Switching tactics - basics

Telegraph_Sam

Most of us are on quarterly dual / threshold tarifs. This means - to my mind at least - that units cost less towards the end of the quarter than at the beginning before the quarterly consumption threshold is passed. If (as in my current situation) the switch process is now overdue, the timing could hardly be worse: I will be switching from the lower rates with the old supplier to the higher rates with the new supplier. I suspect that in the majority of cases this will be a (temporary) change for the worse.

The conclusion is - as far as possible - to delay giving the final meter readings until the beginning of the quarter. Or to cook the readings. Or is there a fault with this logic??

stewie_griffin

Telegraph_Sam wrote: »

Most of us are on quarterly dual / threshold tarifs. This means - to my mind at least - that units cost less towards the end of the quarter than at the beginning before the quarterly consumption threshold is passed. If (as in my current situation) the switch process is now overdue, the timing could hardly be worse: I will be switching from the lower rates with the old supplier to the higher rates with the new supplier. I suspect that in the majority of cases this will be a (temporary) change for the worse.

The conclusion is - as far as possible - to delay giving the final meter readings until the beginning of the quarter. Or to cook the readings. Or is there a fault with this logic??

As far as I'm aware this isn't how the tier 1/primary rate etc work. Even though the tariffs quote the 1st x amount of units per quarter they are however actually applied on a pro rata basis so when you change supplier is irrelevant (with the possible exception of npower).

Telegraph_Sam

stewie_griffin wrote: »

As far as I'm aware this isn't how the tier 1/primary rate etc work. Even though the tariffs quote the 1st x amount of units per quarter they are however actually applied on a pro rata basis so when you change supplier is irrelevant (with the possible exception of npower).

I bow to your understanding of higher mathematics. All I can say is that when I have consulted my Eon bills and put the question to Atlantic it seemed that everything was done on a quarterly basis. If there is some behind the scenes fudging then it is beyond me!

kjsmith7

One way of looking at it:

If your tier 1 threshold/limit is 670kWh of gas per quarter (90 days), it is averaged out daily to the first 7.5kWh of usage a day at the higher price, and then everything else at the rest. If your tier 1 threshold is 1143kWh of gas per quarter, it is 12.7kWh per day at the higher price.

For electric, if your threshold is 125kWh over a quarter, it is the first 1.4kWh at the higher price and everything else at the rest per day. If your threshold is 225kWh, it is the first 2.5kWh per day. Average consumption in the UK would be around 9 or 10kWh electric per day. (for properties that use gas heating).

Everything is "done on a quarterly basis" for the purposes of the bill, but it is merely averaged out daily. So, if the bill was slightly shorter or longer than a quarter (for instance, 100 days instead of 90) you'd pay proportionately more at the tier 1 price. Hope that helps.

Premier_2

Telegraph_Sam wrote: »

I bow to your understanding of higher mathematics. All I can say is that when I have consulted my Eon bills and put the question to Atlantic it seemed that everything was done on a quarterly basis. If there is some behind the scenes fudging then it is beyond me!

When I switched away from Eon, they applied the tier 1 rate pro rata to the number of days the final bill was produced for.

The thing to remember with Eon is they don't give any discounts on final bills, so it's best to try and arrange the switch towards the start of a billing quarter
(unless you get caught like I did where they knew a switch was going to take place, so hugely overestimated the last but one bill and when I gave them an accurate reading hoping for a revised bill, they said they would hold off billing me again until the final bill was produced ... which represented about 120 days all without any final discount :mad:)

Fire_Fox

Telegraph_Sam wrote: »

Most of us are on quarterly dual / threshold tarifs. This means - to my mind at least - that units cost less towards the end of the quarter than at the beginning before the quarterly consumption threshold is passed. If (as in my current situation) the switch process is now overdue, the timing could hardly be worse: I will be switching from the lower rates with the old supplier to the higher rates with the new supplier. I suspect that in the majority of cases this will be a (temporary) change for the worse.

The conclusion is - as far as possible - to delay giving the final meter readings until the beginning of the quarter. Or to cook the readings. Or is there a fault with this logic??

You don't supply a reading until the switch takes place anyway. I've just started the switch process, seems to me the timing is excellent as my heating has been off for weeks. Furthermore it gives me several months of naturally lower energy consumption to: complete the switch (four to six weeks), wait for the cashback to clear (eleven weeks average), forget or wait for a better cashback deal (couple of weeks) and to switch back (four to six weeks).