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Capped to British Gas 2011 - to switch or not to switch
Please would someone advise me on whether or not I should switch out of my capped tariff with BG? I fixed with them last year when the price hikes had started but not gone to the highest heights and felt it was the right thing to do. Now I'm not so sure.
Firstly, I recently had a letter from them seeking to more than double my monthly DD for Gas alone to £95 (I had upped the payment to £45 over the summer when I also paid off in full a debit on the account). After a lengthy phone conversation we went through some convoluted restarting of the account/year so that we could reset the DD at £65 per month.
Secondly, my daughter has today taken out (through your site links and Quidco) a duel fuel where she is paying £66 per month for both gas and electricity.
Please help a very confused person.
Firstly, I recently had a letter from them seeking to more than double my monthly DD for Gas alone to £95 (I had upped the payment to £45 over the summer when I also paid off in full a debit on the account). After a lengthy phone conversation we went through some convoluted restarting of the account/year so that we could reset the DD at £65 per month.
Secondly, my daughter has today taken out (through your site links and Quidco) a duel fuel where she is paying £66 per month for both gas and electricity.
Please help a very confused person.

Mortgage Free October 2013 :T
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Comments
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Size of instalments is completely irrelevant. What is your annual usage? What will your likely usage be over this winter? How does the price of your current tariff for your likely usage compare with the price you would pay for other tariffs (for that usage.)
Your daughter could pay £6.60 per month if she likes. It doesn't change how much she will have to pay in the end for any given consumption.0 -
Firstly there is no point in comparing DD payments with your daughter. She could be paying much less than the amount of energy she is using and will finish up, as you did, with a big debit balance.
The problem you face is you have just about the most expensive tariff available. It frankly wasn't an attractive deal when it was introduced and it is less so now.
However nobody has a clue what will happen in the next 22 months until the cap finishes, and people will be wary of advising you to switch.
You don't say what your consumption of gas and electricity, but if you had average consumption(20500kWh gas and 3,300kWh electricity) you could save over £300 a year switching to a number of companies - including OVO who have fixed their price for 12 months. Even with BG on their Websaver 4 tariff you could save approx £250 a year.
As you might be aware if you switch from your present tariff you have to pay a penalty of £100(£70 gas + £30 Elect)
So you have to make a decision on the future price of gas and electricity.
If I were in your situation I would switch. I would firstly see if BG would be prepared to waive the exit fee if I moved to their Websaver 4. Failing that I would leave and go to OVO or one of the other companies.
However that isn't advice - merely stating what I would do. Either path is a gamble, but IMO switching has the best odds.0 -
Thank you both for your replies. And you are right that the DD amount could result in a debit at the end of the year.
In the year from July 2008-Jun 2009 I used 19504.6 kWh Gas (though I used 1200 kWh less in the Jul/Sep 09 qtr than the same qtr in 2008) and 2656.7 kWh electricity over the same period of time.
Is it still attractive to switch when what I think of as my most energy expensive winter was last year when I was at home most of the time and I'm now in work for most of the working week?
Thanks for pointing out the penalty cardew, I was aware of it and is something I need to consider. I'm wondering if I'm better switching just the gas to another supplier but I would then lose out on my duel fuel benefits (from BG and any new supplier).
The hesitance to advise is understandable and I know that no-one can predict what will happen - I looked at Martin's article earlier with the quotes/opinions which show how much opinion is divided. I just really don't want to be paying more than I should as I'm now working part-time and so every penny counts.
Your replies are very much appreciated, thanks.Mortgage Free October 2013 :T0 -
As said earlier, you could save just about £300 a year by switching to OVO(£200 after your penalty)
Their prices are fixed for 12 months - which would be Jan/Feb 2011 by the time the switch took place.
So you would certainly be £200 better off by then. Prices for all other tariffs would have to have increased hugely for your BG 2011 tariff to look attractive, and even then to recoup the £200 you were already in pocket is highly improbable.
I have just rung BG and the operator stated unequivocally that if you wished to stay with the company, they would let you switch to websaver 4 without penalty. The advantage is that you could switch 'instantly'.
Whilst that is not a fixed tariff it really does seem highly unlikely that your Sep 2011 capped tariff will be cheaper than that tariff over the next 22 months. Your annual savings on Websaver 4 for your consumption in my area(Midlands) would be £222 - assuming websaver prices remain the same.
Should you decide to take this option get them to send an email confirming that waiver.0 -
Thank you once again cardew.
I have just been looking at prices through the comparison sites and the savings to be made certainly outweigh the penalty. I'm on energyhelpline at the moment and using the figures in my post above they're showing an annual saving of £194 (17%) on the BG Websaver4 compared to £263 (23%) on OVO. So if I can persuade them to let me switch penalty free then the BG online would be a better saving - although the prices wouldn't be fixed as with OVO.
I think that's correct and probably the best way to proceed so I'll give BG a call and try it.
Thank you so much, I just needed someone else to think about it so I could straighten my thoughts out on it! Very much appreciated, thank you. :jMortgage Free October 2013 :T0 -
Well cardew, you must have got a nicer operator! The man from BG said no absolutely not. Ah well, here comes the switch...!Mortgage Free October 2013 :T0
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