Should I switch outside of the Big 6 energy companies?

Lozzieb1989

Hi everyone, I'm just after a bit of advice.

I'm currently with npower for my gas and electric. I've had no problems with them but always looking to cut this cost where I can!

Cheap Energy Club tells me my cheapest tariff would be with GB Energy Supply, and the second cheapest would be Ovo Energy. Reviews are average for GB and fairly good for Ovo, both don't offer a fixed tariff but you can switch without charge.

I'm in no way a loyal customer to npower but something makes me nervous about having energy provided by a company I've never heard of - I don't know why! Am I being silly? Should I just switch the GB?!

Advice from anyone who has done this, or just your thoughts in general, would be appreciated :-)

JJ_Egan

Have you heard of every company ??.Can you name the Big 6 .If you can then find one of the big 6 with customer satisfaction .
NPower are one of the worst for complaints .
Ovo certainly have high customer satisfaction ratings .

System

[QUOTE=Lozzieb1989;69951569

Cheap Energy Club tells me my cheapest tariff would be with GB Energy Supply, and the second cheapest would be Ovo Energy. Reviews are average for GB and fairly good for Ovo, both don't offer a fixed tariff but you can switch without charge.

)[/QUOTE]

Both GBEnergy and OvoEnergy offer fixed 12 month tariffs that you can switch TO without charge - unless your present supplier has exit fees. Ovo currently does not charge exit fees if you switch away.

What exactly are you concerned about? I have been with Ovo twice without any major issues, and my home is now supplied by Zog and GBEnergy. Don't believe everything you read on this forums. It is human nature to complain: many Millions of customers are very happy with their chosen supplier. Switching is easy: the new supplier does all the work. All you have to do is sign and provide meter readings when requested to do so.

macman

Your energy is provided by the regional distributor or generator, not by npower or GB. Switching supplier is just a billing change.
Ovo offer two 12m fixes- ('Better' and Greener'), GB offer one,and there is never a 'charge to switch'. The only potential charge is an ETC from npower if you are on a tariff which imposes one. But, if the saving minus the ETC still shows a saving, then just factor that in.

JJ_Egan

Note your big 6 may well be German French owned as opposed to a real UK company .

NittyGritty

Lozzieb1989 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm just after a bit of advice.

I'm currently with npower for my gas and electric. I've had no problems with them but always looking to cut this cost where I can!

Cheap Energy Club tells me my cheapest tariff would be with GB Energy Supply, and the second cheapest would be Ovo Energy. Reviews are average for GB and fairly good for Ovo, both don't offer a fixed tariff but you can switch without charge.

I'm in no way a loyal customer to npower but something makes me nervous about having energy provided by a company I've never heard of - I don't know why! Am I being silly? Should I just switch the GB?!

Advice from anyone who has done this, or just your thoughts in general, would be appreciated :-)

personally I would wait until feb when the new collective switch is announced to see whats on offer before committing to any switch now, even more so now that Eon are the first to cut, more will follow soon, so just sit tight and wait a couple of weeks

as for going for the lesser known companys, just do your research and read the reviews

if the company saves you a lot of money then abvioulsy its worth considering, but if its only a few pounds ask your self is it worth the risk ? if its a new/lesser known company with little or very bad reviews.


yes I know most of the big 6 have issues but at least you know what your getting with them. rather than an unknown.


as I said before just read the reviews

macman

Add Spanish to that Big Six list and you can then rule out everyone except BG and SSE. But, regardless of that, since they all pay corporation tax in the UK, and employ UK based staff to run their UK businesses, I really couldn't give a flying fish where the ultimate ownership lies.
Take that to it's logical conclusion and you won't shop at ASDA, won't bank at HSBC or Santander...or indeed drink from Thames Water.
How on earth can you define a 'real British company' any more?

JJ_Egan

How on earth can you define a 'real British company' any more?

Near impossible .
But my non UK comment was really to the OP and her stick with the big 6 but not knowing who the big 6 are .

System

If you think choosing a supplier is difficult now, then look at this list of supplier licence approvals:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/licences-codes-and-standards/licences/notices/licences-granted-notices

Lozzieb1989

Thanks for the advice everyone

Haarlem

I am with smaller companies for gas and electricity. I try to be in a position where I owe them money, and actively monitor any credit balance to prevent it getting very high.

If they cease trading you would be an unsecured creditor, and would be lucky to get any money back.