Warning this is long…?♂️
Didn’t want to start a new thread and thought this one would be a good place to say what I’ve stumbled on this week using energy compare sites.
Did you know that your neighbour or anyone with your postcode can find out online what energy provider you use and how much you spent on gas and electric in the previous year.
Came as a bit of a shock to me to think my neighbours could look up my business online, I say that but its only fair I now know who or what companies the whole street uses and how much they spend.
My billing is about £1,300 per year my neighbour to my left use £1,600 and is with SSE and the one to my right is a whopping great big £2,100 and uses British Gas. What would you think the neighbour would say if I was to tell them I could save them a packet.
So how do I get this information I hear you say, well as we know when you use comparison sites it asked how much energy you use in a year, gas and electric, and you input the that information from your current bills or energy supplier.
Now when I did this yesterday on two separate compare site it said don’t worry if you don’t know how much you use because we can input that for you from your energy provider and sure enough it did accurately put in my usage for last 12 months.
So I’m thinking how did they do that because apart from giving them my postcode and house number they don’t know me from Adam. Just to check I imputed half the postcodes that are the same as mine but changing the house number and there it is, their energy consumption and cost.
Don’t know how long this has been going on but to me it feels like an invasion of privacy but sure to be legal and really it gives energy providers the upper hand in knowing that if your being screwed by your current supplier new supplier can give you a hundred quid back and continue screwing you while your thinking your getting a better deal.
Am I being silly, I think not and anyone wanting to know their energy usage for the past year just give me your postcode, no house number needed, and will tell you here.?