- This topic has 35 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by Sui.
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Energy Company Swine, eh?
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MrWoppitFree Member
What to do?
I’ve just switched to continue paying at my current rate fixed for the next 4 years. It’s easy. Go here:
ernie_lynchFree MemberI can’t see any mention of a fixed rate, only the cheapest tariff.
ernie_lynchFree MemberAll I can see is that every month they check you are paying the cheapest tariff, and if you’re not they advice to change, which obviously doesn’t guarantee a fixed rate for the next 4 years. Is there something to click on in your link ?
” we’ll monitor the market for cheaper ones and email you (or text if you like) when you should switch”
allthegearFree MemberI can see the word “fix” mentioned many times but no actual fixed rate being offered.
Seems like a bad time to switch, anyway. Surely better to let the current round of rises settle and THEN switch once we know what the rates will be to compare properly?
Rachel
MrWoppitFree MemberEnter all the details about your current tariff. Click the search function. It offers you a range of options, plus a “best deal” fixed tariff. I went to EDF.
ohnohesbackFree MemberThe average property has only one gas pipe and one electricity line. Why is there a cosy little ogopoly of utility companies? Nationalise the lot, and have one electricity company and one gas company offering one cheapest tariff. At a stroke we could be free of the deliberately confgusing obscurificaction of tariffs and all those irritating little botherers trying to churn the market.
kimbersFull Membera system so ridiculously complicated and obviously designed to discourage actual competition that you need to use a 3rd party website to show you how to get the best deal
MrWoppitFree MemberNo thanks. I’d rather look for my own cheapest deal in a free market.
MrWoppitFree Memberyou need to use a 3rd party website to show you how to get the best deal
So what?
allthegearFree MemberI hope you do realise, Mr Woppit, that the deal you picked isn’t actually fixed?
Try reading it again…
Rachel
thekingisdeadFree Member“No thanks. I’d rather look for my own cheapest deal in a free market”
Except its far from a fully functioning free market.
ernie_lynchFree MemberI’d rather look for my own cheapest deal in a free market.
That’s an attitude which appears to be shared by only a minority of the British people. After over 20 years of the “free market” in the energy industry the majority of the British public appear to be distinctly unimpressed.
In fact according to a recent ComRes poll a clear majority want the major energy companies to be nationalised.
Poll reveals huge support for nationalising UK energy firmsAlmost 70 per cent of people surveyed for a new poll believe the UK’s major energy companies should be nationalised.
In the survey conducted by research firm ComRes, 69 per cent of respondents backed nationalisation of big energy firms, 77 per cent thought energy prices were set unfairly
MrWoppitFree MemberThe proletariat are still stubbornly lumpen then eh, ernie? 😉
robdixonFree Membera clear majority of the public want the energy companies to be nationalised at someone else’s expense but 70% of all households have never bothered to take 5 minutes and switch supplier through a comparison site.
ransosFree Membera clear majority of the public want the energy companies to be nationalised at someone else’s expense but 70% of all households have never bothered to take 5 minutes and switch supplier through a comparison site
The energy switching rate in Britain is the highest of any large market in the world.
kimbersFull Memberime the problem with switching supplier is that you then get pestered by your old company to come back, I had to get very rude to an incredibly pushy door to door saleswoman trying to get me back!
If i shop at sainsburys one week and tesco the next I dont expect to be harassed by sainsburys
can you trust the comparison site though, is it like insureres that dont necessarily appear on comparison sites?
ernie_lynchFree MemberThe proletariat are still stubbornly lumpen then eh, ernie?
What a snappy retort. Did it take you 21 hours to think of it ?
martinhutchFull MemberAll that poll does is reveal the abject confusion amongst consumers about how the power industry should be operated.
http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/BBC_Radio_5live_Energy_Day_Public_Poll_September_2013.pdf
Page 29 is interesting – a majority say they would pay more for greener power, but a bigger majority say that lower prices are more important than carbon emissions in a time of economic pressure.
IMO, if you ask people if consumers would be better served by renationalisation, then the answers will be significantly weighted by the recollection that prices were much lower the last time the industry was in public hands.
If you ask these sorts of questions at a time when people are worrying about energy bills, and have just finished a survey focusing on that issue, the answers are hardly surprising.
julianwilsonFree MemberIf i were Woppit I would be keeping quiet about all this best deal business: the reason his deal is able to be so good is because too few other people are on it, and too many people are paying over the odds. The non-switchers subsidise the switchers. (after all, the electricity and gas is the same and according to one of Stoner’s rare-these-days funky graphs, the quality of service when you phone them up cannot make that big a diference to the overall bill).
If every customer switches to that or a comparable
and competitive(actually only genuinely competitive in terms of keepng your business running medium-term as long as few enough people use it) four year fixed rate deal tomorrow, imagine thebailout from the government they will be looking forrise in prices for everyone (including Woppit!) at the end of those four years as the ‘slow subsidise the savvy’ model collapses.MrWoppitFree MemberThe proletariat are still stubbornly lumpen then eh, ernie?
