When, how, where?

RaiderHammer

OK been putting this off for ages, but got to do it now. I have never changed from the orginal suppliers and been in the same property since changes were allowed.

So my questions are when to change? I am assuming now because even if I change to another supplier that put's the prices up I am guessing I still save £££'s over the winter. (If I am quick!).

How and where to change? Direct, comparrison site or money back sites (which I don't really understand)?

Any help gratefully received to help me make the right decision.

Thank you.

dogshome

Hi RaiderHammer - When in 2002 the 'Change your Supplier' rules came in, the distributor in each area was not allowed to lower prices in thier home area , so if you have stayed with them I'm afraid you paid bills that were higher than need be.

To look at the market via the Switch sites and get the best answers, you have to enter how many Kwh of Gas & Elec you use a year, so phone your present supplier and ask them.

TwittersPVFC

This is what I did to switch, hope it's of some help.

Firstly I used the online account I have with British Gas and checked all my old bills to work out what my kWh usage for the year was with both Gas and Electric. You can get away with using the costs but it's far more accurate if you know your exact usage. Then I checked my bills to see what tariff I was on, in my case Standard.

The next step was to check several of the comparison sites (I used Energy Helpline, uSwitch and Money Supermarket) to find out who was cheapest in my area for me with my usage. The cheapest I think came out as First Utility (saving £180 a year), followed by NPower (£160), then E'On (£150) and EDF were 4th (£130 with £100 welcome bonus before Nov 30th). I then checked out this site for feed back and comments, and used the uSwitch awards and reviews on there and MoneySupermarket to see who was good.

The last step was to check cashback sites (I used GreasyPalm, TopCashBack and Quidco) to see if anyone gave me good cashback deals for the tariffs.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the best saving I'd get combined with the best service was EDF Online [EMAIL="S@ver"]S@ver[/EMAIL] 7 and I started the switch process today and I did this through Quidco to get an extra £80 cashback on top of the £100 welcome bonus.

HOWEVER, I'm not saying you should automatically choose EDF as well, you may find that another company is cheaper or you're happier to take a risk with a company who don't have such great reviews. I just went with what I felt gave me the best combination of savings and service.

The most important thing I found was to know your usage. If you know that, you're well on the way. Good luck!

backfoot

Superb reply TwittersPVFC.

Can't do any better than that. :T

RaiderHammer

Thanks for the replies. I assume I am unlikely to have in termination fees if I have not changed suppliers or tariffs since changes were allowed.