Member Info for WoollyBoing

That in no way answers my question/point. though? You said that TEP are selling 'uncompetitive' products. How can you possibly say that their products/services are uncompetitive when they are selling the same things/services as the likes of BT, British Gas, O2 etc at significantly lower prices than mainstream household names such as those? I say again...for gas, electricity, landline and mobile, I was previously paying £240 pcm...I now pay £141 pcm. Taking that as an example of how much they can help somebody save on their utilities bills...with that being BEFORE any cashback even comes into play...how on earth can what TEP is selling be described as 'uncompetitive'? And as for the dividend they pay as a percentage, the TEP dividend for last year totalled 30p per share. The average TEP share price during 2012 looks to have been around 750p so I make that approximately 4% over the year...so in other words a little bit greater than BT and similar to TalkTalk. And their market share is growing as is their annual profit. Ultimately, of course, a SP can drop...however, my belief - and it is only that - is that this will see 1000p before it sees say 850p, such is the company's anticipated growth both in market share and profits. I respect your fundamental knowledge of the markets etc...but when you didn't even know how the cashback model worked earlier on, I can't fully respect your knowledge of this particular business/business model.

Simps...re competitive services...I have switched energy suppliers several times and in the past , I have used British Gas and Scottish Power for dual fuel...most recent was Atlantic. My mobile provider has been O2 and Orange. I've had BT and TalkTalk as my landline provider. In switching to UWDC and consolidating with them, my monthly outgoings for four services have gone from £240 to £141...and that's even before the additional cashback comes into play. That figure has been calculated using 9 of the last 10 months' usage (so not January, which has maybe seen a bit more gas usage than normal) as I submit my own readings every month. How is that not competitive when compared to the charges of other 'mainstream' utilities providers?

OK Simps me old mucka...I'll just keep paying full whack for my groceries, hotels, petrol, meals out and clothes then. Thanks for the good advice! :-)

"most of the customers are also distributors" - Simply not true. Some of the distributors may sell to friends and families for sure...but taking my cousin, she is half way towards qualifying for a UWDC car by virtue of having hit around 60 odd customers. We haven't got THAT big a family!! "its no different to Amway" - Likewise, not true. Looking at Amway, they seem to have a number of their own brands. UWDC/TEP have huge numbers of marketing partners which is a different thing altogether...the last time I looked, they didn't own Sainsburys, M&S, Halfords, Boots, Pizza Express, Marriott, Tesco, Waitrose, nu-look, Next, Boden, River Island, Goldsmiths, Eenest Jones, Toys R Us, Debenhams, Wallis, Topman and Topshop, Argos, B&Q, Dorothy Perkins etc. And that little lot isn't even scratching the surface when it comes to marketing partners.

...and made over £800 profit when I sold a chunk in October. If I'd held on until now, I'd have made double that amount. IMO, it is a superb concept that is built around the likes of me and maybe someone like your good self as well? I don't know? But to dismiss it, apparently without looking into the market and the way in which the company has grown and is continuing to grow, is IMO, a little short-sighted. I don't mean that to sound in any way rude although I appreciate that it might do? It really isn't meant to. But until you look into it completely and until anyone has at least been on their site and done their little test to see what you might save during a typical month of shopping etc, I don't get how it can just be dismissed? You didn't even seem to understand that it was the marketing partners who fund the cashback at first? But there you go. Everybody's individual choice...but I truly wish I'd got in a lot, lot earlier. Cheers. GL!

When my cousin first told me about the concept, I thought there was a catch somewhere. Yes, you do pay £9.99 for the cashback card and after an initial period of free membership, you also pay £1 per month 'membership'. However, my gas used to cost me £130 pcm (have an aga that is constantly on albeit at a low level) and I now, after 10 months of being supplied by them, pay £75 for that. I used to pay £48 per month for electricity and I now pay £33. I used to pay £40 with Orange for unlimited texts and some massive amount of minutes...I now pay £20. I used to pay what always seemed to be a different price for my landline with BT, I now pay around £12.95, I think it is? However, if that's not enough, the beauty of it in addition to the basic savings i'm making from being with other 'mainstream' utility providers, is that in addition to that, we do a lot of shopping in Sainsburys (3% cashback each time) and in spending a minimum of £50 in one visit every 14 days, I also get the same discount off my petrol which when I do 35k miles per year in my job, also adds up. I tend to stop at M&S for sandwiches on long journeys as well as my partner doing a fair bit of shopping there for her bits a pieces (5%). I stay in Marriott Hotels when I'm away with work now as a matter of course (6% cashback) and whenever I shop from Halfords (5%), Boots (5%) or if we have a pizza at Pizza Express (6%), it all goes straight to the bottom line. By purchasing a nice watch through The Watch Hut, I earned another 6% the other day...but the number of 'marketing partners' through which you can save money by making on-line purchases just with your credit card is incredible. I am working away in France this weekend...went through The Hotel Club after logging on through the UWDC portal and got over £20 off a total of three nights' over there. It all adds up and as has been said elsewhere, it is these marketing partners who pay the cashback, not UWDC. I also buy ad hoc bits and pieces like stationery, clothes, shoes and the like through the portal...it saves me a fortune all told and yes, this month, that will now be over £200. How is that a House of Cards? The business model is seeing the company go from strength to strength...there are no high-cost TV/Radio advertising campaigns, no big bill-boards on the high street...but slowly but surely, almost by stealth, they are growing and growing and growing. They arer soon to launch an internet TV offering...they have the bandwidth already...I'm told they are in the final stages of testing and modifying their offering before bringing it to market. That will be another string to their bow. I respect that its not for everyone...but I quite like saving money and over the course of the year, i will save getting on for £1500 at least. Again, I was very sceptical at first...but I then had a look at it. I've had over £600 in dividends so far

