What Tarriff are you looking at

northwest1965

We moved into a new house in late May and have had one bill to work from so far.

We're on the Scottish Power which ends Jan 2014. No penalties.

I have done a few comparisons with companies. The easiest way for me was too see what we would have paid on the last bill we received.

Looks like EDF Price Promise March 2015 is looking favourable

matelodave

You may only have one bill, but you do have meters which are recording your consumption, minute by minute. These, you can read yourself and work out what you are using and check what your next bill should be before it even drops through the letterbox.

Likewise, checking your own meters will allow you calculate whether your direct debit (if that's how you pay) is covering your cost. Was your last bill based on a reading or a guess (sorry, estimate)?. If it was did you correct it?

Hopefully you were using a reasonable estimate of Kw when you used the comparison site, not what you've been paying since May otherwise you could be woefully short

Don't forget you are now moving into the expensive part of the year when the heating will be on, the TV gets used more and water costs more to heat (because it's colder when it comes into the house) so you should be estimating that you will be using 2-3 times more in the winter than you did in the summer

northwest1965

It was a reading that was accurate. I didn't use a comparison site. I set up an excel spreadsheet and entered the various different tariff prices, compared the cost on that one bill. That would be OK, wouldn't it?

macman

Only if you entered all the other possible variables, not just SC's and unit rates. But why bother? The comp sites have done it all for you already. Use their database FOC, and then switch via a cashback site.
You can't pro-rata one year's billing from a single quarter, because of the huge seasonal variations in gas usage from winter to summer.