Switchin advice please

dcouponzzzz

Hi there,

So I bought my house 4 years ago and only just getting round to switching from prepay to DD today. I've called Scottish Power and they've quoted £77 per month (to be revised quarterly), the meters will be fitted on 5th Feb and the first bill will be 1st March.

I'm wary of the fact that this is their lowest figure, and I might run up a huge bill if they've miscalculated. Would you suggest asking for the DD to be upped to 100p/m as a safety net?

How long would you suggest I wait before switching to a new supplier?

I don't have any of my usage information unfortunately, but I would estimate that we currently spend about £60-80 per month in summer and £160+ per month in winter on prepay.

Edit: please excuse my spelling mistake in the title, can't change it

JJ_Egan

£160+ per month in winter
Thats a lot unless its a cannabis farm .
How do you heat the house ?

dcouponzzzz

Haha I wish, then I wouldn't need to worry about gas and leccy prices!

We havea combi-boiler and water tank with hot water and heating scheduled for 1.5 hours per day on timer, in the morning and evening. In the spring/summer/most of autumn the heating is off and we put 40 leccy and 20 gas a month, but with it on we're putting 80 on every 2 weeks, strangely 40 leccy and 40 gas meaning the electricity isn't gonig as far either....

Very occasionally we will pop the heating on for a couple hours on a long cold weekend indoors, for example we've done this 3 times so far this winter.

macman

You won't run up a huge bill as long as you take and submit regular reads, at least every quarter. The supplier only has to read every two years. Without you getting hold of your annual kWh usage, no one can say what your monthly cost will be. One of the main advantages of monthly DD is that you pay the same in both summer and winter.
PS: a combi does not have a hot tank, so I suspect you mean a condensing system boiler.

matelodave

I'd suggest that you read your meter monthly so you can get a feel of your consumption. Make sure you record the meter readings when the new meters are installed (they aren't always set to 0 as sometimes reconditioned meters are used)

Send in monthly meter readings and make sure you keep a copy of the raedings yourself and check your account frequently so you don't end up with any estimated readings - if you do , then get them corrected. without delay.

I'd also suggest that you download any online statements or bills and save them (you don't have to print them) just in case anything goes wrong in the future. Spending 10 minutes a month making sure that your bills are correct, that actual meter readings are being used and that your DD is being taken can save hours of grief in the future