NOW CLOSED: Last chance to save money and win £500 of vouchers. Put Incahoot (a group buying website) to the test - you could win £500 of high street vouchers!

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

This is a challenge that's slightly different to the usual Mumsnet product tests but if you enjoy bargain-hunting or want to try to save some money on household or personal expenditure, then this could be one for you. It doesn't involve applying to take part in a product review - it is open to all MNers. Everyone who takes part and adds their feedback below will be entered into a prize draw to win £500 of love2shop gift vouchers.

Incahoot, a group buying website, has asked us to find Mumsnetters to put their site to the test. This would involve visiting www.incahoot.com and seeing whether or not you could save any money on your utilities and/or mobile phone, or home broadband/phone package. You don't have to be eligible to switch any of your providers in order to take part (i.e. you don't have to act on the information Incahoot gives you), you just need to do a bit of research.

Here's some info from Incahoot on their site: "www.incahoot.com is a new website which launched in January 2011 - we offer group buying discounts on home broadband/phone and mobile phone contracts, and a smarter way of paying for your energy. Incahoot doesn't appear on price comparison websites because we negotiate discounts specifically for members.

Incahoot offers consumers the exact opposite of a price comparison site.
Price comparison sites are rewarded when consumers switch supplier, a model which 30% of consumers surveyed by Which? Magazine in November 2009 said didn’t give them the best value.

Price comparison sites only display deals you can already get yourself whereas Incahoot uses the collective buying power of our members to negotiate deals that are better than you can get ‘off the shelf’.

Incahoot takes a long-term view and negotiates exclusive deals with suppliers based on our collective buying power. This means deals will become even more competitive as we recruit additional members and we’ll let consumers know about deals which may be better for them when it is time to renew.

For services like mobile phone, home broadband and home phone we have negotiated money off the monthly prices or used a cashback incentive to save you money. The energy regulator, ofgem, doesn't allow websites like ours to offer discounts on your energy tariffs, so we work with first:utility, a provider that installs a free smart meter so you get 100% accurate billing every month. This means you shouldn't end up paying for more than you use and lets you keep track of your energy usage, which the energy savings trust believes can reduce your bills by 5% - 10%. Here are our specific discount partners:

• 3 for mobile phones
• plusnet for home broadband and phone
• first:utility for gas and electricity"

What is involved?
You would need to visit www.incahoot.com and become a member (this is free of charge and you're under no obligation to buy or do anything). Enter the details of your current utilities, broadband/home phone, mobile phone and energy contracts. Incahoot will then tell you whether or not you could save any money by switching to their partner providers. You are under no obligation to switch at all - they just want to know whether you could potentially save any money by doing so, and how much. You also don't have to do this for all of the services listed here - you could just do one (e.g. mobile phone) or more. The final stage of the test would be to do a bit of wider shopping around to see other deals compare with those available on Incahoot.

You would then need to add your feedback to this thread, telling Incahoot and the rest of MN how you got on. Everyone who takes part and adds their feedback below will be entered into a prize draw to win £500 of love2shop gift vouchers. Love2shop gift vouchers are accepted at 20,000 top UK stores - including Debenhams, Argos, ToysRUs, Waterstones, Sainsbury's and Starbucks.

Incahoot are also looking for some Mumsnetters to be case studies for other media outlets so if you take part in this, we may contact you (on behalf of Incahoot) in the next couple of months. All Mumsnetters who act as case studies will receive a £30 high street voucher. There's no obligation to do this and when we contact you we will give all details of what's involved.

Next steps?
If you'd like to take part in this challenge for Incahoot, here's what you need to do:

1. Visit www.incahoot.com and become a member (free of charge and no obligation to buy/do anything)
2. Enter the details of one or all of your existing utilities, broadband/home phone, mobile phone and home/contents insurance contracts.
3. Make a note of how much (if any) money Incahoot tells you could be saved and by switching to which packages. To help see how much you can save, use the savings calculator to check your mobile phone, mobile broadband and home broadband savings. The energy savings calculator can be found on the energy page.
4. Incahoot would then like you to do a bit of shopping around to see what you can get direct from supplier websites and price comparison sites.
5. After doing steps 1-4, you need to answer the following feedback questions on this thread:

Feedback Questions
Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
How easy or hard you found the Incahoot website to use?
What did you like/dislike about the site?
What could be improved?