Free utilities for the second time in 5 months for me! I'm amazed that more people don't buy into this? Maybe when word gathers pace they will? But anyway, I've just totted up my Utilities Warehouse cashback for the month to date and thanks to the usual grocery shopping, hotels and petrol (both for work) and one or two reasonably large but but nonetheless essential purchases (birthdays), already it's pushing £200?! So once all my gas, electricity. mobile and landline bills are taken into account, that means that for the second time since I signed up last March, UWDC will; daft as it sounds, actually owe me a bit of money that will be paid into my bank account at the end of February. I find it really quite bizarre to think that I used to pay in excess of £200 per month for the same services with other separate providers...and now, that is either halved or in rare(ish) cases like these, I am owed money at the end of the month? And to think I was a sceptic when my cousin first urged me to switch? Amazing really...and I suppose this is why the SP is growing? 2000 shares and I wish I had more. GLA.

http://tradingresearchpoint.co.uk/2013/01/18/telecom-plus-i-was-wrong-to-bank-gains-buy/ And Chriserenity...IMO a building you own can be an asset', notably if it goes up in value while you own it and it facilitates your income/profit. But there you go, just my opinion...I'm no expert.

...a cousin of mine is a distributor. They are fully expecting it to go above £10 very soon. As for assets...you should see the value of the buildings they own.

For anyone who may not know, it may be worth having a look at them this morning...they are invested in here (see below) so there could be a knock on effect. DYOR etc. GL. http://www.paternosterresources.com/announcements/28122012%20Investment%20in%20IPSO%20Ventures%20plc.pdf

News expected W/C 18th March...re-rating on the cards...expected that it could take the SP to £10. DYOR etc but with the online TV offering yet to come as well, this is an absolute banker IMO. GLA.

As solid as they come IMO. The SP seems to have a history of dipping once they've gone ex-dividend as they just have...but it comes back and indeed goes up. The company is growing all the time and while there may well be other competitors coming to market soon (an American company?), there guys are leading the way by some distance. Won't be selling my 2k anyway.

Yep, I'm sure they did...but for me that just heaps the 'blame', if that's the right word to use, back onto the RNS. I've probably laboured the point too much already but PR is hugely significant...get it right and a company's reputation and value is protected and even enhanced. Get it wrong and you are open to attack and stakeholder value gets slammed, possibly to a point where investments are difficult to recoup. I'm still angry about it if I'm honest...for me, it was a hugely detrimental move by whoever allowed it to go out and one that doesn't inspire confidence regardless of what we may have in the ground.

This business of Brian saying that comments made on here and other BBs have adversely effected the share price...that may be the case to some degree but did these or the RNS of 2 weeks ago and the way it was constructed have the bigger detrimental effect? For me, it was the latter. In terms of 'cause and effect', that piece of communication remains a complete PR disaster IMO and I still, for the life of me, can't understand why or how it was allowed to go out like that when the share price was always going to be decimated as a result. Why not lead with the 150 ft off net pay rather than the apparent failure of the other zones tested? Shareholders' confidence would have been much stronger as a result.

Really?

Other than the shareholder discount not necessarily applying straight away after you've become eligible. To explain further, I passed the threshold (1500 shares) in July this year and the 10% is only payable on 31st December 2013 as the 12 month period only starts on 1st January 2013 even though I'll have held those shares for another 5 and a half months. That said, my bill this month is something I've never experienced before. Thanks to the cashback I earned either by using my cashback card in store or whenever I've stayed at Marriott hotels around the country as I sometimes have to do...or whenever I've made other online purchases using my credit card after going through the UWDC website, I am actually owed £70 rather than me owing them a single penny. All because I've made purchases that I would have done anyway through them. Quite a brilliant concept all told and no wonder they are growing as they are. I thought it was maybe a scam at first but nope...its just a great concept and one that is saving me (and others) a small fortune over any given 12 month period.

Top-sliced a wee bit but still kept the core in there...very pleased! Makes up for having initially bought in at its peak in the Summer. Brought average down to 864 after that and just got 902 for a few I decided to sell, mainly due to needing a chunk to plough into my business...and pay for the decorating...pah! But very pleased to still have plenty (for me) left in to make the reported upturn in dividend a nice bonus when it comes along. Today has been a good day already. ATB.

How do you work that one out?? Another frustrating day for TEP today.

...which said that at the conference, the distributors were told that the business is currently worth around £500m, with that well and truly on course to rise to £600m in the near (next year?) future. I'll double check that with her.

Don't think we can yet? My cousin is a distributor and texted me one or two top-line details...most notably that the business is growing at a tremendous rate. Again, they expect to be worth a whopping £600m within the next 12 months. . .the TV offering isn't ready yet but its on its way a wee bit further down the line. When that comes, it'll no doubt increase in value again. They seem to be doing a tremendous job.