First time switching! Any advice or tips?

BlueSkiesandClouds

Hi everyone

As per the title really, I am helping my Mum out and have been made a 'decision maker' on her gas and electricity supplier accounts so I can help her reduce her spend.

She's 'old school' and wouldn't pay by direct debit or use an online service so I think she's been paying massively over the odds...that's going to change!

So far I have changed the payment methods to direct debit on each of the accounts and signed up online for paperless billing.

I've never switched suppliers before so am completely green with it...currently she is on:

Gas
British Gas - gas standard tariff

Electricity
E.on - E.on EnergyPlan


Can anyone share some tips with me as to what I need to do to find a better rate or supplier?

Thanks very much!

macman

Use any accredited comp site with her annual kWh usage (do not use monthly DD amounts) to find the best deal, then use a cashback site to switch.
You are right to switch her to DD, as most of the cheapest tariffs require fixed monthly DD as the payment method.
She is currently on the most expensive BG tariff (which any Standard tariff always is).
Then you just need to decide whether to use variable or go for a fix (sadly you have missed the boat on the cheap fixes now).

BlueSkiesandClouds

Thanks for the reply!

Which sites would you suggest I use?

Do you mean places like:
Money supermarket
Confused

Anywhere else you can recommend?

Do they all have different deals or are they generally about the same?

Cashback site is a really good idea, I'm already with Topcashback.

macman

Uswitch and energyhelpline are the ones I tend to use.
They don't have 'deals', they just aggregate all the supplier data. The point is to find the cheapest tariff with a comp site and then switch using your cashback site.

rogerblack

macman wrote: »

Uswitch and energyhelpline are the ones I tend to use.
They don't have 'deals', they just aggregate all the supplier data. The point is to find the cheapest tariff with a comp site and then switch using your cashback site.

http://topcashback.co.uk/ and http://quidco.com/ are the two major cashback sites in the UK.
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/gas-and-electricity/cashback/ are the current deals, for example.

Dual fuel switch to a fixed npower tarrif - over 50 quid cashback.



http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

amcg100

It is essential that you get a years worth of your mums bills and calculate how many Kilowatt hours of gas that she uses per anum, and the same for electricity. ( KWh ) .

Then use price comparison websites such as this to give an indication of the cheapest Tariffs.

When you have narrowed down to a few deals, obtain the actual price per KWh in pence for each fuel ( remember to account for any VAT ) then perform your own calculations, taking into account any incentives such as dual fuel discounts etc.

The savings shown on comparison websites usually include any incentive, which may require some performance from yourself ( such as n powers dual fuel direct debit discount which will require you to buy from them for a year first of all )

Never buy from a salesperson in a shopping mall or at your door, since they will put you on their company's most expensive ( Standard tariff ).

You may find some variances between comparison sites, since they are commercial organisations who charge varying degrees of commission to the suppliers.
Remember that fixed tariffs are normally more expensive.

One last thing - The utility warehouse discount club does not use price comparison sites, and unless your mum uses a very large amount of fuel they will without doubt be the cheapest option for her. If you go to the Utility Warehouse club site ( utilitywarehouse.org.uk/extradiscount) you will be able to get their prices.

Hope this helps and Good luck

dude89

amcg100 wrote: »

You may find some variances between comparison sites, since they are commercial organisations who charge varying degrees of commission to the suppliers.
Remember that fixed tariffs are normally more expensive.

One last thing - The utility warehouse discount club does not use price comparison sites, and unless your mum uses a very large amount of fuel they will without doubt be the cheapest option for her. If you go to the Utility Warehouse club site ( utilitywarehouse.org.uk/extradiscount) you will be able to get their prices.

Hope this helps and Good luck

Sorry but do you have any proof on either of these statements? If you use any accredited comparison website the results should be the same as long as you enter the annual kwh details and the same details.

I have Also seen utility warehouse appear on every comparison I have tried (usually not very highly - though this is just for my usage which is quite average)

The last paragraph sounds very much like a UW distributor post to me - are you sure you don't want to pm the poster to try to sign her up