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
NB: Please tell us about all of the deals you considered e.g. if you looked at mobile phone and energy packages, then please make sure you tell us about all.
What deals were you offered on Incahoot?
How much money (if any) could you save by switching to the deal you were offered?
Was everything clear or was there any part of the process which was confusing?
If so, what was confusing?
How could it be made clearer for you?

Q3 Savings calculators:
How useful did you find the savings calculators to use?

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
NB: Please tell us which other sites you visited.

How did the deals you found on Incahoot compare with what you found on other sites?
How did you find the other sites to use compared with Incahoot?

Q5 Overall impressions:
Overall, do you like the idea/concept behind Incahoot?
If so, why?
If not, why not?
Are there any other types of product you'd like to see on Incahoot?
Any other comments

We know there's a lot of info to digest here but Incahoot would really like as many of you as possible to take part so please do - there's £500 of shopping vouchers up for grabs!

Thanks
MNHQ

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
It was ok but seemed a lot like other sites to me

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
I was offered a 'deal' for my mobile phone which was the same as my current contract and I'd have to buy the phone, so not a deal really at all although it seemed to think it could save me £600

I think I'd need a great deal of time to really understand this and to use it properly.

Q3 Savings calculators:

Not at all useful

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
GoCompare
Quidco

Q5 Overall impressions:
It's a good idea but I don't really want yet another site where I have to fill in the same information

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
How easy or hard you found the Incahoot website to use?
Very easy actually, everything is fairly intuitive.
What did you like/dislike about the site?
There isn't a lot of information given about exactly where you would save. Just one option - gocompare etc gives you loads of different choices. Also, I was not eligible for a lot of the deals - broadband/home phone is paid for by my DH and I can't change it, my mobile phone has a year left in contract, and I don't use mobile broadband as the 3g on my phone is enough.

What could be improved?

Q2 Sections used and money savings:

What deals were you offered on Incahoot?
First Utilies fuel - would save me about 18pounds a year - not worth the hassle of swapping.
How much money (if any) could you save by switching to the deal you were offered? 18pounds
Was everything clear or was there any part of the process which was confusing?
Everything was clear.
If so, what was confusing?
How could it be made clearer for you?

Q3 Savings calculators:
How useful did you find the savings calculators to use?
Nice to try, but they were very basic. Non really useful for me.

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
NB: Please tell us which other sites you visited.
Gocompare.
How did the deals you found on Incahoot compare with what you found on other sites?
Better - I could only save 4pounds a year according to them!
How did you find the other sites to use compared with Incahoot?
I like the grid display showing all options. I do not always switch on price - eco friendlyness can also be a deciding factor.

Q5 Overall impressions:
Overall, do you like the idea/concept behind Incahoot?
A nice idea, but a bit limiting at the moment. I'll keep an eye on it to see what deals come up in the future.

If so, why?
If not, why not?
Limitted number of suppliers. For example, I have had a bad experience with 3 in the past, and would not go back to them.
Are there any other types of product you'd like to see on Incahoot?
Would be nice to be able to buy cheap vouchers for highstreet shops etc.
Any other comments

1. General opinion:Ii like the offers on the site and the site itself is generally easy to use. There are not many choices if i was to changes supplier of one or more of my household bills.

1. I was offered a saving of £126 per year if I switched my mobile phone to three network and £105 cash-back as well!! This would be something I may consider in the future as the offer was better and cheaper than my current mobile phone provider.

1. The savings calculator was useful and very easy to use.

1. I have used sites like money supermarket and due to the wider range of offers available I would probably continue to use those sites alongside incahoot in the future.

