Supplier switching advice required

Chrisblue1962

Hi all,

I am looking to switch from my current dual fuel supplier, Scottish Power, to alternative suppliers soon.

My last quarterly bill was for quarter ending 27/05/2014 so I'm expecting my next bill to be for quarter ending 27/08/2014.

Do I have any say to what the actual changeover to the new provider will be? i.e. from after 27/08/2014 or can I actually switch provider before 27/08/2014?

matelodave

You can initiate the switch whenever you like but you can't specify on which day it will happen so you have to be careful if you are on a fixed tariff with a termination fee.

The average time at the moment is about 4-6 weeks after you've applied to your new supplier

The optimum time to do it is about three weeks before you want it to happen, you have a two week cooling off period before the suppliers start talking to each other and depending how organised they are the switchover can take another 1-3 weeks.
It is supposed to be reducing to about 2-3 weeks (including your 2 week cooling off period) by the end of the year

Chrisblue1962

Thanks Matelodave.

I'll work on 4-6 weeks timescale and take it from there. Many thanks.

keith1950

Do I have any say to what the actual changeover to the new provider will be? i.e. from after 27/08/2014 or can I actually switch provider before 27/08/2014?

As matelodave pointed out , if you are not on a fixed tariff with a termination fee you can switch whenever you want.

However if you are subject to exit fees then don't switch until inside the last 3 weeks of the tariff. I mention this because my fastest switch did indeed take only 3 weeks to complete.