Jumping in blind ?

plipplop

Hi all,
I've just moved into my first home alone. A small 1 bedroomed flat energy supply is all electric. With not having previous bills to compere I'm not sure who will be the cheapest supplier. Is there a company who have deals for low users or first time home owners/tenants.
How do I go about finding a supplier who's not going to rip me off?

macman

Simply use a comp site with your estimated kWh figures. Put in any tariff as your current one, it doesn't matter for the purpose of getting the comparative data.
No, no discount for first time owners/tenants! And how do you know that you are a low user if you have no bills? All your heating and hot water will be via electricity, so you won't be a low user. Do you have E7? If not, it's going to be expensive.
PS: you are already in a deemed contract with the existing supplier, you can't switch until you have registered with them for an account and submitted opening readings. Once that's done you can commence a switch if you wish.

Atidi

plipplop wrote: »

Hi all,
I've just moved into my first home alone. A small 1 bedroomed flat energy supply is all electric. With not having previous bills to compere I'm not sure who will be the cheapest supplier. Is there a company who have deals for low users or first time home owners/tenants.
How do I go about finding a supplier who's not going to rip me off?

As macman says, use a comparison site.

Comparison sites offer you alternative options if you don't know what your anticipated annual consumption is likely to be, but the results are not likely to be as accurate as knowing what your annual consumption in kWh is likely to be.

So keep an eye on your usage, and if it does appear to vary significantly from that assumed, be prepared to ditch and switch again once you have a better idea of your anticipated annual usage in kWh

dogshome

As already posted, you have to register with the flat's existing supplier and give them the meter readings on the day you move in.- If you haven't already done this DO IT NOW

As soon as you recieve their aknowledgement 'Welcome Pack', you are free to Switch suppliers - The problem is that to get comparitive prices from a Switch Site, you need to enter your Annual consumption figure, which you won't know.

So when registering with the present supplier, ask them what the previous years consumption was for that flat - They don't have to tell you, but usually will as it's in their own interests that you budget for their bills

Be aware that as a new customer the present supplier will default you onto thier 'Standard' ie most expensive tariff, so the more quickly you can visit the Switch sites, the better

yangptangkipperbang

dogshome wrote: »

So when registering with the present supplier, ask them what the previous years consumption was for that flat - They don't have to tell you, but usually will as it's in their own interests that you budget for their bills

That really doesn't help much ! The previous tenant might have been an [STRIKE]Eskimo[/STRIKE] Inuit............or someone from the Sahara

I moved into an all electric apartment in mid Feb. Some days I had the heating up high, others it was off; daily meter readings gave me a good idea of what my annual consumption would be. Much more accurate way.
I changed to a different supplier 10 days ago.

Wywth

plipplop wrote: »

Hi all,
I've just moved into my first home alone. A small 1 bedroomed flat energy supply is all electric. With not having previous bills to compere I'm not sure who will be the cheapest supplier. Is there a company who have deals for low users or first time home owners/tenants.
How do I go about finding a supplier who's not going to rip me off?

There is no one supplier/tariff that is best for low users and/or first time home owners tenants.

Use a comparison site to find the best deal for you. Comparison sites usually have an indication of customer satisfaction for each supplier too.

Choosing a supplier that subscribes to the energy ombudsman scheme gives you an extra level of protection against being ripped off. All the 'big 6' suppliers are subscribing members, but not all the smaller suppliers are, so maybe something to check on if the comparison site recommends a smaller supplier.

DragonQ

First of all, move to the best tariff of your current supplier (usually ones with direct debit and online discounts will be cheaper than the standard one). When I first moved in I simply used the first few months' usage, extrapolated over a year and then used that kWh/year figure on a comparison website.

This is a lot easier for electricity if you have gas central heating though. Since you only have electric heating (presumably storage heaters), you're probably going to want an Economy 7 tariff and won't really know how many kWh you're going to use until you've had at least one winter month.

Maybe it's worth switching to a low-user tariff now (use the first month as an estimate, multiply by 12 for a yearly figure) then switch again once you've had 1-2 winter months to see how much you're probably going to use over a year.

catwoman73

The comparison site https://www.energyhelpline.com asks questions about how many people live in the property, whether they are at home in the day and how many rooms, type of heating and insulation to estimate the annual supply.

This will be helpful in picking the cheapest supplier, you can then go with them and then keep an eye on things.