How to shop around and switch?

egyptiancotton

Hello all

I bought my first house in June 2015. npower wrote to me shortly after moving in to let me know they supply gas and electric to my home and I would automatically become an npower customer under a 'deemed contract'.

The tariffs I'm currently on are Fixed Energy Online October 2016 Elec DD and Fixed Energy Online October 2016 Gas DD.

I've been meaning to switch supplier for a while now and just kept putting it off. I've given myself a kick up the bottom and now I'm keen to switch as soon as possible

I have recent meter readings for 29/02/2016 and 29/03/2016, as well as the last bill generated on 10/01/2016 which contains my TCRs.

I've never switched energy supplier before and I'm not quite sure what information I need (TCRs or the meter readings for the dates above) to shop around and switch. I've also been provided my estimated gas and electricity usage over 12 months.

Is a duel-fuel contract the best way or would separate suppliers for gas and electric be better?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you

lstar337

Go to the cheap energy club and enter your details. You can enter your estimate for your annual consumption. (you could also ask NPower for historical usage, but that will apply to the previous occupant)

You should be able to find the cheapest deal through cheap energy club. Avoid suppliers who have poor or little feedback as these will often cause you problems down the line.

Dual fuel gives you the simplicity of a single bill, but the discounts are rarely enough to be cheaper than single suppliers. (Dual fuel would cost me aprox. £60/year more than my current suppliers.)

teddysmum

After using a comparison site, I would advise applying your figures on suppliers' own websites.

egyptiancotton

lstar337 wrote: »

Go to the cheap energy club and enter your details. You can enter your estimate for your annual consumption. (you could also ask NPower for historical usage, but that will apply to the previous occupant)

You should be able to find the cheapest deal through cheap energy club. Avoid suppliers who have poor or little feedback as these will often cause you problems down the line.

Dual fuel gives you the simplicity of a single bill, but the discounts are rarely enough to be cheaper than single suppliers. (Dual fuel would cost me aprox. £60/year more than my current suppliers.)

I thought to resurrect my old thread rather than start a new one

I've input my annual consumption and found the best deals:

Dual fuel
British Gas: Collective Fix Oct 2017
Estimated new costs: £759 a year/£63 a month
Early exit fees: £40

There is another dual fuel tariff with no exit fees:
Avro Energy - Simple and Select
Estimated new costs: £764 a year/£64 a month
Latest poll rating: 50% great, 25% poor (12 votes)

The best electricity-only deal is:
GB Energy Supply Limited: Fixed 12 - Crystal
Estimated new costs: £375 a year/£31 a month
Early exit fees: None
Latest poll rating: 75% great, 9% poor (166 votes)

The best gas-only tariff is:
Daligas: Daligas One Fix Saver 16
Estimated new costs: £355 a year/£30 a month
Early exit fees: None
Latest poll rating: 48% great, 29% poor (21 votes)

Or there's Zog Energy with better feedback:

Zog Energy: Saturn 12
Estimated new costs: £364 a year/£30 a month
Early exit fees: None
Latest poll rating: 97% great, 0% poor (106 votes)

The cheapest for gas is Cardiff Energy Supply Limited but it's fixed for 15 months and the feedback is 100% negative (based on 2 votes).

csgohan4

Bare in mind the tariffs vary from region to region. It's not one size fits all

teddysmum

These estimates are very close and the savings may not even be what they appear, depending on where the break even point is. (ie A low user benefits from a low standing charge, whereas a higher user benefits from a lower unit charge and there is a usage tipping point at which what was of benefit becomes the opposite).


How does the latest tariff from your present provider compare ?

egyptiancotton

csgohan4 wrote: »

Bare in mind the tariffs vary from region to region. It's not one size fits all

I input my address details into the comparison checker. Would the tariffs shown be relative to my region? I also did a comparison on uSwitch and SSE came out the cheapest for my region.

teddysmum wrote: »

How does the latest tariff from your present provider compare ?

My current tariff is Fixed Energy Online October 2016. npower were way down the list of tariffs in the comparison checker.

egyptiancotton

Any further advice? I'm looking to switch as soon as possible but as you say, the break-event point may be close.

[Deleted User]

@lloydyyy
the postcode will only show suppliers for your region which is large
(but some suppliers only supply a small part of the region and the switching sites don't go down to that level; for example Robin Hood is in my region so it shows up for me but I cannot go to them as my postcode is not in their smaller area of supply)

No one can advise you on what is better for you. Not least on a web forum.

I personally go for the cheap suppliers but I discount those with a bad rep first so not necessarily the absolute cheapest.
If you choose supplier(s) with no exit fee then you can get out without exit fees if you feel you made a wrong choice.

jamesperrett

If it is any help, I'm in the process of switching to the same electricity only and gas only suppliers as you mention. So far all seems fine although GB Energy have been a little confused about direct debit dates and amounts.

csgohan4

my comparison top 5 would be different to some on here, because of location. So no point in saying x,y,z is cheapest.