British gas prices down 17%

Gambler

jem16 wrote:

Not for me they're not.

Cheapest BG tariff for electricity would still cost me £65pa more than my EDF Online tariff.

Hi Jem, long time no see ! Hope you're doing okay. I'll be waiting for you to make your move

BexTech

jem16 wrote:

Not for me they're not.

Cheapest BG tariff for electricity would still cost me £65pa more than my EDF Online tariff.

Similar here, we'd currently be around £79 worse off switching away from EDF.

jem16

Gambler wrote:

Hi Jem, long time no see ! Hope you're doing okay. I'll be waiting for you to make your move

Hi Gambler. I'm doing fine thanks - hope you are too.

I shall be watching - but can't see anything that would tempt me so far. I'm still £155 cheaper than the best.

However if EDF didn't put their prices down too that might be a different matter.

Taffyfella

Indeed B/Gas and Scottish & Southern have anounced a price decrease
however B/G's not effective untill the 12th March.

All energy providers that have not dropped thier price may do before the above. It is just a waiting game and they should follow suit if they have any business acumen.

Just to inform you that even though B/G are having a price drop this only puts them in line pretty much with the rest of the industry due to them being byfar & beyond the most expensive for the last 18 months. Bare in mind its takes around 8 weeks to switch providers so just be patient and see what happens. My bet would be to watch EDF elec prices as these are very competitive....

Stay away or getaway from B/G. They rip off millions and inflict fuel poverty on the elderly...

Taff;)

tripled

Taffyfella - according to energywatch, British Gas' new rates are actually the cheapest for gas although they are only around average for electricity. I agree that this situation is unlikely to last though, they just seem to have caught their competitors on the back foot.

As to 'get away from BG', as you rightly stated it takes 8 weeks to change supplier. So there would be no point in signing up to, say, nPower this week, only for SSE to announce a far bigger drop in a weeks time, resulting in a delay of several months before you can access the cheapest tariff. Surely following the advice in Martin's article is the best bet.

With regards to inflicting poverty on the elderly, I think that is slightly misleading, as in the past they have delayed price increases until after the winter and given rebates to elderly customers. They also have a charity which gives grants to people struggling to pay their bills and have launched a new tariff which will give them a direct debit discount even if they pay by quarterly bill (which most do). Also there's nothing to stop the elderly or anyone else changing supplier either if they can get a better deal elsewhere.

As for 'they rip off millions', BG have been losing £100's of millions a year for the last couple of years. I wouldn't say losing money is ripping people off, just a result of incompetant management and poor purchasing desicions. Of course the exception would be their new heating systems, which are hugely expensive and very lucrative for the company.