 months.
It seems charities are not accepting too much in way of items that they could sell these days of lock-down because they have too much stock and their sales outlets are closed. With so many people at home many people seem to be having big clear-outs.
Well, we obviously differ, but at least answer my last point about utility payments. Why are these fixed amounts, rather than variable and related to what you actually use?
"Charging our members a small annual fee for our service means we don't take a penny from any of the energy suppliers, making us truly independent and enabling us to switch you to more deals, more often to save you more money - even after you've paid our £30 fee."
Maybe it's gone up since you were charged last?
That's good (for both parties).
Fighting though the stuff under our stairs doesn't make that 'easy' here (and hence why a remote logging system would be handy). ;-)
Count the flashes, /1000, add to previous 'reading', display. RPI takes picture of gas meter digits, OCR's the numbers, displays value. ;-)
Yup. I've never created a spreadsheet in my life (well, other than to open existing data and the odd effort to display some data as a graph).
Some obviously can and it's good to be able to do that sort of thing (if it is your sort of thing).
If I go out with £100 in my pocket and know that's all I have to spend. If I come home with 20 quid I've either spent or lost the difference.
As we would be, if we tried to heat it all to 'comfort' levels. We are old school living in a Victorian house and don't expect to walk around the house in our underwear when it's the middle of the winter.
We aren't 'fussy' about lighting, as long as it 'lights'. ;-)
Yes, but the point is with car / house insurance is it's easy to
*haggle* with your existing vendor for the same package (as far as it impacts you, even if it's via a different underwriter).
Like, I *must have* x, y and z. I CGAF about any extras, as long as they don't cost any money or limit my use.
If I was to do that with my energy supplier I'd be expecting to do the same and them be willing to do so, price match or just make it cheaper somehow, would they?
I'm happy to cold call my current energy supplier and see if they could reduce the price, simply because I'm asking (as I do with my vehicle recovery and vehicle / house insurances).
I have also had some success with BB supplier but haven't done that of late.
Cheers, T i m
[1] I have been present when a couple of mates have taken calls from people offering to give them cheaper deals on whatever and both have said they were happy to pay what they were currently paying (thanks). [2]
One had his (waste) oil filed blown air workshop heating replaced with large blown air gas heaters. When they got them out the boxes he questioned their abilities to heat his place, Long short, he was right. The supplier eventually ripped all that out (inc bricking up the flue hole and running new flue's though the roof) and fitted bigger heaters (that worked fine). When he questioned why they had to go though that procedure they said *they* didn't think he would go for the right one, in spite that he didn't ever question the price.
If you run a light aircraft, you are probably also able to afford the right size gas heaters. ;-)
Only if the other supplier(s) prices go up by comparison?
So, what would happen if *everyone* set themselves up to auto-switch to a machine calculated 'best price' deal, wouldn't we get the same problem as the Black Monday stock market crash?
We end up with one supplier who then gouges us .. ;-(
Why is there only one monopolies commission? ;-)
This is stuff I have put into storage because it is stuff I want (and have never moved).
Yeah, it happens.
Ok?
Yeah.
And often fly-tipping it everywhere. ;-(
Round here they use the proceeds of crime to pay for the removal of fly tip, because it *is* a crime.
Perhaps wiring the amount of this month's bill to the DD can't be done. Or perhaps even if it could, there's no mechanism to deal with refunds should one be needed because a revised bill was issued. Can credit notes (issued when a bill is cancelled) be worked as a kind of reverse DD? Mebbe it's easier to just bill a fixed amount each month and make a refund now and again. The DD amount does get adjusted from time to time.
"Sorry, we're having technical problems at the moment
We're unable to process your request right now. Please try again later."
;-(
Ok, I'll give that a go.
Part of the bigger picture is that often we came to the suppliers we are currently with *because* we have moved *away* from others who had issues and in some cases decided 'you gets what you pays for'. I'm guessing that once enough customers leave (and we know some might and others won't) then they will have a talk to themselves and maybe re-think what they are doing and if they don't and it get's worse, they go to the wall.
I think that sort of thing happened when various companies outsourced their customer services to the likes of India and 'people' moved their business elsewhere because of things like 'they couldn't understand them' or 'they didn't know what they were doing'. I've had just the same *range* of service from all sorts of people (but then I'm not a racist).
The standard industry way approved by the regulator is to compare a standard variable (expensive) rate from your current supplier with a lower (maybe) fixed deal from another. I'm already on one of the cheaper deals and if I look for another the price for another contract from all suppliers is currently higher - and probably even more so when my current contract ends . I assume that they wouldn't be comparing my price increase as a saving over the old contract? Add a fee for this service and I'd be worse off!
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