What a snappy retort. Did it take you 21 hours to think of it ?Joke, ernie, joke. I don’t spend EVERY minute of the day on here. Relax mate.
johnnersFree MemberThat 4 year fix is good for price certainty if that’s important to you, but isn’t a cheap deal. I looked at fixing a couple of weeks ago when the current round of shafting started and it looked unlikely to save me anything over the period of the fix.
ernie_lynchFree MemberJoke, ernie, joke.
Really ? I thought it was a deeply thought out comment.
Btw timing is everything with regards to jokes. You might want to think about that when dispensing the snappy retorts ?
MrWoppitFree MemberOh O.K. ernie. If you say so. Have a nice day. (Can’t find a kissy emoticon). 8)
Ecky-ThumpFree MemberThe non-switchers subsidise the switchers.
True, and as a long time tart, I am more than a little concerned about the plans to make energy companies simplify their tarif structures and tell their customers if another tarif would be cheaper for them.
I foresee diminishing benefits from switching, which annoys me greatly. They promote switching then limit the options. Grrr!
midlifecrashesFull MemberJust done the March 2017 fix with EDF. Could do with trimming consumption too, time to get better heating controls and insulate the last bits of the top floor.
randomjeremyFree MemberI’ve switched a few times in the last five years or so and don’t think I’ve ever actually saved any money. It seems I switch to a “cheaper” deal but then everyone puts their prices up. The energy industry is nothing but a cartel; privatising what is quite obviously a natural monopoly was always going to end this way.
packerFree MemberThat 4 year fix is good for price certainty if that’s important to you, but isn’t a cheap deal. I looked at fixing a couple of weeks ago when the current round of shafting started and it looked unlikely to save me anything over the period of the fix.
I just looked into this deal. I am currently on the British Gas Standard tariff for both gas and electricity, and this deal is cheaper than that even before the 10% rise that British Gas are doing next month. Hence it seems like a pretty great deal to me…
johnnersFree MemberI just looked into this deal. I am currently on the British Gas Standard tariff for both gas and electricity, and this deal is cheaper than that even before the 10% rise that British Gas are doing next month. Hence it seems like a pretty great deal to me…
It’s all relative, but tbh BG’s standard tariff isn’t too hard to improve on. The 4 year fix is >20% more expensive than my current fix, which runs through the 13/14 expected high-usage period until April anyway. I factored in the extra cost from ditching that one early and the sums just didn’t work out.
kimbersFull MemberRetail energy companies say their profit margins are so low because they have to pay a high price for the energy they buy wholesale to sell to us retail. They scuttle over the fact that the gouging wholesalers they complain about are in fact themselves. The companies that provide the wholesale electricity and gas are the retailers’ own conjoined twins. Each of the ‘big six’ are now able to supply virtually all their own needs.
The graph from OFGEM shows above the zero line how much energy the retail companies’ generation twin can generate, and below the zero line how much energy the companies sell to the likes of you and me and the businesses that employ us. All six are more or less in balance – they can supply their own demands. [In the graph, RWE is the owner of nPower, SP is Scottish Power]
http://www.blog.rippedoffbritons.com/2013/09/graphs-at-glance-how-electricity-and.html
kimbersFull MemberrobdobFree MemberI’ve been with BG for ages now. I keep looking to change it but everytime I do there doesn’t seem to savings on offer which offset the faff and hassle enough to make it worthwhile. For example if I am in debit, say during winter, I have to pay off BG to go elsewhere. And if I’m in credit I get a nice cheque but then after a few months at the new supplier they will put up my monthly direct debut as I’m not in credit enough to take me through the winter.
BG provide an app to do meter readings, track my usage accurately, give me nectar points when I give a reading. Never had any hassle and nothing but great service.
Sooooo what I have done is stay with them and make a concerted effort to NOT USE AS MUCH ENERGY! That’s probably saved me many more times over in my bills than switching suppliers every few months could do.MoreCashThanDashFull MemberI have some sympathy with the energy companies on the blackout this Xmas – no one knew that the bad weather would come along when the holiday rotas were drawn up, and a lot of people have given up booked leave to try and resolve things.
Currently at my in laws in Sussex who weren’t affected this time, but who were without electricity for over a week after the 87 storm. The problem isn’t the energy companies getting repairs done, it is the fact that a lot of people haven’t got a **** clue how to plan and prepare for, let alone manage during, an extended power cut. If you choose to live somewhere that is known to flood, or where your power come down a wire through the trees, you need to think a bit.
Darwin had a theory about it….
SuiFree MemberI’ve just joined that there energy club thing. I must say it’s made me look at my usage over the last 12 months (currently eon) – £1700 😯
will se what savings can be had (like telling the missus to stop using the tumble dryer 👿
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