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switching/quote sites

champ69
by champ69 29 January 2010  |  Comments 3 comments  |  Love Love  0 loves

 Dual energy switching

Just looked at changing from Eon Price Protection r3. Fixed til 5/2011. Used Lovemoney.com quote service. And Energyhelpline

“Savings of £170 pa” Scottish Hydro. (Go direct v3). This result on the Lovemoney site though doesn’t event appear on Energyhelpline !! (by the way, Npower comes first on each site, though there is £30 difference in the saving !) Ok, this is a variable rate, whereas I am currently fixed (so I WOULD expect to see a current saving)

Decided to look further. Have 15 mths bills with Eon, to show total Kw’s used (surely the only fair comparison.

I am a low user of energy (frugal +single+working). Electic seems my biggest expense - why ? - so may be worth looking at 2 suppliers rather than dual fuel.. It seems that Eons ‘primary’ (higher charged) units, do me no favours, but looking at the entire year and comparing costs to the top 2/3, this so called ‘saving’ of £170 approx, works out as………….. As……….you guessed it - £NIL. I would pay exactly the same if I changed to someone else.

Have looked before at this, but never had an entire years bills.

What so or con are these sites ? How do they work out a ‘saving’ when there is none ?! (though I will keep looking.)

The top saver Npower (+ several others), only give a cashback at the end of the year, and would even want to move my meters outside the house (at my cost).

Many people I am sure switch, based on these simple savings calculators - LOOK INTO THE DETAILS is my advice, before the hassle begins

Elec                          £   Kw       Gas £   Kw

13/1/10                     123  953       62 1255

22/10/09                   118 867       23 426

15/7/09                      98 716       28 312

13/3/09                     134 1014      68 1710

10/1/09                     123 940         59 1481

 

Over last 12 mths     £473 Kw3550         £181 Kw 3703

Dual energy/direct debit/online

Any ideas /obsevations, anyone

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Comments (3)

  • liesarenocomfort
    Love rating 134
    liesarenocomfort posted

    Champ69,

    Don't have any comment on the switching proposal but all I would say is that I reckon £473 per year on lecky is quite good going - not sure you're going to bring that down much.

    Ideas - buy a slow cooker and don't use oven as much.

    - replace halogen lights with low energy ones 

    Be very strict on the immersion heater use (it uses loads of lecky - just a big insulated kettle really)

     

    Posted on 29 January 2010 | Love Love  0 loves Report
  • peepobaby
    Love rating 49
    peepobaby posted

    Lots of assumptions are made aboiut your seasonal use of gas and electric. These assumptions often do not match actual usage. Vary these assumptions and you can make circumstances under which most suppliers/tariffs are cheapest. All these switch sites employ concepts like this.

    I prefer to compare using an Excel spreadsheet and unit rates and rates by volumes etc. against my actual usage, since that gives a fairer picture of my position. Its rare that I can save more than £25/yr by switching although sites may award me as much as £100!

    Its like insurance, £20 cheaper but your excess is £300 more and you get no replacement car (which you have an extra excess on anyway!).

    I particularly dislike suppliers that charge low users, such as pensioners and generally poorer people, more per unit than high users. That is scandalous

    Posted on 30 January 2010 | Love Love  0 loves Report
  • GrandJury
    Love rating 14
    GrandJury posted

    Hi @champ69,

    I manage the utilities comparison centre for lovemoney.com.

    I was interested that you found two different prices from two different quote engines and so I'm trying to replicate the results you found.

    Would you be able to send me an email with your postcode so that I can double check the quotes you received?

    My email address is gavriel@lovemoney.com

    Best Regards

    Gavriel, a member of the lovemoney.com management team

    Posted on 02 February 2010 | Love Love  0 loves Report

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