gas and electricity quote
Rant

Dodgy salesmen and Del Boy sales tactics

July 25, 2011 – 7:44 am
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Well, it’s all over the news this morning about energy companies employing “Delboy sales tactics” to increase their customer base and accusing them of switching customers when it is of no benefit to them. As I am a gas and electricity salesman and work for one of the “big 6″ energy companies I think it’s about time that I shared with you all my honest opinion on this subject. The company I work for recently offered it’s 500 plus sales force a financial incentive when they switched customers to the most expensive product. Surely this is wrong? Nobody dare say anything though because we are always living under the threat of losing our jobs.

The guys I work with are hard working, honest people with families and bills to pay. They have seen their income drop significantly over the past year and they are put under immense pressure to get as many sales as possible or they don’t get paid!  Targets are constantly been increased and the job has just become “a numbers game”.

This is my full time income. Like many of you I have a mortgage and bills to pay every month. Each morning I wake up and feel incredibly stressed due to the worry of where I am going to find new customers to get paid. I could be in a position on a Friday afternoon where I need to sign up one more customer to get paid. Signing this customer could be the difference between £500 commission and nothing! (we work on a tier system where 0 – 25 deals = nothing, 25 + means you get paid) Then a customer approaches and ask’s me whether it would be beneficial to them financially if they signed up. The truth is that they might be slightly worse off if they switch but being honest could cost me £500!! This is where the stress comes from. I am an honest person and don’t want to give bad advice but there is no way I’m going to default on my mortgage.

Are you an energy salesman? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Comparison Fixed Tariffs

Which Energy Company has had the biggest price rises?

July 11, 2011 – 7:26 am
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I came across an interesting table this morning on the BBC website which shows which companies from the “big 6″ have raised their prices the most in the past 12 months.

The worst culprit is – surprise, surprise – “British Gas”, closely followed by “Scottish Power” but the table is likely to be misleading and if any conclusion is to be drawn then it looks inevitable that Scottish & Southern, N Power, E.On and EdF will follow soon.

I keep harping on about it, but you should fix your energy prices now! My favorite deals are from E.On and EDF

 

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Edf Energy Eon

EDF Energy Fixed Price 2014

July 10, 2011 – 9:40 pm
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By March 2014 we will all be driving hover cars, Rotherham United will be in the premiership and the DFS sale will be coming to an end. It’s a right long way off, I’ll be in my 40s! Trying to predict what energy prices will be in 3 years time is a complicated and risky business but EDF Energy have taken a punt and are hoping to capitalise on the current scramble by the public to fix their energy prices. EDF’s new fixed deal is the longest fixed price energy deal currently on the market, but how does it look. Is it good value? Here are the prices -

Electricity -

Daily standing charge – 21.95p (inc vat)
Unit rate – 12.20p (inc vat)

Gas -

Daily standing charge – 22.56p (inc vat)
Unit rate – 3.556p (inc vat)

Early termination fee’s apply (up to £70)

The nearest competitor product to this would be Eon’s fixed price 5 which is fixed until July 2012. The EDF deal works out about £30 a year cheaper (for the average user) and is fixed for longer so if you don’t mind been tied in longer then in my opinion EDF would be the best option.



 

 

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British Gas

British Gas confirm price increase

July 8, 2011 – 8:56 pm
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It’s been all over the news today. British Gas have confirmed that they are increasing their gas and electricity prices on the 18th of August. Gas prices are going up 18% and electricity 16% which will add an extra £190 per year to the average bill!

I’ve spoke to many British Gas customers about this today, and whilst their initial reaction is of anger, when I suggest they switch suppliers and fix their price they just shrug their shoulders and give me some lame excuse.

If your looking for the best fixed energy price at the moment then In my opinion it is Eon’s fixed 5 deal which will fix your prices for 2 years.

Click the banner below and fix your prices straight away. I reckon that this offer will be withdrawn very soon when Eon inevitably raise their prices too.

Do it now. No more excuses!

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Energy monitors Eon

Free Energy Monitor from Eon

June 13, 2011 – 1:40 pm
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Being the nerd that I am, I was delighted this morning when the postman delivered my free energy monitor.

I recently signed up with Eon so that I could get one and review it on this site. That’s how dedicated I am! The sign up process was really straight forward and I got my monitor within a few weeks. These monitors are only available to direct debit or prepayment customers. But you could always sign up on direct debit then change to monthly or quarterly billing when its arrived. I didn’t tell you that by the way!!

