First Time Switching Advice

ahappychappy

Hi, I started last week looking to change my gas and electricity suppliers for the first time, currently with British Gas and Scottish Power, both on standard tariffs.

Now British Gas has put the prices up and others are sure to follow is it still prudent to switch till i know what everyone elses tarffis will be? Switching now appears to be hasty when i could end up paying more than another supplier and thus being worse off.

Another thing i noticed while doing price comparisons was that the assumption that getting a dual supplier would be the cheapest option but it could actually save more by keeping them seperate?

Any advice would be appreciated

dogshome

Hi ahappychappy - When you mention 'Standard' tariffs, do you mean you get Qtly Bills which you pay by cheque? Because if so changing to almost any supplier with a Pay by D/Debit with Oline billing tariff will save you a shed load of money.

So far as price increases across the industry are concerned, it's anybodys guess: BG have raised theirs whilst other suppliers have promised no increases till March, and while all this is going on the world market has an increasing over supply of gas.
So the advice is to switch away from BG to avoid thier increases this winter, whilst bearing in mind that all suppliers may well put up thier prices in time, or not as the case may be.

You can sometimes get better value than Duel Fuel by buying gas & Elec seperately, but it all depends on your particular annual Gas & Elect consumptions
Go to 'switchwithwhich' and enter your figures for Dual Fuel prices, then repeat the process twice more having selected 'Gas only' and then 'Elect only'
Switchwithwhich will not only show other suppliers tariffs in fine detail, but will also show them alongside the fine detail of your present suppliers tariff

ahappychappy

Hi thanks for your reply, i pay BG via quarterly cheque and scottish power via monthly direct debit.

Have just checked switchwithwitch you mention and have found again that i'm better off keeping gas and electric seperate by nearly £35 so looks like thats what i may well be doing.

macman

As the standard tariffs are all going up as well, you can't lose by switching, as standard is always much more expensive. Remember that it takes 4-5 weeks to switch, so every day you delay, you will be paying a higher rate for your much increased winter fuel usage.

competitionscafe

dogshome wrote: »

So far as price increases across the industry are concerned, it's anybodys guess: BG have raised theirs whilst other suppliers have promised no increases till March, and while all this is going on the world market has an increasing over supply of gas.

Only EDF has the price freeze until March as far as I know, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern have also raised prices and E-On and nPower have yet to make price change announcements.

On average the increases amount to about £1 a week (over a year) although obviously winter bills will be higher than that average.

ahappychappy

After much research on various comparison sites etc i have worked out that getting dual fuel from npower will be the cheapest for myself (have used a full years useage), however i have just been reading the reviews and other posts here regarding how bad they are, has anyone any recent experience? Have they upped there game recently or should i look elsewhere?

Many thanks

dogshome

Hi ahappychappy - Within n'power in the past, there has certainly been management mind-set of screwing the customer, whether or not this has changed after the severe mauling they got from Consumer Focus remains to be seen

However be aware that the Switch sites Annual Cost from n'power, includes a yearly credit which depends on you making provided 12 consecutive monthly D/Direct payments, BUT, n'power do not take this into account when calculating the value of your monthly D/Debits - You are in effect lending them cash on each D/D payment made, which they then give back to you after a year provided you have abided by all the rules.
Also
n'power only issue a bill every 6 months, so unless you are very disciplined in taking meter readings every month, there is difficulty in monitoring your consumption from season to season and year to year

ahappychappy

dogshome wrote: »

Hi ahappychappy - Within n'power in the past, there has certainly been management mind-set of screwing the customer, whether or not this has changed after the severe mauling they got from Consumer Focus remains to be seen

However be aware that the Switch sites Annual Cost from n'power, includes a yearly credit which depends on you making provided 12 consecutive monthly D/Direct payments, BUT, n'power do not take this into account when calculating the value of your monthly D/Debits - You are in effect lending them cash on each D/D payment made, which they then give back to you after a year provided you have abided by all the rules.
Also
n'power only issue a bill every 6 months, so unless you are very disciplined in taking meter readings every month, there is difficulty in monitoring your consumption from season to season and year to year

Hi thanks for that, doing meter reading every month is not a problem as i am having to keep an eye on all costs at the moment and for the foreseeable future, will read all the t&c on the £100 back and make the decision, nevere realised what a minefield this was!