Summer suppliers and winter suppliers

pakman

When working out who is best / cheapest for your usage does anyone consider using a Summer supplier when usage is low.
(i.e that offers no standing charge, but higher kWh rate. )

Then a Winter supplier when usage is high,
(i.e standing charge but rock bottom kWh rates)

???

It was when reading the last article in Atlantic topic that someone worked out that Seeboard was cheaper than Atlantic on their last (summer) bill.

Pak

Compound_2

Does anyone know of pitfalls doing this regarding discounts, e.g., Powergen now and Scottish Power in six months? Is checking the competition every six months encouraged, like with savings accounts? It's hardly MoneySaving to do a comparison once and switch forever.

pak2

The six week processing time is the bigest problem.

But as you will find i mentioned B4, some suppliers/agents will pay you to join them.

The point of this topic was that some suppliers would be perfect during the summer, whilst making you worse off in the winter.

Why not pick the best for summer low usage, then the best for winter high usage

Pak

loon_2

Why not simply opt for a capped price tariff?

Compound_2

I was wondering whether you would lose the direct debit and dual fuel discounts. Are they calculated annually?

loon_2

no. with capped tariff all discounts still apply. most companies discount quarterly, when the bills are sent, with the exception of npower who discount £50 annually. Quite a few people signed up to npower with the promise of this cashback, but were unfortunately disappointed. npower tend to set the dd lower than the current and then increase it drastically after about six months. the customer then has to pay the much higher dd or forfeit the £50.

dag_2

I might be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that gas and electricity suppliers tend to change their prices in April and October. So, the end of April and October are good times to check who the cheapest suppliers are.

pak2

i would say that could be true, but being that British gas and others have announced their main price rises outside of these times it is not gospel.

With changes to the world prices there is little certaintity anymore.

Pak