1. The concept behind InCahoot and the general idea of the website is a good one IMO (anything that helps us save money in this financial climate is a good idea) I would like to see more providers to compare deals with in the future- though perhaps this may make the site too similar to money supermarket and such-like.

thanks

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:

Niggly, but please could you include Dr as a title option?

The site is ok to use, but I found it annoying having to register, so put my details in, then having to put my postcode in again on the energy page - why don't the pages recognise the user?

I also didn't like that you couldn't choose which network you use for the phone options - I want to stay with O2, as my whole family are on them, and I've used them for 11 years - so would be more interested in seeing options exclusive to O2. I know you have links to 3 at the moment, but I didn't feel it was clear that the only offers would be for 3 tarriffs.

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
NB: Please tell us about all of the deals you considered e.g. if you looked at mobile phone and energy packages, then please make sure you tell us about all.

I looked at energy and at phones/broadband. I was offered money saving deals totalling £290 - £90 for the phones, £200 for energy.

It was not clear that you only have 1 partner for each deal at the moment - I was expecting to see more offers.

Q3 Savings calculators:

It was easy to use, but not altogether useful for me - as previously mentioned!

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
I have used moneysupermarket and compare the market for checking insurance - they were much easier to read the output on, plus incahoot doesn't appear to offer much in the way of insurance deals at the moment.

Carphone warehouse - I have used it a lot in the past (it was down just now when I tried to compare!) - certainly the incahoot layout was far simpler to use to check deals, but gain, only on one network - so I will still preferentially use carphone warehouse.

We used uswitch for checking our gas and electricity, and water charges, and have found a supplier we are happy with for now, who gave us a good deal plus cashback.

Q5 Overall impressions:
It seems very derivitive, and similar to so many other sites at the moment - a combination of groupon and one of the comparison sites almost. I'm not sure what its USP is.

I'll be interested to watch the site develop, but won't be using it at the moment.

Feedback Questions
Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
How easy or hard you found the Incahoot website to use? Easy to use, need to be able to do it at home where I have access to all my bills etc
What did you like/dislike about the site? clear, comprehensive site
What could be improved? links to other partners, I would prefer to stay with my current provider for level of service but it would be nice to compare against other providers

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
NB: Please tell us about all of the deals you considered e.g. if you looked at mobile phone and energy packages, then please make sure you tell us about all.
What deals were you offered on Incahoot? Energy
How much money (if any) could you save by switching to the deal you were offered? £200 per year but that was based on my estimated guess as no access to my bills at work
Was everything clear or was there any part of the process which was confusing? Clear
If so, what was confusing?
How could it be made clearer for you?

Q3 Savings calculators:
How useful did you find the savings calculators to use? fairly easy if you have the infomration to hand

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
NB: Please tell us which other sites you visited.
How did the deals you found on Incahoot compare with what you found on other sites? not used other sites previously
How did you find the other sites to use compared with Incahoot?

Q5 Overall impressions:
Overall, do you like the idea/concept behind Incahoot?
If so, why? Like the idea of a reminder being sent when your current contract is due for renewal
If not, why not? good to know about savings but not when you are tied into a long contract
Are there any other types of product you'd like to see on Incahoot? Pet insurance, dental and health plans,
Any other comments
ability to note that you are armed forces as some companies give discount to military personel e.g BUPA have a special scheme

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
How easy or hard you found the Incahoot website to use?
What did you like/dislike about the site?
Like KvetaBarry I was miffed no Dr.
I worked b. hard for that title!

What could be improved?
Registration. Had me going ARGH.
Every single 'error' deleted the input passwords so I was forever having to retype. I am ex-directory telephone so didn't want to input it but it was compulsory. Put work in instead. (I get enough telemarketers despite being in the TPS!)
When done (after about 6 attempts thanks to bits I didn't want them to have) it said 'hello moonbells' ie used my first name instead of title and surname. I know formal isn't to all tastes but these people don't know me from Eve and at least they could have a tickbox to ask...

