I've never changed my provider - is it well overdue?

Jolly_F

I have looked a few times over the 3 years I have been with British gas duel fuel and the savings looked small and with horror stories of changing suppliers I have been reluctant.

Looking more closely recently it looks like I can apparently save around £100 - £125 pa by switching. One was npower sign online 19 duel fuel tariff.

I’m not a big user of fuel compared to others but like everyone I get a big hike in the winter months. My typical annual gas bill is approx £400 with anything from £40 a quarter in the summer to £200+ in the winter. The last two summers I did get £20 bills from may to august but with my partner now with me and the baths and showers this year saw a £55 equivalent with my combi boiler. I can’t say if fuel rises have helped but she is already hinting to turning on the heating.

For electricity it’s much better. It pretty much equates to £40 a month - £160 pa.

Are there real hassle free savings to be had to make it worth a move or is it really all much of a muchness?? As like everyone i could really benifit from saving but do not want to suffer getting it wrong.

macman

Yes of course there are savings to be made, as your research has revealed. What hassle is it to change? 5 mins on a comparison site, 10 minutes on a cashback site, job done. Then take and submit your meter readings on the appointed day. Let's assume the worst and the whole process takes 30 mins. So if you can save £100, that's the equivalent of earning £200 an hour. And that's excluding any cashback, which on dual fuel could well be £100+. Do you earn £300 per hour?
Make sure you are using your annual consumption figs on the comp sites, not your monthly bills.
Also from what you say it would appear you are paying on quarterly billing. Make sure you do your comparison including monthly DD payment, as this many of the best tariffs are only available with this method.

G1598

The only thing you have to do is tell the company what you want and provide an opening meter reading to them, if you cant provide it they will send someone out to get it, that will be sent to bg aswell for them to use as a final meter reading and to sort out your last bill. Everything else is handled by the suppliers. The only thing you need to do is sit back and enjoy your extra money. npowers sign online 19 if it has come up at the top of the list, grab it as no one will be able to match it at the moment, funny tariff that one, it's either the cheapest anywhere or comes pretty low down in terms of online tariffs. it's really down to how much you use.

MASTERSHOT

Jolly_F wrote: »

I have looked a few times over the 3 years I have been with British gas duel fuel and the savings looked small and with horror stories of changing suppliers I have been reluctant.

Looking more closely recently it looks like I can apparently save around £100 - £125 pa by switching. One was npower sign online 19 duel fuel tariff.

I’m not a big user of fuel compared to others but like everyone I get a big hike in the winter months. My typical annual gas bill is approx £400 with anything from £40 a quarter in the summer to £200+ in the winter. The last two summers I did get £20 bills from may to august but with my partner now with me and the baths and showers this year saw a £55 equivalent with my combi boiler. I can’t say if fuel rises have helped but she is already hinting to turning on the heating.

For electricity it’s much better. It pretty much equates to £40 a month - £160 pa.

Are there real hassle free savings to be had to make it worth a move or is it really all much of a muchness?? As like everyone i could really benifit from saving but do not want to suffer getting it wrong.

Change as soon as you can. I changed yesterday to npower sign online 19 duel fuel tariff as this is a great deal. The great thing is that there is no daily standing charges. I have just changed from First Utility where they have just put the standing charges up to £215.18 a year. Even as I may have to pay £100 exit fee I am still ahead.
Do not forget to go for DD and paperless bills and also they will e-mail you when they want meter readings.