OK, so I opened the box and quickly scanned over the instructions. The first part of the installation process was to turn on the transmitter and connect it to the “live” wire in my meter box. This was really easy, the live wire was clearly labelled and the transmitter sat in the box with no problem.

The next part was to unpack my monitor and plug it in. Even though my transmitter is a long way from the monitor I still could pick up the signal with no problems. I then turned on the monitor and reseted it before setting the time with the arrow buttons on the front.

The monitor is preset with Eon’s standard prices so if you are on a different tariff you need to go into the settings and change the Kwh. Even I could do that :-)

In total it took me less than 5 minutes to set the Eon energy monitor up and was a piece of cake. Now I just need to be prepared to run around the house after my kids telling them to turn stuff off and pointing out how much their Nintendo Wii is costing!

Over time the monitor will work out your average spend per day, week and month. It also shows you how much electricity you are currently using. It comes with a USB cable and DVD so you can install some Eon software on to your computer and track and share your usage. But even I’m not that nerdy!

Whilst the monitor doesn’t match my designer toaster, I’m more than happy with it and after all it was free!

How to get a free energy monitor from Eon

Click on the Eon banner below and sign up with Eon on either Direct Debit or Prepayment if that’s how you pay. Make sure you enter an email address. In the next few days you will recieve an email with a link. Simply click the link to activate your account and when your supply is live you will get your monitor through the post.

For detailed instructions click here

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News Rant

Vote with your feet and switch suppliers

June 12, 2011 – 9:49 am
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Chris Huhne the Energy Secretary has urged consumers to “vote with your feet” and “hit firms where it hurts” when they increase prices. This is something I have been telling people to do for a long time. I have worked in this industry for over 10 years. I have been at the front end, talking to consumers almost daily and one thing that really frustrates me is the “apathy” of the British public. I’m winding myself up just thinking about it now. This is why the energy companies get away with it in this country. The British public couldn’t care less. Could you imagine the French tolerating price increases year after year?

While I’m on a rant, the other thing that winds me up about the British, is there attitude of “I don’t care unless it affects me”. Some people are far too occupied with “Britain’s Got Talent” and “X Factor” to care about what’s going on in the world. Well folk’s – THIS AFFECTS YOU!! Get off your backside’s and VOTE WITH YOUR FEET! Less of the “can’t be bothered” attitude that I hear every day. If your energy supplier is putting prices up, SWITCH SUPPLIERS. It’s simple!

It takes a couple of minutes. Read my blog and find out which is the best deal for you, and SWITCH. Do it now. Stop been lazy!

Rant over

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Funny

Some light relief from rising energy bills

June 11, 2011 – 8:49 am
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I know this is totally unrelated to energy but some of my readers will enjoy it. It’s the best penalty goal ever. The goal keeper thinks the guy’s missed and celebrates a little bit too early!

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Comparison Rant

Who Compares the Comparison websites

June 8, 2011 – 11:54 pm
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OK, it’s late at night and I’ve had several glasses of red wine. My other half is asleep on the sofa and I’m listening to some of my favorite 80s tunes on YouTube. I’ve just had the idea to do a little experiment and perform a comparison of the comparison websites! Yes I AM that sad!! But hey, it will be interesting to see if they come up with the same results. For this highly technical experiment I will be assuming the identity of one Mr Philippe Flop, a 40 something French sandal enthusiast who now resides in Rotherham.

I am with British Gas for gas on their standard tariff paying £60 per month direct debit.

On Electricity I am with Npower and I pay £40 per month. I am on Npowers standard tariff too!

The comparison sites I will be comparing are -

USwitch

Money Supermarket

Energy Helpline

Confused

GoCompare

OK, without further ado, it’s on with the test.

 

USwitch

The site is pretty bland looking but serves the job. I inputted my details which was really easy. It took less that a minute to come up with the following best deal -

Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 14 – Saving £179.29 per year

Money Supermarket

Started off really well. The site is easy to navigate and once you’ve put your postcode and house number in things went pretty smoothly. One frustrating aspect is that you cannot proceed until you enter your email address. Presumably this is so they can send you marketing stuff about Viagra and six-pack abs. Or is that just my email account?

Everything was going fine until – “We are experiencing a technical error blah blah blah”

So I gave it 10 minutes and tried again only to be greeted with the same message!! They can naff off now. They are eliminated from my experiment. They will be sorry I tell you!

