I have seen a number of people promoting the utilities warehouse and there site doesn't give some of the information i require before deciciding to proceed
What is the cost per unit and how do they compare to N power or Powergen etc?
The invoice for the services is sent to the tenant and no responsibility falls on the landlord as long as the tenants deals are registered?
Can the Landlord or Letting agent keep the Supplier informed of new tenants and closing and opening readings by way of e-mail or fax?
If the property has no meter when i purchase it can they install meters as the other suppliers do and are they faster than the others (not hard!!!)?
Is the transfering of the supply a quick painless exercise?
Would i be informed if the tenant attempts to change supplier?
What income can be earned on 100 properties connected to gas and electric (approx)?

I would appreciate responses from people that use there service as well as the distributers to get a more representative response although i do realise that a number of people promoting the Warehouse are extremly helpfull people and i hope there not offended by my request

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North Manchester letting agents, property traders, houses bought for cash, finders fees paid,mike@brentwoodinvestments.co.uk

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Hi Mike,

Gerry Pridham and myself our is distrbutors for UWDC, l have just seen your posting. One of my down line distrbutors is a letting agent and will check with him to make sure my answers are correct so be back shortly with them.

Regards
Martin

Just been through some old messeages. Gerry gave me an average earn per property but just looking for additional information. I actually own oround 100 properties and manage around 200 more so it could be a decent passive income. Look forward to your replies.

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You may also wish to contact Stuart Ritchie who is quite a senior operator in this business and has a lot of knowledge regarding it...

I am not a member myself although I may join under Stuart or Bobby Gill when I find the time.

I believe the website you need to refer to is www.nowmakemoney.co.uk. I presume this is Stuart's domain.

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So am l

Just want make sure my facts are correct

Martin

Mike,

I had in mind (still have in mind) to convert my properties to UW. However, I'm the world's worst at proactive selling of such a service. What I can tell you is that I have been more than satisfied myself with the service. I'm now in the fifth month of service. All cutovers were pretty painless (I did one landline, one mobile, one internet, gas and electricity). With the internet, it's so critical to our business that I ordered a new UW service on one line, whilst keeping my old service with Opal on the other line (funny thing is, UW uses Opal). I then cut the Opal service once I was happy there were no (few) outages. I did have occasion to call UW helpdesk to resolve a series of outages, and I'm still not sure what the cause was, but they did call me back at a pre-arranged time and spent 20 minutes logging my questions, and directing me to the number I can call to see if outages are beyond the user premises. The outages have not recurred. Could be house wiring, Windows Vista - I could not resolve, and I'm a telecoms consultant. (a thick one, obviously). I am now so happy with the consolidated billing that I will transition a fax line, another landline and at least one other mobile line over to them in February (BT contract expires without early redemption penalty - just like the mortgages LOL).

To answer your questions specifically, and when making comparisons, don't forget the other suppliers use a flat and a per unit fee, I am based on high usage category, and the unit price for gas is 2.198p / kWh. The unit price for electric is 8.493p / kWh. That's the North West region.

UW produce rate cards for each area, in three categories - low, medium and high usage. Customer either chooses, or asks UW for advice on which category to be billed for.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Gerry

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Mike,

I forgot - standing charge (month) is £2.60 for gas, £4.20 electricity

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Dont go to moneysupermarket.com they will scare you away from this, and also rip your eyes out should you mention utility wharehouse, boy they detest it on that website.

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Moneysupermarket probably detest UW because they dont get any commission from them.

That dead right Tony, they do not spend mega bucks on advertising (using middle man) but pass on the savings of this to customers.


Martin

Tony,

Spot on. The reason why UW is a decent prospect for a distributor who is looking to generate an increasing residual income is because distribution is the business model of UW. It is estimated that UW has a UK market penetration of around 1%, and a potential market penetration of 10%, so lots of growth prospect there.

It never ceases to amaze me how few people will put in a small amount of effort to reap big rewards. I did a four year analysis of all our utilities and telephony spend last year. It took me just over a working day, and when I figured I would save £800 per year (not to mention the indirect cost saving of not opening and looking at 96 pieces of mail per year), it was a no brainer for me. Granted, our costs are relatively high, running two businesses from home, and it may not be good for a low activity user.

But I do smile every month when I see my own mobile bill. I'm a very low user, and my bill is about £12 a month compared with my previous contract of £38.50 a month with all those free minutes I never used.

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Hi Mike,

I'm yet another UW/Telecom plus distributor and just starting to get tenants signed up. I haven't bothered getting rent-back tenants to switch, as I would rather let them continue with their existing suppliers, at least for now. However, I've just had three properties become vacant and needing redecoration, so I've taken the opportunity to switch the gas and electricity over to UW. It takes a few weeks for the switchover to happen, which more or less ties in with the redecoration timescale. I sign up in my name and then get the new tenant to sign a UW application form at the same time as the AST and switch the supply into his/her name when the tenancy starts. I have rewritten the AST to say that the tenant is not allowed to switch utility companies, as that would be a real pain.

