I'm amazed at this saving

jennyjelly

After meaning to get round to it for ages I finally checked out the energy comparison sites and made an amazing discovery. :T

By moving from British Gas (for both gas and elec) to npower for gas and Scottish Power for elec we are saving £333 per year. :beer:

We could have saved £335 but the top saver wasn't available through the comparison site and I wanted to get the cashback, so it was worth losing a couple of quid. I thought it would be cheaper to use the same company for both but it turned out not to be so. Add the cashback on top and I reckon that's a real result! :T

What had put me off for ages was the thought of wading through bills :eek: researching our consumption, but in the event I just phoned BG and asked them and they gave me the information (though the bloke's tone said "here we go, this is another one we're about to lose").

After that it was just a case of clicking the "apply" button and filling in a form, then we have to send them a meter reading when they tell us to and that's that.

If anyone has been putting off the change in the belief that it is a lot of hassle, my advice is DO IT NOW!!!!! :j

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Martin! :money:

Rex_Mundi

It's a shame you've already signed up. If you had gone through Quidco, you could have got £28 cashback for switching to Npower as well.

jennyjelly

Rex_Mundi wrote:

It's a shame you've already signed up. If you had gone through Quidco, you could have got £28 cashback for switching to Npower as well.

Aargh, and I thought I'd done so well! :eek:

I've never really got my head round the idea of Quidco, but I guess it's time to do so before the next time I switch.

Thanks for the tip, and Merry Christmas!

Cardew

£333 pa is a big saving. You presumably use about double the national average of Gas & Electricity?

Is that a calculation based on what you currently pay by DD (and future DD payments) or estimated annual savings on the kWh used last year?

Could you please give some detail. Annual kWh for Gas & Electricity and the price per kWh BG charge and yournew suppliers charges.

jennyjelly

Cardew wrote:

£333 pa is a big saving. You presumably use about double the national average of Gas & Electricity?

Is that a calculation based on what you currently pay by DD (and future DD payments) or estimated annual savings on the kWh used last year?

Could you please give some detail. Annual kWh for Gas & Electricity and the price per kWh BG charge and yournew suppliers charges.

I'm not sure what the price per kwh is from either my old or new supplier - I asked BG to tell me my annual consumption (gas 25940kwh and elec 6338 kwh Jul 2005-Jul 2006) and put these figures into 2 of the tprice comparison program with MSE links. The saving is therefore calculation by the program based on our usage and the prices in its database.

The one I've taken is marginally cheaper than the other.

It's funny you should say we're using double the average - when I gasped at the gas figure the chap said it was about 25% over average, so I'm not sure quite what to think now. We have a larger than average 1930s 4 bed semi (one of the bedrooms being in a loft conversion), and use gas for heating and hot water (we have a combi boiler) and all our cooking.

Maybe we should ask to have our meter checked in case it's recording too much?

Cardew

jenny,
I didn't say you were using double the average. I suggested for those savings you would need to be using double the average; a subtle difference.

The average consumption is supposed to be 20,500kWh for gas and 3,300kWh for electricity. Although some organisations give different figures they are mainly in that region.

Comparing the cost using kWh prices and discounts from BG using your figures(25,940/6338kWh) (for Standard Dual Fuel payment by Direct Debit) with any supplier I can get nowhere near the savings you claim. Without knowing your area I used my postcode.

Even with the impending price rise for BG's Click Energy tariff, your savings are even less.

I have zero confidence in any of the Comparison sites, as their only aim is to get you swop supplier so they get their commission.

The only way to ensure you know the estimated savings is to look at the tariff price for gas/electricity in kWh and the various discounts.

Whilst you will undoubtedly make savings by switching from BG, I would be very surprised if you can save £330+ on your consumption.

jem16

Cardew wrote:

jenny,

Comparing the cost using kWh prices and discounts from BG using your figures(25,940/6338kWh) (for Standard Dual Fuel payment by Direct Debit) with any supplier I can get nowhere near the savings you claim. Without knowing your area I used my postcode.


Whilst you will undoubtedly make savings by switching from BG, I would be very surprised if you can save £330+ on your consumption.

I used a Godalming postcode (no point in using mine for Scottish Power as it's my local supplier) and got savings of £132 for gas and £180 for electricity - total £312. So it's obviously possible.

Cardew

jem16 wrote:

I used a Godalming postcode (no point in using mine for Scottish Power as it's my local supplier) and got savings of £132 for gas and £180 for electricity - total £312. So it's obviously possible.

Using my postcode(Midlands) I can't those savings on Uswitch or Energy Helpline.

Did you try using their kWh prices and taking off the BG dual fuel discounts? As I said I have little confidence in the accuracy of any of the comparison websites.

tripled

Using theenergyshop offers savings of £197.32 on gas (ebico) and £153.61 on leccy (ecotricity), based on paying by quarterly bill in my region.

However assuming I was on click energy with BG the saving more than halves to £158.66 dual fuel (Npower sign online).

*Edit: Just tried with a Birmingham postcode and got a fairly similar result, except for the second comparison Scottish Power becomes the cheapest with a saving of £132.46.

jem16

Cardew wrote:

Using my postcode(Midlands) I can't those savings on Uswitch or Energy Helpline.

Did you try using their kWh prices and taking off the BG dual fuel discounts? As I said I have little confidence in the accuracy of any of the comparison websites.

I didn't work it out manually. However I did try Energyhelpline, Uswitch and UK Power. All gave exactly the same savings, give or take a few pence.

Here's the comparison from energyhelpline if you want to work it out manually.

Energyhelpline quote

jennyjelly

I didn't realise there was a variation between postcodes - thought they just asked that as part of their market research!

My postcode is BS23 4YD, so feel free to have a go. I've just done it again and it's given me exactly the same figures as first time. I used energyhelpline and put in the figures I've already given, and that I pay monthly by direct debit and will continue to do so.

First I tried asking for one company supplying both gas and electricity, and this came out at a saving of £304 with n-power Sign On-line 7. Then I tried doing gas and electricity separately and they came out at savings of £132 for gas (with npower sign on-line 7) and £201 for electricity with Scottish Power Online (no standing charge).

Cardew, I'm a bit worried that you don't trust the comparison sites. Surely they can only use the prices that apply? I don't see how they can spin a result on that basis, but I'd be interested to know why you think otherwise. I'm not saying I would dismiss your scepticism, but I would like to understand it.

Annoyingly, today I had a mail shot in the post from npower offering £60 in M&S vouchers if you sign up. Timing really doesn't seem to be my strong point does it?