Energy Helpline

Ok, I’ll be honest. I really like Energy Helpline. From loading the site up it took me just 45 seconds to get a quote. It’s really easy to fill in the forms and they don’t require an email address. The really big plus for Energy Helpline is that they don’t just show you tariffs that you can switch to through them. They genuinely show you the cheapest tariffs, even if they won’t be earning any commission from the sale. USwitch claim to do this, but in my experiment today those product’s didn’t seem to show! tut tut.

The best deal showing on Energy Helpline is -

Scottish Power Direct October 2012 – Saving £197 per year

Confused

I don’t know who designed this website. Maybe it’s the wine or YouTube randomly deciding to play me MC Hammer that’s distracting me but this site is quite hard to read. Then it seems to take forever to come up with a result. OK 1 minute 23 seconds is not long but in the context of “You can’t touch this” it feels like an eternity! They also insist that you check a box to say that you have read the terms and conditions. Yeah right!

Then your presented with a big tick that says “show me my prices”

I’m exited I tell you. My finger is trembling with anticipation as I click my mouse.

Confused.com offer me the same deal as USwitch but with a bigger saving of £0.05!!

Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 14 – Saving £179.34 per year

GoCompare

I start my stop watch and log onto the site. Oh my eyes!! This one is even more hideous than confused.com. The colour scheme is shocking and the selection boxes are so small it’s almost impossible to read them. It only takes 57 seconds to come up with a quote and I didn’t have to enter my made up email address.

Guess who comes out top’s with GoCompare? -

Scottish Power Online Energy Saver 14 – Saving £179.38 per year

That’s 9 pence cheaper than USwitch and we all know that you can buy Asda’s smart price noodles for 9p. I love noodles.

 

Conclusion

Get a life and quit reading pointless blogs about gas and electricity comparison websites!

Seriously; I can draw the following conclusion -

The award for best comparison site is – Energy Helpline

The best energy deal at the moment if you live in Yorkshire is – Scottish Power Direct 2012 but then they did say that they are putting there prices up in August, so you best option would be to move to a warmer country or lay down in a dark room.

If your looking to save some dough, Go to Energy Helpline (click the picture above) and get yourself signed up on a fixed deal before prices go up even more and the world ends, in which case you wouldn’t pay your energy bills would you?

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Comparison Edf Energy Fixed Tariffs NPower

What’s the best fixed price product

June 8, 2011 – 8:32 pm
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With Scottish Power making their shock announcement yesterday which followed a similar recent statement by British Gas there is lots of talk in the media about fixed gas and electricity prices and whether it’s worth fixing your energy prices. Even the slightly irritating Martin Lewis has popped his head up again and urged the British public to “Fix your energy prices straight away”. So been the kind chap I am, I have done all the hard work for you to find the best fixed energy deal in Yorkshire. Remember if you don’t  live in Yorkshire then the prices could be different. I’ve ranked them 1 -  2 with the best deal (in my opinion) been the first. I’ve also included a quick link so that you can apply to the relevant sites.

1. – EDF Energy Fixed S@ver 2
Fixed until September 2012 (save average of £170 compared to British Gas and NPower on average bills in Yorkshire)

Click link to sign up

 

2. – NPower Go Fix 6

Fixed until July 2012 (save average of £136.55 compared to British Gas and NPower on average bills in Yorkshire)

Click link to sign up

 

Get a quote yourself

In my opinion the best energy comparison site (and the most accurate) is The Energy Helpline. Click the banner below and get a quote tailored to your specific requirements -

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News Scottish Power

Scottish Power to increase bills

June 7, 2011 – 2:30 pm
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As well all know, Energy prices in the UK are ridiculously cheap and the poor energy companies have been really struggling financially. Us Yorkshire folk are incredibly flush at the moment with low fuel prices and food prices at bargain levels. The jobs market is the most buoyant it’s ever been with 5 jobs to every man/woman. With this in mind it’s only fair that we help out the energy companies more by paying increased bills. How much? We’ll the good people at Scottish Power have suggested a rise of a measly 19% on gas and a staggeringly low 10% on electricity. I should now make the usually comments on how average fuel bills have risen over the past few years but to be honest it’s such a small amount of our weekly budget it hardly registers.

So keep on dipping your hand in your pocket and think of the warm feeling you will get from helping out those poor shareholders at Scottish Power.

If your a pensioner living below the poverty line – Stop bloody whinging and put another jumper on. What’s more important? You and your pneumonia or keeping our Spanish friends stocked up with Sangria?

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