Fixed tariffs? No they are not.

[Cobra]

Are Eon that bad? I have just started researching switching and they come out with the lowest price. Is there some hidden catch?

Really? I'm surprised! Sainsbury's, SSE, AVERO, are all within a few quid of each other and virtually half the price of Eon.

I assume you have tried the Uswitch site?
https://www.uswitch.com

edit it helps if you have your bills to hand to enter the actual
usage

 

[User.82148]

I have used my annual usage figs from my current suppliers and on the Which comparison site they come out cheaper than the 3 suppliers you mention by approx £100 pa. Perhaps it is a special tariff as it is not offered on the Eon website. Having read some reviews of Eon since my post I am unlikely to go with them, I would rather pay a bit extra than gave to deal with hassle, assuming which ever supplier I select is reliable.

I'll try uswitch and a few other sites tomorrow. I will also try to go direct rather than use comparison sites as I found with a recent car insurance renewal it was cheaper for the same cover. Someone must have to pay their fees.

 

[Cobra]

Which comparison site they come out cheaper than the 3 suppliers you mention by approx £100 pa.

Weird eh? I sometimes wonder if they, the utilities, make up these figures as they go along

I will also try to go direct rather than use comparison sites

I did that just out of curiosity, and SSE ( the only one I did) were identical, to the uswitch site.
I can only assume that the companies pay uswitch somehow, to "recommend" them.

 

[srichards]

Cheap energy club is often best bet. They give you the money they earn from a switch.

 

[LASTOLITE]

Cheers I'll check them out too
One thing is certian so far, with the projected and actual useage, going on the past 12 months, I can virtually cut my energy bills in half!
And there was me thinking that Eon were a "good deal" Not so much.!

OVO and you will be one charmed snake!

Saving a fair bit ourselves 350 this year.

 

[Cobra]

OVO and you will be one charmed snake!

IIRC They were 50% dearer than the other 3

edit, found it

OVO are £10/ month more expensive than the above btw.

and the other 3 were just under 50 quid a month, for joint fuel

 

[LASTOLITE]

IIRC They were 50% dearer than the other 3

edit, found it

and the other 3 were just under 50 quid a month, for joint fuel

There were great for us.....Missus just said we are at the end of our deal and she's looking to switch providers again.....Let us know then! Life moves fast ....its been 12 months already!

 

[User.82148]

OVO worked out a lot more expensive than my other quotes but still cheaper than my existing suppliers.

 

[Cobra]

There were great for us.....Missus just said we are at the end of our deal and she's looking to switch providers again.....Let us know then! Life moves fast ....its been 12 months already!

As I said above, I'm getting more and more convinced they make these figures up as they go along !

 

[DeadpanDodo]

The figures are not plucked from thin air, but carefully calculated. All the companies will offer attractive market leading rates to switch on the basis that many people through inertia will fail to price check in subsequent years and they will then make a profit.

Nothing wrong with eon. I was with them last year on a fixed tariff, after moving from SSE, but moved again this year to First Utility. There's every chance that I may move back to them next year. The whole market is madness, and the concept of there being any real private competition in the industry is illusionary. But it only takes 10 mins to switch, and it pays to be a "rate tart"!

 

[DorsetDude]

£60 a month dual fuel?! You lucky, lucky, b&*£%d!

Best ive managed so far is £90 with OVO. And thats just little old me in a 2 bed bung out at work all week.

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

£60 a month dual fuel?! You lucky, lucky, b&*£%d!

Best ive managed so far is £90 with OVO. And thats just little old me in a 2 bed bung out at work all week.

Seems expensive! We're now paying £74 for a 3 bed victorian end terrace

 

[DorsetDude]

Seems expensive! We're now paying £74 for a 3 bed victorian end terrace

Tell me about it. Ive never been able to work out why. Apart from finding some kind soul who's prepared to compare meter readings over a year Im stuck I think.

 

[Cobra]

£60 a month dual fuel?! You lucky, lucky, b&*£%d!

£50

Best ive managed so far is £90 with OVO. And thats just little old me in a 2 bed bung out at work all week.

EON want £99

Apart from finding some kind soul who's prepared to compare meter readings over a year Im stuck I think.

Gas 1121 units Sept. to Sept
Electric 4137 Units Sept. to Sept

 

[wyx087]

£50

Gas 1121 units Sept. to Sept
Electric 4137 Units Sept. to Sept

That can't be right!

1121 unit (cubic meter) of gas = 35236 kWh. According to my provider's (Flow) equation.