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
NB: Please tell us about all of the deals you considered e.g. if you looked at mobile phone and energy packages, then please make sure you tell us about all.

I looked at fuel.

What deals were you offered on Incahoot?

Just one, and it wasn't very helpful.

How much money (if any) could you save by switching to the deal you were offered?
Was everything clear or was there any part of the process which was confusing?
If so, what was confusing?
How could it be made clearer for you?

OK they haven't thought of everything. I'm on a dual-fuel deal. I pay one direct debit a month. I have no idea what part of that is electric and what is gas. So I simply cannot fill in the form they have accurately. At least not without detailed meter readings, which of course vary round the year. The DD is at least indicative of average usage.

They need to put in a dual-fuel option where you only put in one payment.

I also looked at mobiles, briefly. My current model mobile wasn't an option, and when I clicked on plans I was to find them all at least £3 a month dearer than my contract.

Q3 Savings calculators:
How useful did you find the savings calculators to use?
Not at all. Again no facility for bundled deals. Broadband is bundled with phone and Sky. Can't really separate out. Have no option to do so (no cable to house and no Freeview available so have to have Sky to have any watchable TV as analogue is like watching snowstorms)

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
NB: Please tell us which other sites you visited.
How did the deals you found on Incahoot compare with what you found on other sites?
How did you find the other sites to use compared with Incahoot?

Q5 Overall impressions:
Overall, do you like the idea/concept behind Incahoot?

If so, why?
If not, why not?
Are there any other types of product you'd like to see on Incahoot?
Any other comments

Sure it works well for simple, uncomplicated single-deal things. But when you've already got good, discounted deals then it can't cope. For instance we get Tesco Clubcard points from the fuel supplier. These points go most of the way to a Clubcard deal which gives us well over £100 worth of RAC cover a year. How do you quantify this in a 'good deal' calculation?

woops missed the feedback bit about other websites.

Q4 I tested Uswitch.
They on the other hand have lots of dual-fuel options so I would be happier using them...

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
How easy or hard you found the Incahoot website to use?
Very hard- I didnt know where to go to put details of current tariffs

What did you like/dislike about the site?

What could be improved? The layout and nagivation was not obvious

A things to do tab.

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
I used the savings calculator and it only brought up mobile phones. Said I could save £66 which was confusing as it included mobile broadband which I dont actually have!

I couldnt find out how to compare energy deals only information about smart tariff. Very unimpressed with how to use site

Q3 Savings calculators:
Easy enough- but not exactly comphrensive. Doesnt ask what minutes /texts you actually use

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
U switch is much easier and so is moneysaving expert as you get tips on what to look out for.

Am I too late? I would like to have a go.

Puzzlerocks - not too late - please go ahead. The thread will be open until Monday morning!

Thanks Helen. I had a look around for about 30 minutes so here goes. I may add more if I get a chance.

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
Fast and easy to navigate. I like the layout and but there is not much direction. The homepage should have clear instructions. A step by step guide for how and where to enter info would be useful, I felt a bit lost.

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
I was offered precious few alternatives but perhaps that is because I am already on the best deals. I couldn?t see that they offered iphones. The best mobile deal was marginally better than my current tariff but I would have to change my beloved handset and would have to change my network.
Do ignore me, just spotted the separate iphone tab. Why separate? Incahoots best offer is currently £5 more per month than I am paying Orange. I must admit though I have a 3GS and the iphone 4 offer is incredibly tempting but I would want assurance that the cashback would be forthcoming so the price of the handset was recouped.
Is the cash back guaranteed? I have been stung by cashback offers before.
Oddly the broadband deal offered was more than I currently pay?
I was recommended to switch to First Utility Smart as Standard v2 Tariff which was £200 more than I am currently paying? Starting to feel a bit disillusioned.

Q3 Savings calculators:
How useful did you find the savings calculators to use?

Not really. I doesn?t seem to do much, isn?t terribly clear and all the info is to be found under each of the specific tabs anyway.

