Gerard Duggan

Archive for the ‘Utility Warehouse’ Category

All commercial businesses have a contract associated with their gas and electricity meters. Towards the end of the contract the energy supplier will issue a written renewal for the next period of supply. That supply period will be equivalent to the length of contract the customer has been in i.e. if you’ve been in a 12 month deal your renewal will be for another 12 months.

But how good is that renewal rate. By using commercial utility broker Utilitrack the saving you can achieve on a renewal can be significant. A recent example illustrates the point: one of my client’s, a motorcycle parts company, received their renewal from their current supplier; it showed a 34% increase or £835.00. My accounts team investigated the renewal and tested it against the market rate. As a result of our intervention we’ve been able to keep the client with the same supplier with only a minor increase of £58.00. A huge difference in a business with very low margins.

If you’d like me to check your renewal please call me on my direct line 01234-267883.

Heating your home is a part of every British winter, but with energy prices being as high as they are it is going to be more expensive than ever. You can keep those bills to a minimum by making sure you’re heating is running efficiently.

Get prepared and cut those heating bills. Keep warm and be greener this Christmas.

Here are seven suggestions to help

• Fine-tune your central heating
• Bleed your radiators
• Insulate your loft and walls
• Check for draughts
• Get your boiler serviced
• Compost those autumn leaves – a bit of exercise will keep you warm too!
• Remember to switch off your lights
• Turn devices off don’t leave them on standby – that’s tip eight – can’t count but worth following this bit of advice.

We didn’t think a Utility Broker would be interested in our spend as we’ve tended to associate their work with businesses spending a lot on gas and electricity. However as there was no cost involved in the exercise and Gerard at Utilitrack only needed a minimal amount of information to get started we asked him to review our spend. Our electricity was the first service to be reviewed and we were astonished we saved over 43% by Gerard’s accounts team tendering our energy to the whole of the market; nearly £500 less than last year.

Our gas was up for renewal closely after our electricity deal and again Utilitrack was able to help us save of £400 with the minimum of fuss. Interestingly our current supplier offered a renewal rate showing a small saving of £79 but by exploring the whole of the market British Gas came out top with a 15% saving.”

Paul Young Independent Financial Advisors

About a quarter of people struggle to understand what they owe when looking at energy bills. According to the latest Which? Switch energy satisfaction survey, its bill clarity that causes the most pain.

On average, Which? members are three times more likely to find gas and electricity bills difficult to understand than other bills received regularly. 

Around a quarter of members surveyed said that they struggle to understand how much they owe their energy suppliers when looking at bills.

Some customers are much happier with their suppliers’ bill information than others but, when Which? asked the Plain English Campaign to look at a selection of bills, all had issues.  They were peppered with ‘gobbledygook and technical jargon’, including the use of a minus sign for a credit amount, red and green print making it difficult for people with visual impairments and failure to explain terms such as ‘calorific value’ and ‘kWh@p’ mean.

But it’s not just bills that annoy customers. Overall, the ‘big six’ energy suppliers received some of our worst customer satisfaction scores when compared with other industries. Just as in the Which? 2008 survey, customer service and value for money are also pretty poor.

In the latest Which? survey The Utility Warehouse Discount Club was rated the TOP energy company for the 2^nd year running. 

The Survey’s results, was undertaken in May and June 2009; it was based on 3,357 responses for gas suppliers and 3,957 for electricity suppliers.

Bundling your phone, energy and internet with one company saves you money, time and the convenience of one call when you need to add additional services or query your bill. You may also be entitled to an allowance of free UK and international calls when you bundle.

For households’ content with their phone and internet, as they are linked with a Sky or Virgin Media television package, you’ll want to ensure you are paying the right price for your energy.

So is a utility bundle better value for you than using separate suppliers; would you like to evaluate your energy spend? If you’d like to discuss the options please call me on 0800 458 9643

BT is imposing a price rise by stealth that will put up the cost of making a daytime call by a staggering 34 per cent. ..The Daily Mail reports

BT already increased the cost of calls in April and has now outlined plans for a second increase from October 1 – the combined effect is to increase the cost from 3.91p a minute to 5.25p.

The company is also planning to put up the cost of connecting a call for the second time in less than six months.

BT has been accused of trying to bury the price rise information in the small-print of a letter and company magazine sent to customers.

The combined effect will add hundreds of millions of pounds to the bills of residential customers.

Perhaps now is the time to consider another provider. Many of my customers do not pay for their land line calls; have a look at “free global calls” for more information or call me on 07860 175610.

Imagine the impact you could create by saving all your staff money on all of life’s essentials and at no cost to you or your business; your staff don’t have to sacrifice any salary either.

Introduce The Utility Warehouse Discount Club as an employee benefit, is a unique one.

It is a fantastic opportunity for your staff to save money on all of life’s essentials, on average our customers save over £803.00 p.a. No other company can provide the range of services we do under one roof and on one bill.

Your staff are your biggest asset imagine the impact on moral when they learn they can save on all their shopping including petrol and diesel, gas, electricity, mobile phones, landlines and broadband.

We regularly feature in the UK’s leading independent consumer magazine and are regularly recommended by them. If you are a member please check out our reviews at www.which.co.uk or download the PDF called Independent Expert Advice You Can Trust. We have also been voted ‘Best’ for our customer service by The Daily Mail.

There is no charge to you to operate the benefit other than for me to make use of one of your offices to discuss your employee’s requirements at an operationally convenient time. If this isn’t a practical option I can arrange to visit them outside office hours.

The Benefits in summary as an employer

• Helps with the recruitment, motivation and retention of staff
• No cost to the employer as the benefit is fully outsourced with NO administration required
• A non-discriminatory voluntary benefit available to all levels of staff
• Increases staff’s spending power
• Can be accessed on-line and in an off-line environment via printed benefits directories, enabling access for all
• Promotes PC literacy and internet awareness

The Benefits as an employee

• Gives real and immediate value on daily expenses
• Increases spending power
• A typical household can save up to £803.00 p.a.
• Triple value guarantee on gas and electricity
• 5% CashBack on all shopping including petrol and diesel
• Massive choice of products from 27 high street names  – something for everyone
• Safe and secure password protected site to access online account
• Most services are contract free
• Free calls to UK land line numbers and ten international destinations subject to the number of services bundled together
• Full after sales service support
• Unrivalled UK based customer service, managed fully in-house
• Membership costs from as little as 6p per day – £1.73 per month
• Option to use savings to benefit a local charity

If you would like to discuss the impact this benefit could have on your business please call me on 0800 458 9643.

Millions of households could save over 25% on their electricity bills by switching away from Economy 7. You don’t have to switch suppliers or meter.

If you remember the 70’s tank tops, flared trousers and mini skirts you may also remember the introduction of Economy 7, called White Meters in Scotland. Designed to reduce your bill when storage heaters were all the rage but more likely to put you in a rage when you realise the cost you pay today.

If you use significant amounts of your electricity during the ‘7′ hours Economy 7 operates in your region, typically midnight to 7.00am, you will save money but most people I speak to in my business don’t.  If you don’t fit the ideal Economy 7 profile you will be paying significantly more for your consumption of electricity during the day and evening. This can amount to anything from 20% to 30% more than the standard domestic tariff.

How do you know if you are on Economy 7? It should be highlighted on your bill but the tell tale sign is when you check your meter reference number, also shown on your bill, it will begin with an ‘02′.

My research suggests you are probably paying over the odds for your electricity to  … to find out more call me free on 0800 458 9643.