Energy Comparison

morris1962

How accurate are the comparisons on this site, particularly the amount you can save?

My electricity bill has just shot up £64/month. According to the comparison I can same on a combined supply with my current provider to the tune of £1300/year by fixing for a year.

I don't want to fix for a year, only to find I'm no cheaper and then cant get out for a year.

I don't have my gas or electricity usage to compare with, only my monthly payments.

victor2

The "savings" quoted will in all probability have no link with reality whatsoever, especially if you only told the comparison site your monthly payments, and they've just "shot up".
To get anything like a realistic forecast of your energy costs, you need your annual usage in kWh for both gas and electricity. Your latest bill may well show this, but it is equally essential that actual and not estimated readings have been used. If you don't have these figures, but still have access to old bills about a year ago, you want to find some actual meter readings about a year apart, or around a year ago and you can use your current meter readings. Electricity meters read kWh used, but gas meters read volume, which has to be converted - again your bills should show the formula used for that.
Once you have your annual kWh usage, put those into a comparison site. Ignore the "savings" figures and look at the suggested suppliers and their estimated annual cost. That should be a realistic figure assuming your usage remains the same.

Nada666

The comparisons are accurate. There are, of course, caveats that you have to understand. The primary one is that, as you perhaps surmise, the savings figure may be odd if you are already on a fix - if your fix is due to end within twelve months then the balance of your usage will be unrealistically assumed to be on a standard tariff rather than a new fix.

As to you not having your usage, I am unsure why you are not able to take a reasonable guess - do so. If you don't want to do that then use your original instalment plus half of the £64 to estimate your ongoing usage. Look on the results page to see what that suggests as an annual usage. Round that to a memorable figure and use that as a base.

You only need a base usage to help and make it easier to compare. It is not essential - saving tens of pounds each and every month is more important than fine-tuning to save an extra tenner a year.

ETA: The other main caveat you may need to consider is that your intalment minus £32 may not be a twelfth of your annual usage - it could be weighted a bit high to cover winter. Still, your choice of a suitable tariff is unlikely to be poor - it is only for very, very low consumptions that the differences between best tariffs become critical and chaotic.

Cisco001

You can search for fix price deal with no exit fee.