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
None are without their faults and all are biased to some degree or another. I think it has real potential but there is a lot of ironing out to be done. Gocompare have a really straightforward layout and you can retrieve and tweak old quotes so no need to keep entering info. Quidco are better in that you can search by supplier and they have much more choice on offer. I have made a fair bit of cashback through them so they almost always get my business.

Q5 Overall impressions:
The concept is a good one but it needs a lot of work, it just isn?t on the same level as the other major sites yet. I didn?t try the live chat but assuming it works then I think that is a particularly good feature as I am not aware of other price comparison sites having that function.
I could not see an option for life insurance.

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:

I was actually surprised that it was much easier to navigate than other similar sites I have used.

I liked the colour scheme (shallow I know!) and the general layout because it was easy to use, however I personally prefer lists to the "boxes in rows" layout on the site because I find it can be too much to process and take in in one go. I think this would be the only thing I would like to see improved so far.

Q2 Sections used and money savings:

Using the savings calculator for mobile phones, mobile broadband and home broadband I could save £366 per year and I was offered £110 cashback on a mobile phone deal. Everything seemed clear enough to me.

Q3 Savings calculators:

I thought the savings calculator was quite useful, however as I get my phone, tv and home broadband in one package, I always find it difficult to do a proper price comparison for any of these so if a "package" comparison tool was available it would make it much better.

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:

I also visited Quidco, MoneySupermarket and GoCompare (I never use confused.com because ironically I find it too confusing). The some of the deals I found were better, others worse but Incahoot could improve this by offering more deals with different suppliers. I always use price comparison websites first, then cross reference my deals with Quidco because the cashback can never be guaranteed. I never use Groupon because I can never find anything relevant to me on there!

Q5 Overall impressions:

I love the concept because it seems to be trying to pull together all the different types of money saving sites there are out there - a bit of comparison, a bit of cashback and a bit of group buying and to have all these tools on one website would save me a lot of time as I currently have to use many different sites to achieve the same thing. However there needs to me more on offer than there is currently.

You could maybe consider adding more financial products and shopping deals to the site (because these are really what I use money saving sites for the most).

Q1 General opinion of using www.incahoot.com:
How easy or hard you found the Incahoot website to use?
What did you like/dislike about the site?
What could be improved?

I found it pretty simple and straightforward but I think a step by step guide on the first page would make it simpler.

Q2 Sections used and money savings:
NB: Please tell us about all of the deals you considered e.g. if you looked at mobile phone and energy packages, then please make sure you tell us about all.
What deals were you offered on Incahoot?
How much money (if any) could you save by switching to the deal you were offered?
Was everything clear or was there any part of the process which was confusing?
If so, what was confusing?
How could it be made clearer for you?

I did the mobile phone and the gas and electricity comparisons.
The mobile phone wasn't any better than I currently have and the gas and electricity would have saved £103pa which is a less than 50% of a months payment so didn't consider it worth the hassle of changing tbh.

Q3 Savings calculators:
How useful did you find the savings calculators to use?

Very simple and easy to use in my experience

Q4 Comparisons with other sites:
NB: Please tell us which other sites you visited.
How did the deals you found on Incahoot compare with what you found on other sites?
How did you find the other sites to use compared with Incahoot?

I use Moneysavingexpert regularly and tried out Mymoneysupermarket too some deals were better others poorer tbh.I liked MSE best but that's most likely because I am familiar with it.

Q5 Overall impressions:
Overall, do you like the idea/concept behind Incahoot?
If so, why?
If not, why not?
Are there any other types of product you'd like to see on Incahoot?
Any other comments

I don't find it new or different tbh because there are plenty of sites doing the same thing that have been around a while now.
I've bookmarked it though and will check in periodically to see what's on there

I'm back I have more feedback.....

I'm moving in a couple of weeks so thought I'd check out what it said about the new house and it DID have better offers for the new house (which is in a town rather than very rural) so it does seem to work better for city dwellers.

However today the site was remarkably slow. Not my bb, I checked it was okay elsewhere, perhaps I would just unlucky.

