Time to switch?

TheGoober87

I moved into my first property in January this year. I only realised the day we moved in that the place had pay as you go meters, which I didn't want. I rang up nPower who supplied the house at the time, and they wanted £150 do exchange both boilers!

Sod that. Rang British Gas and they said they'd do it for free. Happy days, and we're now with British Gas.

I thought I'd try out the Cheap Energy Club, and according to this I can actually save about £7 a month by joining a fixed rate until 2015. This is with nPower though!

First question is will I be tied into anything because British Gas have done this for me. I don't remember them saying anything about it when it was done, but is there any way to check?

Secondly should I go for it? I put in my usage figures and it said the cost on my current tariff should be around £36 a month for both, whereas I pay £52. Saying that I am about £50 in credit on Gas but that was going to be used during the winter! What do you think? Seems a bit too good to be true to save money and have it fixed until 2015!

matelodave

Check which tariff you are on with BG (have a look at the bill and any letters/docs that you've got) - there's a better than even chance that they've just put you on their standard tariff, which isn't all that cheap.

Have you been reading the meters (it should be easy if it started from zero) to see what you are using and recording it. If you are using the comparison sites and just using your payments as a guide they can be wildly inaccurate - you must use Kw/h to get a more accurate estimate. By now you should have about six months worth of readings, which if doubled would give you a rough idea of how much it would cost for a year (hopefully next winter wont be as long or as cold)

Use the Kw figures to compare and home in on the two best deals and then do your own sums (kw x tariff+standing charge, VAT etc) to work it out yourself - just to make sure, especially if there are incentives, penalties and end of deal discounts to be taken into account. You can then work out for yourself roughly what your monthly payments should be and tell them.

You should also read & record the meter regularly, give them a reading once a month and you can monitor & control your own usage and make sure your bills actually reflect what you are using - you can also find ways save energy if you find that you are using a lot more than your own estimate.

Now is a good time to swap as you'll get three months of summer use and get a bit of credit under your belt ready for the winter when you'll use more

TheGoober87

I'm on their clear and simple plan. I have to give my readings every month on it anyway so I can check online and I've put in the amount of used from the website into the comparison site.

I've got 3 full months of readings. It took a few weeks to join British Gas and for them to set my account up before I could switch, then another few weeks to get an engineer out.

To be honest the bills aren't massively big at the moment. When I did all my budgets before we moved in I actually budgeted about £100 for gas and electric and it's half that at the mo. I just thought if I could get a fixed rate at a decent price I'd go for it, as no doubt they will be going up quite a bit?

TheGoober87

Looking at the comparison it does say that "Note: The annual saving includes a direct debit discount if you stay with Npower for a year. From August, Npower will pay it daily rather than in one go – so this shouldn’t affect your decision to switch to it."

The annual saving is £11, and the discount is £100, so If you take out the discount it makes it £89 more expensive. I don't understand how it works? Obviously if the price is fixed I'm going to stay there. Does that mean I'll pay slightly more per month, but end up with £100 at the end of the year? Or does it not kick in until I've been there a year, then you get the discount?

Wywth

ADChick wrote: »

I moved into my first property in January this year. I only realised the day we moved in that the place had pay as you go meters, which I didn't want. I rang up nPower who supplied the house at the time, and they wanted £150 do exchange both boilers!

Surely some mistake.

According to this MSE article, it should only be £60 per meter.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/switch-prepaid-gas-electricity#freecreditmeter

(My understanding is it's free if you have moved from a previous home and your account was based on a credit meter there - perhaps other reasons for a free meter also apply?)

ADChick wrote: »

Sod that. Rang British Gas and they said they'd do it for free. Happy days, and we're now with British Gas.

I thought I'd try out the Cheap Energy Club, and according to this I can actually save about £7 a month by joining a fixed rate until 2015. This is with nPower though!

First question is will I be tied into anything because British Gas have done this for me. I don't remember them saying anything about it when it was done, but is there any way to check?

