I'm new and confused!!

leikela

Hello I've just been switched on to this money saving lark (which is fab!) and I would like to consider switching over my energy providers. But I have some questions and a "search" of this forum came up fruitless. If there's another thread/discussion/article I'm missing, I would really appreciate a link to that too.

Okay, so my issues/questions are:
1. I currently pay by monthly DD; if I switch, does what I didn't use get refunded or do I lose it?
2. Is there an expected date/time when the prices will go up again or is it a constant 'wait-and-see'? I don't want to be changing every month and there are so many options now it's a little overwhelming.
3. Is it more cost-efficient to have duel-fuel or different suppliers? Every website seems to have completely different quotes for everything, it's a bit of a struggle knowing where to start

Thanks in advance if you can help, and thank you to everyone who posts great advice, I've learned a lot in the short time I've been reading this forum!

Magentasue

Hi there,
I would say:

1) You will get a final statement and a refund of a credit balance.
2. Yes - wait and see!
3) Generally, the discounts you get for duel fuel and monthly DD payments are worth having.

I'm not an expert but this is what I've found from personal experience.

Cardew

1. You get it back.

2. Constant wait and see.

3. No set answer. Depends on several factors. Company, tariff, area, usage.
Some of the cheaper internet tariffs(e.g. BG click 5) will only let you have dual fuel - unless you don't have gas of course. i.e. you can't have gas only.

foreversomeday

Another thing to consider for point 2 - if you get a capped tariff, that means your prices will not rise until the end of the cap. We are currently on one with NPower until 2011 because we can't afford the uncertainty of the "wait and see" bills we have at the moment. Hopefully by 2011 we should be a lot more sorted financially.