Any tips for a first time buyer setting up energy bill

Ashley_Davis

I've recently purchased my first property and I'm trying to get to grips will the bills and everything else.

It's a new development and the developer has already set it up with Eon. I contacted them last week and put it in my name for the time being but I have a 2 week period to cancel or change so I thought it's worth looking around in that time.

I'm in a mid level 1 bedroom and live on my own and there is underfloor heating. I believe everything in the flat is electric.

Eon offered a £40.75/year for a fixed contract with no cancellation fee.

I'm assuming its worth browsing around trying to get a better deal? Should I be checking my meter on a regular basis? I have to get concierge to unlock the meter room as its communal so its a bit tricky doing it too regularly.

Any other bits of advice or tips?

jbuchanangb

Yes you must read your meter at least every month. I assume when you called E-On you gave them the meter reading as at the day you moved in. You need to find out the exact name of the tariff E-on put you on. Electric underfloor heating likely to be very expensive. Make sure you have set the timers so that it is not heating up the place when you aren't there, and the thermostat to a just about bearable temperature like 18 degC for when you are there. I don't believe £40.75 per year. More likely £40.75 per month and even that sounds low with your set up.

Every month tell E-on the actual readings. Frankly there is no substitute for living in the place and setting the heating system to match your lifestyle, then after a few months try some comparisons. Bear in mind that in winter you will use a lot more energy than in summer, but if you did something like take the 4 months of winter, double it and use it as a 12 month estimate you would have a decent baseline for comparisons.

Rubidium

Ashley_Davis wrote: »

I've recently purchased my first property and I'm trying to get to grips will the bills and everything else.

It's a new development and the developer has already set it up with Eon. I contacted them last week and put it in my name for the time being but I have a 2 week period to cancel or change so I thought it's worth looking around in that time.

I'm in a mid level 1 bedroom and live on my own and there is underfloor heating. I believe everything in the flat is electric.

Eon offered a £40.75/year for a fixed contract with no cancellation fee.

I'm assuming its worth browsing around trying to get a better deal? Should I be checking my meter on a regular basis? I have to get concierge to unlock the meter room as its communal so its a bit tricky doing it too regularly.

Any other bits of advice or tips?

The first thing that you will be doing as an MSE'er is to switch away from eon, who no longer understand what a competitive tariff is.

I have just had a good laugh at the prices of their latest V21 one year fix tariff, released today.

eon have lost the plot and only want to supply stick in the muds who don't switch for the much better deals available.

Use a comparison site and get cashback when you switch.

Ashley_Davis

Sorry, my mistake. It was £40.75/month.

Wasn't aware the underfloor heating would put it up that much. To be fair, it stays very warm with them all off so Ill try and keep it off as much as possible.

This is what it says on my tariff on the account:

12 Month Tariff
No Exit Fee
Discounted to E.ON EnergyPlan
Know when we launch a new fixed term tariff
Online Account Management

Is it worth me going on the comparison sites to see if I can get anything cheaper. If I do, can I then go back to Eon to see if they can match?

Ashley_Davis

Rubidium wrote: »

The first thing that you will be doing as an MSE'er is to switch away from eon, who no longer understand what a competitive tariff is.

I have just had a good laugh at the prices of their latest V21 one year fix tariff, released today.

eon have lost the plot and only want to supply stick in the muds who don't switch for the much better deals available.

Use a comparison site and get cashback when you switch.

Thanks for the reply! Ill do some hunting around on comparison sites tomorrow

System

Excellent advice from Rubidium, personally I d stick with the MSE Cheap energy club and use their comp site. It is better than the the likes of USwitch and give more cashbacks.
Sounds like you are on a standard tariff with a different name but the no exit fee gives it away as being expensive.

macman

Correct: EnergyPlan is their Standard Variable tariff-the most expensive. So get off that ASAP. The problem is that you don't know your annual kWh consumption yet, but underfloor heating means no E7, so it's going to be expensive to heat, regardless of tariff.
I'm a bit surprised that you purchased a property without knowing whether there was a gas supply, or if there were NSH's and E7 metering installed as an economic alternative? The property details should state all this.
You can't 'cancel' E.On, since you were in a deemed contract with them from the date you moved in, so to change supplier you will need to go through a normal switching process, which can take around 5 weeks.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning Ashley_Davisand welcome to E.ON,

Some excellent advice on the thread already, so thank you for this.

When you moved in and took responsibility we'll have needed all of your details and your start meter reads. This means we can set up an account in your name and start billing you for your usage.

It's important we gather all of this info, we need to take the account off the builders/developers account that will have been used for the site.

It is a good idea to pop some average figures in to a comparison sites (as you don't have much usage/data yet) and get the best deal for you.

You can also see our other tariff's on the website, some offer rewards, discounts for a Direct Debit and bit's and bobs like that.

I'm here to help you, if you need me though

Thank you

Helena

Ashley_Davis

Thanks for all the advice. Don't think I mentioned the tariff name is E.ON Energy Fixed 1 Year v20

I will compare other deals on MSE Cheap Energy Club and Uswitch etc.

On MSE Club, the cheapest deals seem to be variable but the fixed are only a few £ cheaper. Is it worth going with the fixed?

The cheaper tariffs include Robin Hood Energy, GnERGY, iSupply and SoEnergy (mixture of fixed and variable) - but not much in them