Posts on boilers and electricity seem to be in vogue so thought I'd post this in case I'm not the only dimwit who thought U Switch was independent and unbiased.
My deal with Scottish Power ended and charge was going up by over £200 a year by being automatically switched to the standard online tariff. Clicked on "change tariff" to see if anything else available and headline read "You are already on our lowest "similar" fixed tariff". So went on to U Switch which showed i could save £215 a year.
Happened to scroll down the page on the Scottish Power site looking for my existing tariff details when I saw there were other tariffs Scottish Power were offering, laid out below the message telling me i was already on their best deal, but not visible unless you scrolled down. Their on-line "variable" tariff, obviously so different from a "fixed" tariff, they didn't think I would be interested, might save me over £300 a year. Phoned up SP and made the switch to the variable tariff.
My point is why did U Switch only show me cheaper alternative suppliers and not alternative tariff of existing supplier. I am now told U Switch only get commission if you switch supplier - no conflict of interest there!. Secondly, your existing supplier does all it can to encourage you to stay on a higher tariff with confusing communications - am I surprised.
It's every man for himself and silly me though U Switch would be all i needed to look at to make sure i got the best deal..
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They are certainly not in it to give free, impartial advice
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-38930236
Scottish Power has announced a sharp increase in energy prices.
The company will raise standard tariff electricity prices by 10.8% from 31 March, while gas prices will increase by 4.7%
NB I would say it's better to use any comparison site than none at all. But yes they can vary slightly, so to get the best assurance you should use say 3 sites for insurances, energy etc. but obviously it's more time consuming.