I've used 15185 kWh of gas, 2012 kWh of electricity April 2015 to April 2016 with EOn fixed for 1 year over that period, £62 per month. April I switched to Flow energy at £57 per month fixed 1 year.
(3 bed link dethatched, wife work from home all the time; with solar panels, smart central heating and many electric gadgets around the house)

But you use almost twice as much as me, yet cheaper??

 

[DorsetDude]

Gas 1121 units Sept. to Sept
Electric 4137 Units Sept. to Sept

If "units" are the digits on the meters then for me, June to June:

Gas 936
Elec 3152

If we are correct Im using less than you and paying more.

 

[Cobra]

That can't be right!

Ooops !! they don't make it easy, do they? but I finally found last years usage to date, Sept - Sept.

Gas 12,148
Electric as above 4137
edit, the bill shows 50 more units used than the actual meter reading
Using the updated data
I'll be paying £70 / month. still £30 / month cheaper
baring in mind eon charge gas 27.9p / day
electric 27.7p/day

It just goes to show how these things vary too, when I first started looking a week ago,
sainsbury's standing charge gas 10.5p / day
electric 11.3p / day.
They are now 33p / day

(3 bed link dethatched, wife work from home all the time; with solar panels, smart central heating and many electric gadgets around the house)

4 bed semi, 2 of us out at work all day, warms house up, in the later months, early hours for when I get up, then warms house up when I / we get home.
May put it on boost for an hour if its really cold.
Well insulated house, no real gadgets, but my lad is a bugger for his play station.
Electric fire as a back up.

 

[Cobra]

If "units" are the digits on the meters then for me, June to June:

Gas 936
Elec 3152
If we are correct Im using less than you and paying more.

As above the leccy is right, but try and find a bill (on line?) with your actual gas usage, mine worked out to just over 10x what I thought it was but far less than Wuyan gestimated.

 

[DorsetDude]

As above the leccy is right, but try and find a bill (on line?) with your actual gas usage, mine worked out to just over 10x what I thought it was but far less than Wuyan gestimated.

If we're talking kilowatt hours then - my elec reading off the meter and kilowatt hours are both the same 3152,

gas, my kWh are 14900.

so a bit more than you. I still think on your tariff Id be paying less than £90 though.

Have you got cavity wall insulation?

 

[DorsetDude]

And another thing, did you go to sainsburys energy? I was with them prior to OVO now. At first sainsbury looked cheap but it didnt take long for them to start telling me that my projected use was a lot higher than they thought it would be and my payments will have to go up. Will be interesting to see if they do that to you. OVO so far havent done so.

If i recall one bloke even had the cheek to say it was going to be a cold winter so they were upping my direct debit. Unbelievable. Turned out to be mildest winter for yonks.

 

[Cobra]

my elec reading off the meter and kilowatt hours are both the same 3152,

Yeah the Leccy meter reads in Kw.
I assumed the gas did too, obviously not

so a bit more than you. I still think on your tariff Id be paying less than £90 though.

I was paying £31 Electric and £41 Gas, they tell me my projection for next year is Elec £45 Gas £54.
they always increase it every year and every year end up paying me back. I'm just p***ed off with it TBH.

And another thing, did you go to sainsburys energy? I was with them prior to OVO now. At first sainsbury looked cheap but it didnt take long for them to start telling me that my projected use was a lot higher than they thought it would be and my payments will have to go up. Will be interesting to see if they do that to you. OVO so far havent done so.

If i recall one bloke even had the cheek to say it was going to be a cold winter so they were upping my direct debit. Unbelievable. Turned out to be mildest winter for yonks.

OVO are £10 more expensive than the cheapest one, and as above for sainsbury's, ( a British gas partner it seems )
They have rocketed their standing charge over the last week, also making it none viable ( from 10p / day to 33p / day)
So far SSE are coming out the best.

 

[wyx087]

That seems about right. Electricity is more expensive per kWh, so even though I use slightly more gas, overall my bills are cheaper.

Switching is the only way to go TBH. I've switched 3 times in 2.5 years living here. You automatically end up on an expensive standard tariff after the fix term. So, there's almost always a cheaper one than the one you'll be on after the fixed period. Challenge is to keep finding cheaper ones compared to your previous fixed rate.

 

[Cobra]

Switching is the only way to go TBH.

