Finding
the cheapest gas and electricity is fast becoming a necessity given the
latest round of domestic fuel price increases. But there are dangers if
we think the online utility comparison websites hold all the answers!
The price of domestic gas and electricity has been a regular topic in
the UK press over the last couple of weeks and for good reason. The
current round of price increases that have just come into effect from
many of the big utility companies have hit many people hard, not least
the elderly and the lower wage earners. It is estimated that those who
remained with their original supplier are now paying 20 – 30 percent
more for their domestic fuel than those who have switched. With the
current 14.2% extra added to the bill, and with the figures banded
around that British Gas has lost nearly half a million customers this
year alone, it is no surprise that the British public are saying enough
is enough. Privatisation and deregulation was supposed to put an end to
the exorbitant prices these monopolies once could charge, but from
where I stand, loyalty only seems to be rewarded by fleecing. New
customers of these giant utility companies are treated preferentially
to get them on board but only for a very short period before they too
are moved to the ‘standard rate’ higher charges.
So the answer for the savvy consumer is to shop around – but therein
lies another problem. Phoning around for quotes or visiting showrooms
(those that are left) is time consuming. Very time consuming... and
also challenging in so far as making the comparisons between all the
different tariffs and options available. Hence, many are using the
internet to do their searching. Typing “gas and electricity comparison”
into a search field such as you’ll find on the Yahoo! homepage brings
up plenty of sites claiming to make an ‘independent’ comparison.
Probably the best known of these is Uswitch.com. I’ve read several
articles recently in leading national papers extolling the virtues of
these ‘independent and unbiased websites’ and how they “give you a
completely impartial and objective assessment that leads to
recommending the absolute best deal for you”.
But please, before you go off and start entering all your personal
details into one of these online services, I implore you to stop and
think just for one minute. How do you suppose these huge sites – that
take a lot of man-hours to continually update and maintain – make their
money? As a general rule, they don’t have lots of advertising banners
plastered all over each page so they must get their revenue from
elsewhere. And, yes, just like most other advisers or consultants, they
get it from commissions. These are paid by the big corporate utilities
to these ‘independent’ websites for each consumer that switches to them
through the website.
Doing a little research by typing in exactly the same details, I found
that different comparison websites produce different results even when
they list the same companies! Clearly some of these websites are
getting bigger commissions by recommending me certain deals over
others. As well as having a tendency to recommend the deal that best
suits them, they also only list ones that they can get a commission
for, which mean not all of them list every option available for the
individual consumer. Hardly independent and impartial! For instance,
none of them list the Utility Warehouse and only a relatively few list
Equipower/Equigas as neither of these providers will pay commissions to
comparison website owners.
Yet for the vast majority of the British population, the Utility
Warehouse are by far the best option provided you are happy with paying
by Direct Debit. They guarantee to be the cheapest gas and electricity
supplier in the UK for normal usage customers. Those on very low usage
who can pay quarterly by cheque may find Equipower a better option. My
advice is dig a bit deeper and you’ll discover more deals than these
comparison websites have to offer. But that comes back to time and
effort… two valuable ‘commodities’ most of the general public aren’t
willing to use just to get lower bills.
So let me help you by leaving you with my research conclusions:
If you are like the vast majority of households in the UK on standard
average or high usage, check out the Utility Warehouse guaranteed
cheapest gas and electricity tariff! You’ll need to apply through one
of their representatives – a good one can be found at
www.cheapest-gas-supplier.co.uk or
www.cheapest-electricity-supplier.co.uk .
If you are on a very low usage, then you may want to check out the
Equipower/Equigas scheme by going to their website at www.ebico.co.uk .
Getting the cheapest gas and electricity shouldn’t be such a trial… but
then again maybe that is what the big utility companies are relying on!
Too bad you and I now know differently…
