New home owner (first time buyer)

kingcreech

Me and the good lady have finally bought our first house, it was a repo and the old suppliers was Brit Gas.

The gas and elec are on and still with them at the minute but we are looking to move away for a better deal. (We are currently on the standard tariff).

As we haven't used any fuel in the past how would I go about using the price comparison sites?

Also, I've seen a offer with Scottish Power for a fixed rate until 2014, also comes with boiler cover and the cashback has also been doubled for this week. Is this something I should be looking at? Is a fixed rate good on fuel?

Basically I know nothing about bills, fuels etc so looking for any kind of help.



PS - BB3 (Lower Darwen, Darwen)

macman

Go to the comp site with some standard figures, say electricity 4,000kWh pa and gas 17,500kWh pa (this is assuming a 3 b/r house with gas central heating). That will give you a basis for comparison.
Then sign up using a cashback site.
No one can tell you which way prices will go, so impossible to say if fixing now is good or not. If we did know, we'd all be doing the same thing. What it does do it give you absolute security that you won't pay any more for the duration of the contract. However for this security you will be paying a higher price.

kingcreech

Thanks for the fast reply, all makes good sense.

The house is gas central heated (conventional) and its a 4bed. There is only me and the lady at the min so standard figures should work out pretty well.

Again cheers for the help

kingcreech

Just been having a go on some of the compare sites and using the above average figures is giving me a monthly cost of around £75, does that seem right?

As the house is 4 bed would I be better adding more to the averages?

There is me and the wife only.
Gas heating.
2 bedrooms will only be heated on low if heated at all.

Do you think it's wiser me putting the figures up to around 20k gas and 5k elec or even higher?

Don't want to paying too little and then having to catch up but also, don't really want to be paying over the odds.

What you think peeps.