I've never really thought about it until now, I've looked in the past, but didn't really believe that I could save as much, as "they" claimed,
when I did my own calculations. But since eon have p***ed me off, ( ok some of it was due to a misunderstanding, misinformation etc,)
I have done a lot more research, both web based and chatting here, on TP.
Things I've learned, loyalty is not rewarded, and shopping around is most certainly the way to go

 

[stevewestern]

Bringing this thread back to life with a basic question -

We have been with British Gas (dual fuel) since we came back to the UK about 8 years ago, and have blindly carried on without ever thinking about changing suppliers so know nothing about this, but looking at uSwitch for the first time it seems we can save as much as £195 per year by going with iSupply, 6th on the list are e.on with £164.72 and ovo at 12th with £120.38.
Is there much difference in who supplies you, and if so what ? I've never heard of most on the top of the list - Green Energy Network, engie, Green Star, Flow, First Utility to name a few so how does one choose who to go with.
Green Network Energy are apparently the most popular for our region (Cornwall) uSwitch tell me....

Any thing I should be looking at - all advice and suggestions much appreciated !

 

[wyx087]

I've always went with cheapest one with good reviews. The only difference I have experienced is customer service. I've used Flow before, their CS are pretty good.

In the most recent switch, I saw green renewable supplier within my top 5 so I switched to 100% renewable electricity supplier. Is your Green Energy Network a 100% renewable supplier? if they are cheap, might as well support renewables.

 

[Cobra]

Is there much difference in who supplies you,

Probably not, a year later and I'm still with SSE no problems, no price hikes and my monthly payments are still on target,
pretty much cutting previous EON's projection in half.

 

[bass_junkie83]

We could do with changing supplier but Npower have us by the short and curlys.
When we moved in there was a prepay meter fitted, previous owner forgot to mention that and as we were renovating the whole house messing around with energy suppliers was one more headache we didn't have time for. but did eventually get round to having a conventional meter installed.
Since then it seems N-power have been underestimating our usage so over the last couple of years we have gotten a few hundred into the red with them. increased out payments now to stary paying it back but going to be while until that is cleared and we can make a move. Annoying though that keeps us locked to a supplier that I'm sure is costing us much more than we could get away with elsewhere.

 

[stevewestern]

I've always went with cheapest one with good reviews. The only difference I have experienced is customer service. I've used Flow before, their CS are pretty good.

In the most recent switch, I saw green renewable supplier within my top 5 so I switched to 100% renewable electricity supplier. Is your Green Energy Network a 100% renewable supplier? if they are cheap, might as well support renewables.

They are, and had caught my eye as a result. I'll look into them.

Thanks!

 

[Cobra]

Since then it seems N-power have been underestimating our usage

Bugger! I know when I've had estimated bills in years gone by they have always been over the top.
Since the days of provide your own meter readings, via the web, its much easier to keep track of what's happening..

I'm sure is costing us much more than we could get away with elsewhere.

It might be worth having a look at https://www.uswitch.com just to compare.

If you are paying way over the top, perhaps look into another way of settling your bill, with them ( interest free CC etc) and then start afresh?
Just a thought.

 

[bass_junkie83]

Bugger! I know when I've had estimated bills in years gone by they have always been over the top.
Since the days of provide your own meter readings, via the web, its much easier to keep track of what's happening..


It might be worth having a look at https://www.uswitch.com just to compare.

If you are paying way over the top, perhaps look into another way of settling your bill, with them ( interest free CC etc) and then start afresh?
Just a thought.

Yeah I need to sit down and look at it properly at some point. But I have to put my hands up and take my share of the blame, I just never seem to get the time to do it.

 

[cosmicma]

you'd love my bills

duel fuel with EDF is working out at nearly £200 a month
gas ( direct debit ) £39 a month
electricity ( pre pay ) £150 a month ( average )

4 bed end terraced
nobody bothers to switch any thing off

 

[Cobra]

But I have to put my hands up and take my share of the blame, I just never seem to get the time to do it.

And this is the way these companies ( not only the power companies, insurances etc) work, or rather what they rely on isn't it? We are basically lazy and CBA to check on the
best prices, finding it easier just to let them renew.
And as per the top of the thread, I was just as "Guilty" as the next man, if it hadn't been for my dispute with eon, I probably wouldn't have bothered either.

4 bed end terraced
nobody bothers to switch any thing off

Jeeze! 4 bed semi 3 adults .. combined power, less than half per month, than your leccy!

 

[StewartR]

you'd love my bills

duel fuel with EDF is working out at nearly £200 a month
gas ( direct debit ) £39 a month
electricity ( pre pay ) £150 a month ( average )

4 bed end terraced
nobody bothers to switch any thing off

Crikey.

