Gas/electricity contracts

grhmb

Hi there,

I am a student and I've just moved into a new house on a short-term rental agreement, which expires in September. I'm hoping I'll be able to stay on longer, but this is probably unlikely and I may have to move again to somewhere new.

I've been looking at gas and electricity suppliers and I wanted to use uSwitch to change from British Gas, who are currently/were previously supplying the property, to nPower, which seems considerably cheaper. However, all of the options presented on uSwitch have contract lengths with hefty cancellation fees if I cancel.

I therefore have two questions:

1) If I move out in September and the next tenants don't switch from nPower, do I still have to pay the cancellation fee given that nPower would still be supplying the property?

2) If I move out in September and stay in private accommodation (i.e. move to another flat) can I take my nPower contract with me and thus avoid any fees?

This is the first time I've lived privately in the UK and had to deal with gas and electricity suppliers. I'm therefore not really sure what my best options are and any advice from expert money-savers would be much appreciated!

Joyful

Most termination fees from companies are not applied if you move home, only if you move suppliers. Check with the company for confirmation of this though.

macman

It's irrelevant who the new tenants use, the contract is with you, not with the property. You move out, your contract ends-they begin their own.

DVardysShadow

I am assuming uswitch gets a kickback if you sign up through them. So for your situation, they are probably a waste of time because you will only be offered the deals which have contract termination charges. Try looking through the suppliers directly for no tie in deals

Premier_2

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I am assuming uswitch gets a kickback if you sign up through them. So for your situation, they are probably a waste of time because you will only be offered the deals which have contract termination charges. Try looking through the suppliers directly for no tie in deals

That's not the way comparsion sites work. Most suppliers will pay referral fees (and hence the comparison site will allow a switch) whether or not there are any early exit fees.

Comparison sites should be listing all generally available tariffs anyway, even if they will not allow you to switch to them through the comparison site. So do start first with the comparison site.
(If you want cashback, you can often get more from a cashback site than through the comparison site, but that's a whole different debate. Martin says don't base your decision on cashback anyway as it's not guaranteed until it's in your bank account)