Advice please?

littleangels3

Hi i was wondered whether to fix my price at £78 a month for the year or do i wait & see if it will drop when they lower prices in feb, i rent so its not an option to switch suppliers as its stated in my contract, would appreciate some advice thanks xx

CashStrapped

Are you directly paying for your energy use, are the bills in your name?

What exactly does in say on your tenancy agreement, doe sit mention a "default supplier" or "tie-in" agreement?

When you say "fix to 78 per month", it sounds like you are talking about a direct debit amount. You need to ignore the amount you pay as a direct debit as it is misleading.

The direct debit amount is just a figure your energy company thinks will cover the cost of your energy use on average for the year. It can go up if the energy company thinks it needs to and down if you think it is too high.

What you need to focus on is what you actually use in KWH and what the cost of each KWH of energy you use.

The cost of each KWH you use will be on your bill. You need to look at the tariff you are on and the cost in pence per KWH.

For example Gas may be 3p per KWH and Electric around 13p per KWH.

To compare tariffs you need to find out what you use over the course of a year in KWH. Then use these figures to compare tariffs.

Whilst you may not be able to change supplier, Your extisting supplier may have many different tariffs avaliable. Some may be cheaper than the one you are on.

littleangels3

My bill is with british gas & it was high about £1200 i had to go into hospital & the kids didn't know it was on constant im not back on my feet yet & it was a few weeks before i realized stupid i know so yes the cheapers option they are giving me is £78 dd a month, i just dont know whether to fix price or not or if i wait til price drop in feb? X

System

Choose the lowest fixed tariff based on your projected annual consumption for gas and electricity (in kWhs), and switch now. Choose a tariff with no or low exit fees (E.oN v15 for example) and you can switch immediately if energy costs fall further. Switching out of E.on would cost you £10. Beware: some of the smaller energy companies have exit fees of £30 a fuel. Switches now go through in 17 days. Use MSE CEC and you could get £30 cashback.

CashStrapped

Again, you need to ignore what british gas are telling you with regard to the DD amount. Fixing to a £78 a month DD means nothing.

You need to find out what you use in KWH. To do this you need to look at your bill and work out your yearly usage in KWH.

Do you know how to work out/calculate your yearly usage in KWH?

Enter those yearly KWH usage figures into a comparison site.

You will then get a list of all the tariffs you can switch to.

You will probably find a tariff that is much cheaper that British Gas.

In fact, I just checked, and even with the cheapest British Gas Fix Offer I have found another tariff with another company which is over £300 cheaper!! This was based on an average household consumption for the UK.

If you are really stuck with one supplier, you could at least make the agent/landlord aware of the price difference and see what they say.