www.energywatch.org.uk

wakeywakey

I was trying to understand my energyhelpline quotation when I came across this site. Energywatch, as I'm sure you know are an independent watchdog, etc etc, and the 4 page print I got for the Midlands gas and electric suppliers has been a useful summary. My observation from the research I have done so far, is that everyone is screaming switch, switch, switch but they're not telling the whole story. As a result, I was able to try out the quotation on other comparison sites, and one of them gave me a quotation (similar) which was much easier to understand.

So the quotation I have for British Gas discounted electricity with paperless billing with one month free electricity screams that instead of 12 months at £45 (=£540) or 5686 kWh I will save £200 against my npower bill.

By comparing quotes from 2 other sites for the same supplier, I find that one offers me £15 off my initial bill (instead of £12.50 cashback) and the one month free is £26 taken off at the end of the year, plus £5 taken off at the same time for being online. None of the quotes tells me what my new monthly direct debit will be.

One site says the current prices are only in effect until the end of December 2005.

At the moment, there is more research to do. My conclusion thus far is don't jump without really finding out, and in finding out you find out what sort of supplier you are dealing with.

Can anyone out there actually say their monthly direct debit has gone down, or has been switched for over a year and has demonstrable savings?

wakey

pagan705

I am also with NPower & thinking of changing to British gas with paperless billing etc since looking at the comparison sites I would save alot of money. They only thing I'm unsure about is all the price changes.

Does anyone know if british gas or NPower have announced future price rises or if they have recently raised them? because I'm sure I heard about price rises with both companies a month or two ago but as I wasn't thinking of switching then I didn't pay that much attention

wakeywakey

According to https://www.energylinx.co.uk, current British Gas electricity prices (which are used to compare) are held until the end of December, 2005. I haven't heard if (?) and when they are going to increase their electricity prices.

I am going to hold off until the new year to look again. The comparison sites do not make it clear which set of prices is being used to estimate current usage (is you enter cost per month).

The worst case with their current report on BG being the one with savings is they are using the new npower tariff which starts Jan 2006 to compare the current BG prices.

With all the promises of savings, has anyone actually seen their monthly direct debit go down, or is it all jam tomorrow (possibly), with the switchers happy to ride the frenzy, as they get their jam today.

I got caught up in the frenzy yesterday, but I will be cancelling my switch from npower to BG today.