Great tariff ends mid-winter - should I change early?

thereeev

I'm on a great tariff (thanks to MSE's cheap energy club) that expires at the start of February. It's E.On's Fixed 1 Year v19. I am now free to change supplier, being <50 days from that point, but all currently available tariffs are at least £20 per month (avg) more, plus I will actually be using more energy over the winter (mostly gas for heating but also appliances as we are home more hours of the day vs summer) so I imagine it's actually more than £20 for these months. Should I wait until my tariff expires and hope the deals then aren't much worse, or change now and deal with a more expensive tariff throughout the next 50 days to get the best available deal for the next 12 months?

orudge

Funnily enough, I just came on to post the exact same query - I'm on the same tariff, and all the deals available now are £20/month or so more expensive, at least. I understand the switching itself takes 2-3 weeks, but if I switch now, I presume I will actually be paying more for half a month or so?

I don't suppose it's possible to specify a switch date in the same way you can choose a date when your broadband is switched? Or maybe just wait a couple more weeks and then any "loss" is minimised.

[Deleted User]

@orudge
I don't know any supplier who will allow you to choose a date, a switch takes a minimum of 17 days (for those companies signed up to the Faster Switching initiative) upto 35 days.

@Both
No one has any idea which way prices are going to move ij the future BUT for the last few months have seen only upward price increases. And the life time of the availability of tariffs varies from company to company. Good deals tend to get removed once the company makes their required number of sales.

It is guess work.

System

It would seem that there is less volatility in the gas market if EDF's recent price changes are anything to go by. Electricity prices are soaring because of a perfect storm of a falling £, increasing wholesale prices and ' keep the lights on' standby costs. If you decide to wait, then pick your supplier carefully. The ones that are signed up to 17 day switching will notify your existing supplier ASAP that a switch is in progress. Normally, the losing supplier will keep you on your current tariff provided it is notified of the switch prior to your end of contract date. Some of the smaller suppliers - such as Iresa - do nothing during the 14 day cooling off period. It follows that if you wait to 14 days to go to contract end, then you may be switched to your supplier's SVR Tariff until the switch goes through.

FWIW, I switched 3 months early, and paid the exit fee, to secure a deal similar to the one that I was on. Even if you are on fixed deal, it pays to run a comparison at least once a month.