Change your fixed deal now

Mirador

Our fixed deal ran until August 2015. However a quick look on USwitch showed that we could save £280 per year if we switched to one of the newer lower cost deals. So even paying the £60 exit fees we would still show a saving.

A call to our current energy provider and provided we took out a fixed deal with them for a longer period, in this case March 2016, there were no switching fees. Plus the new rates are applied from Feb 1st so saving money straight away rather than waiting 4-6 weeks for a switch.

Net result £270 saved in one phone call.

System

Out-of-Interest, which supplier?

[Deleted User]

British Gas have stuck a whopping £60 (joint account )exit fee on my friends standard tariff change to a " fix and fall" tariff which was only fractions lower. What a con that is. Not even a competitive tariff. I will try and get her to do what the OP did and suffer the loss of the £60

energyworker

Worth noting that the savings you will have been quoted will be very skewed as Ofgem requires companies to quote on the basis that once your current tariff expires you will move on to the variable tariff which is by far the most expensive. Therefore you will have been quoted base on a comparison of your new tariff versus seven months of your current tariff and five months of the most expensive.

That said if the unit rates have fallen you are still winning.

matelodave

I was going to say the same as energyworker - the savings calculation is overly optimistic and will only be valid if you allow your present tariff to roll over onto your suppliers standard variable tariff. So don't expect your direct debit to plummet. In realty you are probably only saving £20 or £30 but as you say that starts on 1st Feb.

When I do a comparison I can "save" a whopping £518 based on my tariff which ends in April and then rolls over.

In reality the saving is about £14 plus a £30 early termination fee so it will actually cost me about £12 extra. I'm staying put to see how much further the prices drop between now and March/April when I can swap without penalty.

AndyPK

If you use this site, (if you set it correctly) it doesn't assume you will go onto a standard tariff

http://www.energyhelpline.com/

Mirador

Hengus wrote: »

Out-of-Interest, which supplier?

First Utility.

Mirador

energyworker wrote: »

Worth noting that the savings you will have been quoted will be very skewed as Ofgem requires companies to quote on the basis that once your current tariff expires you will move on to the variable tariff which is by far the most expensive. Therefore you will have been quoted base on a comparison of your new tariff versus seven months of your current tariff and five months of the most expensive.

That said if the unit rates have fallen you are still winning.

The units rates for both gas and electricity are lower, difficult to see that that won't lead to a saving. That is the only important figure. A saving is a saving however big or small.

Mirador

matelodave wrote: »

I was going to say the same as energyworker - the savings calculation is overly optimistic and will only be valid if you allow your present tariff to roll over onto your suppliers standard variable tariff. So don't expect your direct debit to plummet. In realty you are probably only saving £20 or £30 but as you say that starts on 1st Feb.

When I do a comparison I can "save" a whopping £518 based on my tariff which ends in April and then rolls over.

In reality the saving is about £14 plus a £30 early termination fee so it will actually cost me about £12 extra. I'm staying put to see how much further the prices drop between now and March/April when I can swap without penalty.

The reason I posted was because people believe that they are tied in to a fixed deal until it ends and as my experience shows, that may not be the case.

energyworker

Mirador wrote: »

The units rates for both gas and electricity are lower, difficult to see that that won't lead to a saving. That is the only important figure. A saving is a saving however big or small.

I know, I was just highlighting because probably 75% of customers don't realise that those headline "save £300+" prices are very skewed.

molerat

AndyPK wrote: »

If you use this site, (if you set it correctly) it doesn't assume you will go onto a standard tariff

http://www.energyhelpline.com/

This, you can set it to show the real savings unlike CEC.