Oh and Uswitch.com still gives better deals at both addresses for me - sorry!

Well I have just moved house and had already shopped around for what I thought were the best deals so I thought I would have a go at this. I am fairly confident I have already found the cheapest deals that suit our needs for gas, electricity and broadband.

Q1 General Opinion
This site is so SLOW. Pages took ages to load, some didn't load at all. It works ok in the Opera browser (which is great because lots of websites don't) but you might want to get someone to take a look at the spacing issues on some pages as the text blurs a bit with the menu. It is fairly straightforward to use but some of the pages are a bit 'busy' and the text is quite small.

Q2 Sections used and money savings
Broadband - Offered the Plusnet broadband for £4.49, however this appears to be capped at 10gb, which would be no good for us. I imagine the unlimited would be more? I was unable to establish this as the page with the details would not load. I can only speculate but I suspect if you look at the small print this really isn't such a good deal. We have fast, unlimited broadband from Sky for £7.50.

Mobile - No savings here, the packages offered start from £17 but I only pay £10.50 pcm to Vodafone. I don't need thousands of free texts, talk time and data, just the basics.

Gas and Electricity - It's hard to compare this as my current provider doesn't appear to have a standing charge, yet the deal offered by incahoot did. I also get discounts for having dual fuel and managing my account online. There is a discount for duel fuel from the provider suggested, but it has a minimum spend per year to qualify. These are the tariffs but without knowing how much kWh we use each day it's a bit useless for comparison:
Electricity - currently pay 23.2785p per kWh for first 900kWh per year, then 10.6155p per kWh. Incahoot offered daily standing charge of 33.6p and 11.55p per kWh
Gas - currently pay 6.82395p per kWh for first 2680kWh per year, then 2.9694p per kWh. Incahoot offered daily standing charge of 60.9p and 3.087 per kWh

Q3 Savings calculators
These were fairly simple to use.

Q4 Comparisons with other sites
Mobile I looked at Orange, Virgin, Tesco, Vodafone and 3. All were a straight forward look to see the cheapest deal they offered with at least 100 cross network anytime minutes. I already had the cheapest deal for my needs.

Broadband I looked at BT, Sky and Virgin. I looked for 10mb speed with uncapped downloads.

Energy I looked at Southern Electric, Eon and British Gas. I found a common problem on these sites it that the actual tariff is buried a bit deep and takes some digging to get to. It was hard to compare like for like due to the way Eon charge but Southern electric is charged similarly to the incahoot offer and Southern Electric was cheaper.

I didn't use the incahoot home insurance checker as you had to ring to get a quote and frankly I couldn't be arsed. However I had used confused and moneysupermarket to get quotes for our new house and found those easy to use, although eventually went with a company, whose name escapes me, who aren't searchable on price comparison websites.

Q5 Overall impressions
Perhaps this could be a good idea but not as long as you are tied to one supplier for each product. This means the offers aren't very flexible - for instance the capped broadband might be cheaper but is no good for me.

I have just had a go at uswitch having just skimmed the thread and seen it mentioned a few times. That is very easy to use and I like that I didn't have to register. That suggests I should be with npower for the cheapest deal and looking at the tariff npower is certainly cheaper than the incahoot suggested provider.

Woo, and I can get £40 cashback if I switch to Npower through quidco!

Thanks everyone - we're closing this thread now and will be doing the prize draw shortly. Incahoot wanted to say thanks too - here's their message - "Thanks to all Mumsnetters who have participated in reviewing incahoot.com. We would like to thank you for all the feedback that we have received, it has been really beneficial for us to get an independent view of how the site looks, works and the offers that we have available. We will be collating all of the feedback and looking to build into future developments."

We've done the prize draw now and congratulations go to...

Kvetabarry

You've won £500 of Love2Shop vouchers - happy spending!!

Congratulations!

congrats!

ooh! exciting! and they are valid in homebase, woo! :o thank you incahoot!

Gutted £500 of vouchers would have done our shopping for weeks!

congrats KvetaBarry