British Gas launches new ‘tracker’ style WebSaver 1 energy tariff
23 December 2008 By Diane Ray 2 Comments
Further to writing about the British Gas fixed price gas deal until 2012 and also their Click Energy 6 deal, British Gas have now launched a new online WebSaver 1 deal.
Update Feb 2010: British Gas has now launched its Websaver 6 energy plan. You can get all the details on the British Gas website.
The WebSaver 1 deal, which replaces the Click Energy 6 one, is effectively a ‘tracker’ based energy deal, akin to tracker mortgages.
British Gas are commiting to customers who sign up for it that, until 31 March 2010, they will get a minimum 10% discount compared with their standard energy tariff.
The good news therefore is that if and when British Gas lower their energy prices in 2009, customers on a WebSaver 1 deal know they will immediately benefit. Unlike those of course who are signed up to British Gas fixed price energy deals.
WebSaver 1 is available to both new and existing customers and is available for gas, electricity or duel fuel.
Paperless billing is mandatory and there is a cancellation fee of £30 if you move to another tariff on or before 30 September 2009.
The comparison with tracker mortgages is bit ridiculous! Mortgages offer the benchmark of a Bof E rate. The benchmark here is the BG standard rate, which is whateve they want it to be!. It went up 20% in July and hasn’t come down despite a 40% drop in wholesale prices since then (for each month September 08 through October 09, not just spot prices). BG’s rate in turn is about 20 higher than anyone elses, so web tracker rate still puts you 10% worse off. If BG did a monthly price reflective (up or down) of wholesale rates then that would be equivalent to a tracker mortgage. Why won’t they give you one? One, the metering is from the steam age. Two, switching sites wouldn’t make any money telling people to stick to the default option of a transparent index price. So suppliers have confusopoly pricing, with discounts for DD, discounts for dual fuel, discounts for even numbered Tuesday in months with an R in them etc etc.
But who enables this pricing: switching sites who confuse customers into thinking that buying energy is like comparing mortgages, or credit cards or phone bills. So they collect a commission that you don’t see on their web site! And BG don’t give customers a discount for going direct, how odd is that? Do an internet search for a switching site in the US. None exist! Why? Because the price goes up and down each month. Energy prices are no different from petrol prices: the same everywhere and frequently changing.