New home owners and no idea!!!

Rob_Mogs

Hi Folks,
As the title suggests we are new homeowners and neither of us have had to live off our own back before.

I'm previously ex armed forces and never had to worry about energy bills etc and she's always lived with family.

I have a couple of questions.

Firstly whats the best way to go about finding the best suppliers/tariffs.

Secondly how do we go about changing from the suppliers that we are currently connected to at the house?

It may sound daft but we honestly don't know and dont wat to make a hash of it.

We have a water meter and are currently with Severn Trent Water - which I'm unsire we can swap due to the area.

And we have mains gas.

Cheers folks.

FreddieFrugal

Well we got our first house last year.

We were with Npower at our rented house on a fixed deal. The new house was with British Gas on standard tariff.

We called npower and asked them to transfer our account to the new house.

Electricity, great, sorted in 2 weeks.

Gas never happened, despite many attempts to call and find out what was happening.

In the end I used a comparison site to find the cheapest deal, (moneysupermarket) you can apply for switch through the site. It happened quickly. This time it worked, they switched electricity from Npower and gas from British Gas to one company Eon (cheapest deal at the time) sorted within a couple weeks.

Npower refunded us through direct debit as we had been in credit at the time of the switch.

British Gas sent us final bill through post for the amount we still owed.

Then that was that.


So my advice is use a price comparison site, put in your details, choose preferred payment method (as in monthly direct debit etc) follow through to applying for the best deal. New company should sort it all out. You supply your meter readings at time of switch. The company currently supplying your house will send you a final bill to pay to settle the account based in that last meter reading. Then you should be set up with your new supplier.

I think, at least in our case, your water supplier IS your water supplier, you just have to phone them and tell them you've recently moved in so they can set up a proper account in your name with direct debit and take starting meter reading from you.

JJ_Egan

Water supply is not swappable .
You are in contract on a deemed supply at the standard rate . Move asap using a comparison web site like MSE Energy Club . Use average consumption .
Key is the unit tariff cost and standing charge . Your first years direct debit will be an estimate and may go up or down depending upon usage .

modsandmockers

Rob - it’s good that you are asking these questions sooner rather than later! The first thing you have to do (hopefully you have already done it) is to take meter readings and contact the current suppliers in order to get your own name put onto the accounts. Until you have ‘signed on’ with the existing supplier(s), you will be unable to switch to another (and, as you say, in the case of the water supply switching is probably not an option at all).

When you sign on with the existing energy supplier(s) they will almost certainly put you on to their most expensive ‘standard variable’ tariff and you can be sure that there will be cheaper alternatives available. Unfortunately, you have no history of previous consumption levels on which to base your decision about which tariff is, right now, the best for you to choose. The other thing to consider about the cheaper ‘fixed’ tariffs is that they have an ‘end date’ - although the prices will be fixed until the end date arrives, you will probably have to pay an exit fee if you find a better tariff and want to switch again before the end date arrives. If I were you, I would probably ask the existing supplier to put me on to the shortest-term fixed tariff which they are currently offering so that I would have a chance to make a better-informed decision later on.

Whatever tariff you end up on, the most common arrangement is to pay by ‘fixed’ monthly direct debit but it frequently ends in tears! The energy suppliers will tell you that they will take on the job of making sure that your monthly payment amount is a reasonable calculation based on dividing your estimated annual consumption into 12 equal instalments. What they don’t tell you is they only physically read the meters every couple of years and that their ‘reasonable’ calculations are no better than guesswork. It is vital that you submit regular monthly meter readings to the supplier and then, when the bills arrive (usually quarterly), you check them carefully to make sure that the bills are based upon your own ‘actual’ readings rather than the energy suppliers ‘estimated’ readings. You also need to make sure that you understand the prices on your ‘Tariff Information Label’ so that you can convert your own monthly meter readings into pounds and pence.

This forum is regularly bombarded by questions from people who are suddenly confronted with demands for large sums of money because they didn’t understand the importance of monitoring their own energy costs. The first year will be a bit ‘hit and miss’ but a pattern will emerge and you should at least not be taken by surprise.

Rob_Mogs

meter reading were taken the day we got the keys so no worry there.

Just unsure how to progress and such with choosing the right deals and right suppliers.

Unsure whether go go spearate gas and electric companies or combine them etc.

Current suppliers for both are 'Southern Electric'

modsandmockers

Rob_Mogs wrote: »

meter reading were taken the day we got the keys so no worry there.

Just unsure how to progress and such with choosing the right deals and right suppliers.

Unsure whether go go spearate gas and electric companies or combine them etc.

Current suppliers for both are 'Southern Electric'

The problem for you is that the comparison sites ask you to tell them about your annual energy consumption. In the absence of any useful answer, they will use the national average for your type of circumstances. More quesswork!

Consumerist

Ofgem's typical medium-user consumption figures are:

Gas: 12,500 kWh per year
Electricity: 3,100 kWh per year

You could use these consumption figures to get yourself started and then read your meters at monthly intervals to keep an eye on your actual consumption. With winter approaching you should expect relatively high consumption to start with so you are likely to have a debit account balance by next spring.

Frankly, it's always difficult to know how energy bills will pan out until you have at least a year's consumption to look back on. But you've got to start somewhere.

lstar337

Rob, you should be able to find a guesstimate of the houses energy needs on the EPC you got when you bought it. This should be closer than using Ofgem's typical values.

Good luck with your new property.