As an employee for a major utility company, I checked out this website and used it to compare against another supplier. I entered information into the comparison calculator and also worked out the comparison myself manually. I calculated a difference on annual billing between the two suppliers of £13.27. The uSwitch website claimed savings of £35! I sent an email to uSwitch with the calculations advising them of the discrepancy and asked how could they make claimed savings of £35 when clearly the difference was almost only a third of their claims? They did reply, saying it depended on usage!!! What? I had entered all this information in, of course it depends on usage. Pathetic!
I can only advise people that are looking to compare suppliers not to use this site, as its claimed savings are false. It was strange to notice that the site also carried adverts, and got paid for referred sales to certain suppliers. Not very independent then! Perhaps the claimed savings change depending on who's advertising?
The only true way is to get pen and paper and calculate your current bill using another suppliers prices using same payment method, applying relevant discounts and then comparing. Be careful not to just compare monthly direct debit amounts - this does not take account of how much you are in debit/credit by, and therefore not a true comparison. Funny how there's always a supplier that can lower your monthly payments....and a year later you cannot change suppliers again because you are in debt with them.
I have found that most people can save about £3.50 per month for an average family's bills (£350 gas p.a. £220 electric p.a.). Certainly no mega savings that companies claim. The majority of people will benefit from having the same gas and electricity supplier, and also by switching from their original local electricity board.
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I quite agree - my EDF tariff V4 was not in their database and they gave a false saving, whereas EDF work out cheapest fo my high usage.
adictivepie 24.02.2007 18:23
I have found the same thing about uswitch what they do is not include the discount on your current supplier i.e npower £60.00 dual fuel discount if you are with npower will not be included you have to watch the site a little but i worked it out the same as you
littlefluffycloud 29.02.2004 19:07
I had a similar experience a while ago, I kept inputting data in and what came back did not make sense to me on inspection. So am glad to see I was not the only one, cheers for the info
Advantages: Simple-to-use, reliable site, which could save you quite a bit of money! Disadvantages: You might need to pay your current supplier quite a bit of money too!
SueMagee 30.05.2003 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of uSwitch.com
Advantages: Simple-to-use, reliable site, which could save you quite a bit of money! Disadvantages: You might need to pay your current supplier quite a bit of money too!
SueMagee 30.05.2003 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of uSwitch.com
Feb 4th, 2004
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