We have a 4-bedroom extended detached house with gas heating and hot water, and electric cooking. Actual consumption over the last 12 months works out to : electricity £40/month, gas £45/month. That's on a direct debit tariff with OVO. The statement we just received the other day says we could save £5/month on each of them by switching to a different fixed tariff, so we'll look into that.

Though I guess we have exactly the opposite of your 'nobody bothers to switch anything off' mentality. For example last night we thought it was a bit cold, but instead of switching on the heating (for the first time since about April) we checked the smart meter records to find out when we switched it on last year. Turns out it was October 4th. So then we convinced ourselves that it only felt cold because we'd just got back from holiday (it was 37° in Crete yesterday when we left). If we can delay switching on the heating for 2 weeks that will save us about £20, which admittedly isn't a lot in the cosmic scheme of things but it all adds up.

 

[cosmicma]

Crikey.

We have a 4-bedroom extended detached house with gas heating and hot water, and electric cooking. Actual consumption over the last 12 months works out to : electricity £40/month, gas £45/month. That's on a direct debit tariff with OVO. The statement we just received the other day says we could save £5/month on each of them by switching to a different fixed tariff, so we'll look into that.

Though I guess we have exactly the opposite of your 'nobody bothers to switch anything off' mentality. For example last night we thought it was a bit cold, but instead of switching on the heating (for the first time since about April) we checked the smart meter records to find out when we switched it on last year. Turns out it was October 4th. So then we convinced ourselves that it only felt cold because we'd just got back from holiday (it was 37° in Crete yesterday when we left). If we can delay switching on the heating for 2 weeks that will save us about £20, which admittedly isn't a lot in the cosmic scheme of things but it all adds up.

the heating isn't the problem which is gas along with cooking and hot water
£39 a month for gas i think is very reasonable the leccy on the other hand is basically out of control but it's been like this for years
it's a very busy house with 3 children of our own at home and 2 foster children ( been with us for the last 10 years ) there's a constant stream of washing and drying, tv's game consoles etc. in more or less constant use, showers ( electric ) brews , toast etc.. it's just the way it is

to be honest we just live with it

 

[Cobra]

the heating isn't the problem which is gas along with cooking and hot water
£39 a month for gas i think is very reasonable the leccy on the other hand is basically out of control but it's been like this for years
it's a very busy house with 3 children of our own at home and 2 foster children ( been with us for the last 10 years ) there's a constant stream of washing and drying, tv's game consoles etc. in more or less constant use, showers ( electric ) brews , toast etc.. it's just the way it is

to be honest we just live with it

I guess with a household that busy it'll soon mount up!

 

[ecoleman]

A fixed tariff is the price per unit that is fixed. It stands to reason that if you are using more gas/elec then the price will increase accordingly.

 

[OldCarlos]

the heating isn't the problem which is gas along with cooking and hot water
£39 a month for gas i think is very reasonable the leccy on the other hand is basically out of control but it's been like this for years
it's a very busy house with 3 children of our own at home and 2 foster children ( been with us for the last 10 years ) there's a constant stream of washing and drying, tv's game consoles etc. in more or less constant use, showers ( electric ) brews , toast etc.. it's just the way it is

to be honest we just live with it

Ouch. £150 for leccy still sounds a lot. (you sure no one has tapped into your supply for `growing`? ).

 

[Orangecroc]

Pre pay is far more expensive. I'm on that also with 4 people in the house we get through close to £80 per month and I go round making sure everything is switched off all the time.

 

[cosmicma]

Ouch. £150 for leccy still sounds a lot. (you sure no one has tapped into your supply for `growing`? ).

i thought they bypassed the meter for that sort of thing
wouldn't need to tap into mine

 

[wyx087]

the heating isn't the problem which is gas along with cooking and hot water
£39 a month for gas i think is very reasonable the leccy on the other hand is basically out of control but it's been like this for years
it's a very busy house with 3 children of our own at home and 2 foster children ( been with us for the last 10 years ) there's a constant stream of washing and drying, tv's game consoles etc. in more or less constant use, showers ( electric ) brews , toast etc.. it's just the way it is

to be honest we just live with it

If your house is suitable, get some solar panel quotes. It pretty much covers all daytime electricity usage.

Combination of switching and solar panel install, we've cut our monthly bill from just over £100 to £50 now. Admittedly we are only 2 people in a link-detached house, and I've successfully instated "no solar no laundry" days and "ideal kettle boiling" times for use in combination with a thermos. I can see my bill going up in recent months where extended family comes to stay for extended period and doesn't have solar mentality.