Switching electricity suppliers, as well as meter type

NoisyNoise

1. Cheapest/quickest way of switching from a prepayment meter to a normal meter?

When I moved into my flat a year ago (electricity only, no gas), it had an Economy 7 pre-payment key meter. I would've preferred a standard meter to receive regular bills, but upon calling up the property's current electricity supplier (Eon), I was told that they'd charge to replace the meter until I'd been with them a year. Surprisingly, the Eon guy on the phone said that I could switch to another supplier that would be able to immediately replace the meter at no charge! But because of the other hassles involved in moving into my first place of my own, and because I was assured by someone that pre-payment meter costs are supposed to be the same as those paid through normal meters (no idea where they got that idea from!), I just stuck with the meter and supplier that were already there.

Foolish!

A year later, with most of the winter over, I've finally got round to comparing different suppliers' tariffs, and the differences between meter types.* And yes, it turns out that they're quite big - and right now Eon are one of the most expensive!

So I called up Eon about getting the meter changed to a standard type - and they said that after a credit check, they could do it at no charge in 10 days. However, that would immediately put me onto one of their tariffs with a 12-month contract, so I'd then be charged £10 if I switched supplier straight away. I wanted to try and avoid that charge.

I compared the Economy 7 tarriffs of a number of different suppliers,* and it seemed that EDF's Blue Price Promise would be one of the cheapest, based on my recent winter electricity usage. (Well, second-cheapest after Spark Energy, who don't seem to have a good reputation, based on Googling some anecdotal evidence.) However, it seems like Ebico would be cheapest during the summer, because they have a high night usage price but no daily standing charge where I live.

Here's a comparison of the figures I found:

Supplier                             - Daily standing charge - Day rate - Night rate (p/kWh, inc VAT)

Current EON prepayment meter tarriff - 27.395 - 16.748 - 6.783 
EDF (prepayment, standard/variable)  - 18.9   - 17.241 - 6.237
EDF (Blue+Price Promise)             - 18.9   - 15.95  - 5.92
Ebico                                -    0   - 19.215 - 7.308

(British Gas, Scottish, Ecotricity and Co-Operative all worked out more expensive than EDF).


Turns out that the process of switching to a standard meter supplied by EDF, while also avoiding Eon's £10 charge, takes longer than I thought:

- First: switch to EDF prepaymenet meter (3-5 weeks).
- After I've been with EDF for 28 days, initiate the process of getting a standard meter installed...
- ... which would take up to around nine weeks!

Does anyone know if there is a quicker way of getting the meter switched over, and still ending up on EDF's Blue+Price Promise tarriff?







2. Different suppliers for winter and summer?

So I have found that EDF is the cheapest supplier during winter, when the daily standing charges less significant than the cost of nightly heating. However, in summer the daily standing charges will be bigger in proportion to the costs of total day/night usage, and at that time Ebico work out the cheapest because they don't have standing charges.

Because of that, a thought came to mind: after I've got the standard meter, from next year I could switch supplier every spring and autumn, depending on who'll be cheapest in winter or summer! Might be awkward, but potentially feasible, if I planned ahead to allow for the changeover periods of up to 5 weeks...

Has anyone here found it worthwhile to use different suppliers in summer and winter for that reason?



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* Annoyingly, they don't make it easy to do this. I just wanted to visit each supplier's site and see a nice simple chart listing the exact figures (for standing charge, day price/kWh, night price/kWh) for each of their tariffs, for each of their meter types. But few of them do that - most of them only let you look at one tarriff/meter type combination at a time, by making you go through their full automated "get a quote" forms for each one. The raw price per kWh rates get hidden away...

macman

PPM's cost the same as the supplier's Standard tariff. But obviously more than their online discount tariffs.
Many people have come up with the summer/winter shuffle idea. The catch is that the competitive tariffs generally (not always) have minimum terms that will go beyond the 6 monthly switch interval. So to do a twice yearly switch without paying ETC's, you would probably be back on Standard tariff, which would wipe out any savings.
So you'd be dependent on switching between competitive tariffs that do not have ETC's.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi NoisyNoise

We altered our policy regarding changing prepayment meters to credit meters towards the back end of last year.

Now, subject to a credit check, no debt and the customer agreeing to a payment arrangement for future usage, we'll change the meter without charging.

As macman says, unit prices on our standard credit tariff are virtually the same as prepayment. However, with prepayment, you don't benefit from certain discounts and rewards.

If you change the meter, you don't have to go on to a tariff with tie-ins.

Our standard credit tariff is available and this doesn't have a cancellation fee if you then change supplier. Probably not as competitive as other tariffs but, with no cancellation fee, it may be what you're looking for whilst you change supplier.

Hope this is of interest. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc