Energy comparison

[Domestic_Ginger]

I've been looking at comparison websites and decided they're pretty useless.

I want to know the actual tarrif for each company, in columns with standing charges. I can then whisk this out into a spreadsheet using my historical figures and make an educated decision. Not how much money supermarket thinks I'm going to save or use averages.

Is this possible or are we in position of bright headers and fictitious figures?

[Chadders87]

The problem with tariffs is they are not standardised yet. All suppliers must offer a "comparable" rate for such purposes, but unless you know how it is made up you can't actually use it to compare across the board.

I use MoneySavingExperts "Cheap Energy Club". I put in my usage, and it which monitors the market for me and a lets me know when a cheaper deal is available based. Other than that, its Uswitch. All the others I find either mislead. exclude some tariffs or simply sell your details to PPI handlers.

As far as I searched, there's no simple table to export anywhere though I'd imagine this would constantly be outdated and exclude things like cashback incentives, or dual fuel / direct debit discounts.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I've looked at the cheap energy club. How has it been?

Unfortunately I was foolish enough to enter my details on a couple of sites

[Chadders87]

I took part in the "Big Energy Switch Event" last October, so have only used it the once to actually change tariff, but I get emails every so often saying such and such is now cheaper. And I can log in and update my readings for a more accurate list of deals. Plus most come with £30 cash back.

Another thing to consider is that most deals are based on 12 months use, so you will need to check if your current tariff is still cheapest until it expires, but they mark this quite nicely next to each deal. All in all though I like it, it takes the hassle out of searching, especially when they announce the big collective switches as they always come in cheaper than the market.

[stephen0205]

I used that u switch, i called up they explained everything for me, got me a good deal. But most deals are on 12 month usage, i recon the tariff is chosen from the info u give them