It depends on what tariff you agreed with BG.
Your BG bill will state what tariff you are on.
Check on the BG website the terms (or check on a comparison site if any early exit fees apply to that tariff)

ADChick wrote: »

Secondly should I go for it? I put in my usage figures and it said the cost on my current tariff should be around £36 a month for both, whereas I pay £52. Saying that I am about £50 in credit on Gas but that was going to be used during the winter! What do you think? Seems a bit too good to be true to save money and have it fixed until 2015!

Are you inputting your anticipated annual usage in kWh?
What is the annual cost of that consumption with your current BG tariff (NOT 12 x monthly DD payment), and what is annual cost with the nPower tariff of your choice for that anticipated annual usage?

Wywth

ADChick wrote: »

Looking at the comparison it does say that "Note: The annual saving includes a direct debit discount if you stay with Npower for a year. From August, Npower will pay it daily rather than in one go – so this shouldn’t affect your decision to switch to it."

The annual saving is £11, and the discount is £100, so If you take out the discount it makes it £89 more expensive. I don't understand how it works? Obviously if the price is fixed I'm going to stay there. Does that mean I'll pay slightly more per month, but end up with £100 at the end of the year? Or does it not kick in until I've been there a year, then you get the discount?

The nPower rep has previously said that with the DD discount paid on/after the 12th monthly anniversary, the monthly DD payments are set taking into account this anticipated rebate.
If they are going to pay it daily in future, you've nothing to worry about anyway.

TheGoober87

£150 was a bit of a guess, I couldn't remember the exact figure but £120 sounds about right. This is my first home, I did ask as my parents were with them but said I was a new customer. I'm just on the BG clear and simple with energy smart. I reckon they might charge me for my smart meter as I've only had it a couple of weeks, but I don't see anything about exit fees.

I have been putting in my annual usage in. I've took an average of the last 3 months for electric, for gas I've worked out so that I should build up enough credit over the warmer months to pay for the winter.

The Npower one still looks the best. The total bill varies from their site to the comparison site, but both are cheaper than what I'm paying now, plus the fact it's fixed til Feb 2015.

And I get £30 cashback and a free night in a hotel, whatever that is all about!

Would you recommend going for it? I'm leaning towards yes.

matelodave

If you get £100 rebate for staying with them for a year and you leave within the year then you wont get the rebate (it's conditional on you staying for the year).

I'd guess that if they started paying the rebate on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis and then you leave within the year they will recover it by adding what they've paid you to the final bill - they'll get it back somehow.

That what makes comparing suppliers such sport. You've got to keep a very close eye on the terms & conditions which you don't see on the comparison sites. You should always have a look at the suppliers' website to make sure that you understand their T&C's for the tariff that you've chosen even if you sign up via a comparison site to get the other freebies as well.

TheGoober87

That's why I thought I'd post on here to make sure. I can't see me leaving in a year if it's fixed for that year, I'm guessing prices are only gonna go one way!

I've just thought, I do get a small (I think 4%) discount on my current bill that the site may not have taken into account. Even if I end up paying slightly more, do you think it would be worth it in the long run to fix it?

matelodave

There's a good chance that electricity will go up in the autumn (so you pay even more when you use more) so it helps if you know you've frozen your tariff and you've got a bit of stability for the duration of the fix.

I've been fixing now for the past 7-8 years and am on my fourth different supplier in the last three - it's a bit of a faff, doing the comparisons but it's worth it to keep the costs down.

I have a check every 2-3 months,at present we are only paying 10.7p a unit (including standing charges) by keeping on top of it. We are all electric, heating, lighting, cooking washing etc and we are both at home all day and I'm paying just over £900 for 8500kw.

The cheapest I can find at the moment is £87 a year more expensive but, as my deal runs out in November and there aren't any exit penalties, I'm looking now at what's going to be good for my next fix. I'm holding my nerve and hoping there aren't any big price increases before I jump - my target is to try and stay below £950 next time even if it means turning stuff off