Just had a visit from a British Gas Rep

yelf

was with us for over half an hour trying to convince us to move dual fuel to them from Suthern Electric - she did some calcs and said they would be cheaper because:

The first 1143KWh of units from SE are charged at a higher rate per quarter before going on to the lower rate. With BG the higher rate applies to the first 670KwH. I didnt see the calcs though.

She did say that BGs lower rate was higher than SE but because of the period of higher units they still worked out cheaper. I signe up but wil be cancelling when I get the cancellation notice.

Rung SE and they said BG would be cheaper for electricity but not Gas. And when there were all the hikes in prices I remember BG being named as the worst culprits - although the rep did produce a newspaper article showing BG as the cheapest.

What to do? Any thoughts?

Also - she tried flogging their annual service plan that costs a monthly amount. I pointed out that it is actually an insurance plan, but she still referred to it as a service, and assumed we were taking it out.

lemontart

do an online check to compare for yourself the two companies using the sites mentioned on this fantastic website

SwanJon

Which one is cheapest will depend on how much you use. By the sounds of hit a high user will be better with SE.
If you can find out how many kWh you have used in the last year you can have a look for yourself - there could be a cheaper tariff with SE you could switch to straight away. (Watch out for tariffs with exit fees - you need to at least take them into account).
As to the servicing thing, technically it's not insurance (legally thing), but couldn't tell you why not.
A big part of it will be paying for the 'annual' service itself, the rest for the repair.

Perelandra

Hi SwanJon,

I think it's the annual service contract that makes the product (legally) a non-insurance product.

With an insurance product, you only get "something" from the company when something goes wrong and you need to make a claim, or make a callout. Since the service contract has an annual service, even if nothing goes wrong, then it's (legally) not an insurance product. At least, that's how it was explained to me.

I do agree with the OP though- for me personally, I'd either buy/not buy a service contract on the basis of whether I wanted to be insured/not insured.

[Deleted User]

lemontart wrote: »

do an online check to compare for yourself the two companies using the sites mentioned on this fantastic website

Agree. Dont believe someone who comes around the doors.

Also, if you sign up they'll get the commision whereas if u go through someone like uswitch (via topcashback or quidco) you'll get dosh for switching.

MrsTinks

OK I shall admit to part of my shadier past now... I used to work for a company who trained their own door to door sales people - I did profiling and assisted in the training and I would NEVER open the door to someone selling me anything now... Their tactics are borderline illigal most of the time but skating JUST this side of the law...
You have a right to cancel but I think it's only 14 days (hazy memory here...) so cancel your instruction and look up the rates yourself and get cashback if you change