The monthly commission (CVC) I get depends on how much the tenant's bills are. For energy supplies it's 2.4% of monthly spend, so if the tenant pays UW £100 a month for gas and/or electricity, you'll get £2.40. Plus there are all sorts of other bonuses (such as a Customer Gathering Bonus which is paid when you sign up a new customer) which are too numerous to go into here. So, in round figures, if you have 100 tenants each paying £100 a month in energy bills, you'll get £240 a month commission.

You also get commission if they sign up for other services, such as home or mobile phone, and these are paid at anything from 4.8% to 6.38%, depending on how many customers you have; there are different rates for broadband. I wanted to try and get my properties connected to UW so I could take advantage of this, but so far I've not found a practical way to do it. It would cost me around £100 to reinstate a disconnected BT line in my name. Then, if I understand correctly, it would cost another £100 to switch it to the tenant's name. Maybe someone knows a way around this? So, for now, I'm just doing gas and electricity, though I may point out to tenants that if they wish to add home phone service to their bill, they'll get free evening & weekend UK phone calls (and if they take another service such as broadband or mobiles, they'll get free daytime calls too).

If the property has a prepay card meter, UW will swap it for a credit meter, but will make a charge. They have just done that for me at £60 for gas and £45 for electricity (+ VAT). You must have a credit meter to get CVC commission. If you're switching from another supplier, some (such as BG) will swap your meter for free - so do that first and then switch to UW. I know it seems very callous, but they're such a big organisation it won't hurt 'em; I doubt if anyone will even notice...?

Other have given cost per unit figures, so I won't go into that here. UW are contracted to nPower, so their rates will roughly shadow nPower's rates. As they say, they may not be the cheapest supplier, but they will always be very competitive.

Yes, all invoices go direct to the tenant and the tenant is responsible for all bills - no comeback on the landlord.

You get a monthly breakdown of the commission paid on each property, with a list at the end of anyone who hasn't paid their bill. If you check your online site you can find out if anyone has asked to close their account, though I don't think this info is communicated to you direct - it's up to you to check regularly.

You can communicate with Customer Services by phone or email and can submit meter readings online (though probably only if the bill is in your name). However, CS are very helpful and once they know you're a landlord and have regular changes of tenants, I guess they'll be happy to take start and end readings direct from you.

Needless to say I'm also a UW customer myself, and although I could probably pay less by shopping around and switching suppliers regularly, I find the one bill for everything service from UW so much simpler, that's it's not worth the hassle of switching to save a few quid.

There's far more to the UW business opportunity than I can go into here, including earning extra commission if you recruit other distributors. So if you or anyone else would like to go into this in more detail, or would like me to send you leaflets and stuff, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Edd

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HI Mike,

Been aawa all day so be delayed in reply. Asked your q's here the replies

Q:What is the cost per unit and how do they compare to N power or Powergen etc?
A:Cheaper then Npower


The invoice for the services is sent to the tenant and no responsibility falls on the landlord as long as the tenants deals are registered?
A: The choice is of Tennat, Landlord or Letting Agent

Can the Landlord or Letting agent keep the Supplier informed of new tenants and closing and opening readings by way of e-mail or fax?
A: Yes

If the property has no meter when i purchase it can they install meters as the other suppliers do and are they faster than the others (not hard!!!)?
All regional suppliers use the same fitters, the ones tha are "free" will tie you to a contract. UWDC charge Elec=£45.00 +VAT & Gas= £60.00 + VAT

Is the transfering of the supply a quick painless exercise?
A: 4 - 6weeks cooling off oeriod for all suppliers

Would i be informed if the tenant attempts to change supplier?
A: Yes

What income can be earned on 100 properties connected to gas and electric (approx)?
A: 2.4%

Now Edward doe snot hightlight the pleadge which stateed below

Highlighting TRIPLE VALUE
1. For your gas, we guartee our prices will always be cheaper tahn Britsih Gas, whereever you live in UK

2. For your Elecrticity, we guarantee our prices will always be cheaper than the prices charged by the regional supplier for your area

3. And for your complee peace of mind, we guarantee our prices will reamin competive compared with the cheapest stanard tariffs avaible from the the "Big 6" suppliers


Regards
Martin

Just to add more to this post, the reason you have to go to a COP (career opportunity presentation) is to see other members a lot more active than us lot who have won the "drive the Porsche boxster for a month" prize when you recruit xx customers (I think it's 500), or the new minis for £50 a month, or the cruises. There's some devoted distributors of this company who are really keen to tell you how much they get out of this. It's a real hoot. You won't find any depressed doomsayers in that bunch.

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The COP's are also a great free Networking opportities for your property businesses. And when you get into the business 2 business sde of things your earnings can be really life changing ie 100 biz client spendind appox £1,000 per "could be" (please note this only guide) £2k resdual income. Now that wolud ceratinly help under pin any short fall of mortgae rises, there many more benifts but think you get the picture. If want more info contact Gerry or me email/PM.

Regards
Martin