I posted a thread a few days ago titled Iba Switch.

The correct spelling is IBERSWITCH.

They claim to be able to save me money on my electricity bills by choosing and switching my supplier, from a number of suppliers who charge a lower rate than Iberdrola.

They charge a one off fee of 30euros and then 3.50euros a month for the service.

Does anyone have any experience of this company good or bad.

I signed up with them a couple of months ago. Should be changed over this month. Will let you know how I get on.

Since most tariffs are still government controlled I will be interested in seeing the savings.

What saving did they promise you? Presumably they gave you a quote before they signed you up.

Well Fred, I haven't signed up yet, I wanted to do a bit of research first and find out if you guys on here knew anything.

However, he did have figures of the projected Iberdrola price rises for 3 further price rises in 2011 and list of various other companies who's tariffs were much cheaper. He said that Iberswitch negotiate with these companies to get a better deal.

It looks a bit dubious to me.

All companies supply electricity at a government controlled tariff to users with less than 10kw of potencia - it is called the TUR tarif.

At any one time they may well offer some discounts for new customers who switch companies. These are sometime just a discount on the monthly charge and no change to the unit rate. Sometimes you will get a discount on the unit rate but it is always time limited.

It's an absolute minefield! Trying to work out any savings is very difficult and you will probably find that at the end of the contacted period the prices go back up and you need to change again.

This is essentially what Iberswitch is offering to do for you. It does probably mean a change every year and knowing what a fantastic reputation the electricity suppliers in Spain have for accurate and timely billing I can see huge potential for a real mess up here.

What does concern me about their offer is you pay the €30 up front with no idea how much you are going to save. It also seems to be an operation with lots of "agents".

From my experience the best way to reduce your bill, if you aren't already on it, is to change to the dual tariff system (Discriminacion Horario) with cheap electricity for 14 hours a day.

Hello
New to this forum and just having a look round.

Have somehow avoided all this electricity hassle although I am aware of iberswitch because they were advertising everywhere. I took the plunge with another company mainly because it cost me nothing and they were guarantee-ing me a 5% discount which is not huge but why should I pay more than I have to ?

Seemed to be silly not too. So I changed and it did take about 4 months but I'm on a better rate of 0.138410 from 0.146 something which is just over 5%.

can I say who I went with ?

As Concierges for the Spanish section of BE we would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let us know if you need any further help.

Rosemary and Graham

Thank you for the welcome.

The company who did my electricity changeover is 900telecom and I dealt with Helen there. It was a quick phone call as I remember and no admin costs.


I've had a squint at the forum rules and see that as I am expressing an opinion I can say the company name. And actually your rules are all very reasonable. I've been told off previously for mentioning company names so was a bit unsure.

I know nothing about them but FWIW my advice would be,......

If you have a trouble free supply don't go messing it up for coppers unless you can handle the Spanish when you find out it's not as you thought, this is Spain remember, however it's up to you, I know if I did it, it would probably end up costing me more, all the best whatever you do, oh and let us know the outcome if you do won't you?

But not if you work for them Helen.

In an earlier post in this thread I said that there was no significant saving to be gained by switching as for most users the tariffs are the same as they are government controlled.

I have now found a site that shows a comparison of charges for all the suppliers based on your actual consumption. It is the organisation with overall responsibility for electricity supply in Spain so it should be correct.

http://www.comparador.cne.es/compara...x.cfm?js=1&e=N


I ran some examples and it does confirm that there is very little to be gained apart from a small introductory discount often only applying to the monthly charge.

As for Iberswitch and other companies that are offering to save you money, I am pretty well convinced that they are just another con!

However, if like us, you have a 3 phase supply with a potencia over 10kw the situation is very different. The costs of such a supply is very much higher than the basic TUR controlled tariff by at least 15% and possibly even more. This is the real "Free Market" and the savings by changing supplier can be very significant particularly on the off peak dual tariffs.

We are on one of these tariffs and the difference between the top and bottom of the list shows a saving of over 20% - that's about €500 for us!

Just had a look at that site and guess what our current company Endesa are the dearest except for Iberadola who canvassed us last week!

The cheapest is electrica serosense who would save us €300 at present rates. Will look into them but must say never heard of them anybody here heard anything bad about them?

I looked at them - a tiny company with 10000 customers established 100 years ago!

I doubt that you will find anyone who knows them but they appear to be the cheapest.

We signed up with them last year and our bills have just gone up and up, I for one think they are a big CON, we are now looking how to get out of it, my advice, if haven't then don't, they are just another big rip off.

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary