Changing utility suppliers

[Saffron]

We're fed up with British Gas, and we want to change suppliers for our gas and electric. Any suggestions for changing utility suppliers?

[Townleygreen]

try a site like Switch with Which - www.which.co.uk/Switch

This gives you the cheapest site for your area and your energy consumption, plus it's unbiased

[Burbage]

Townleygreen Wrote:

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> This gives you the cheapest site for your area and

> your energy consumption, plus it's unbiased

Are you sure about that?

The whole business is an utterly rotten scam. uSwitch (other weaselish chisellers are available) gets about ?60 for every switch. Doesn't matter who to or who from, they always win. And where does that money come from? Correct, it comes from you, via your utility bills. The more people switch, the more money uSwitch makes. Everyone else loses, but that doesn't matter. uSwitch spends a lot of time and money virtually forcing people to switch all the time, as if there weren't any global markets or regulators, because if they stopped switching, uSwitch would be dead.

Of course uSwitch lets you "compare" tariffs, which looks useful. But tariffs are always changing and even uSwitch won't deign to make anything simple, even if you do hand over all your demographic data and tell it what you spend, so it only every gives you half the picture. And what should be s simple unit price ends up being a bunch of calculations based on your guesses and their noxious assumptions, neither of which are going to be right, based on the increasingly desperate attempts of the billing companies (which is what they are - they don't generate or buy or sell energy, they're just arms-length brands set up to do the paperwork) to game those calculations. Which is why those tariffs are always changing and why they play the silly games with the fees and bundles and gimmicks. It's also why whatever you choose today is bound to be a bad deal tomorrow. Whichever way you slice it, they've got to claw back that money somehow, and it's only customers' money they have to play with. In short, it's a stinking, immoral, self-perpetuating vortex of pointlessness that we all end up paying for.

uSwitch is impartial (though it has been caught fiddling and, like Which, is more of a media owner than a public guardian), but only in the same way as a bookie is impartial. They don't care who, or if anyone, wins. They just want as many customers as possible to think they've got one over on each other, and not in a nice way, as often as possible and possibly oftener. They just sit back, let their customers think they're ripping off each other, and pocket a percentage.

As customers, we have a choice. We can join this sordid little game, going round and round the plughole of privatisation like the flies at the back of a cat, or we can just choose a billing company, ring them up and see if their rates are cheaper. In the end, it won't make much difference, but at least you'll have the satisfaction of not handing yet another chunk of money to someone who hasn't earnt it.

[titch juicy]

this site is very useful

[Saffron]

Thanks Burbage. Some very interesting points. We're actually not expecting to save a great deal of money (although certainly we don't want to pay more!). DH and I are really just fed up with the poor customer service from British Gas and lack of transparency in the policies. The only power we have seems to be the power to leave them. Not suffering delusions that any other company is a great deal better, but we just thought we'd try a different supplier. I've been looking at EDF blue tariff which seems ok. Any else on this?

[Lowlander]

Burbage, you could go to somwehere like moneysavingexpert and get a rebate on the commission (~?30) for switching suppliers.

Anyway, do change as you'll likely save money.

[Too Good To Be True]

What Burbage said.

We use Ovo and they seem OK. No idea whether they are the cheapest, but their bills are reasonably clear and they appear to pay some sort of interest on any balances held. British Gas/nPower are awful.

[malumbu]

I got British Gas to explain their costs fully, which to their credit they did, and then six months later they were no longer the cheapest.

That EDF deal looked quite good but I hate the whole market and wish that it was still state owned like it seems to be elsewhere. Really must move suppliers.

A nation that was once awash with oil, floating gas and simply gloiwing with nuclear, all provided by the state, and now look at the mess we are in. In part (and dear readers I worked in energy markets) a legacy of Thatch's dash for gas and privitisation.

I am sure that many of you wont agree!

[Too Good To Be True]

I'm not convinced nationalising the utilities is necessarily a good thing. If an old leftie like David Lipsey acknowledges the private sector has done a good job in the prison service, I don't see why they can't do a good job with utilities.

They just need to ensure the regulator is led by someone with a spine and have extremely strict lobbying rules.

I think we can agree the current system is appalling.