BG Energy Swap - Smart Meter Advice

fretwej

I am currently on the British Gas Collective Fix February 2017 tariff so will be looking to swap to a different tariff in the next 5-7 weeks. I have done a preliminary comparison and found that current British Gas/Sainsbury Energy tariffs are £200 more expensive than many others currently on the market. Usually I would have no hesitation, if this is still the case in about 4 weeks time, to swap suppliers online. However, my problem is that British Gas installed smart meters for me in June 2016 so how will this affect me with a swap.
Will I be restricted to only certain suppliers?
Do I need to phone suppliers up before I join them online to make sure that I will be accepted with my current smart meter?
I have read that smart meters may have to be switched off, if so by who, me? the current supplier? the new supplier? and how?
If I have to revert to giving manual readings to a new supplier how do I read these figures if my smart meters are switched off?
If I can give readings from the smart meters I worry about the gas reading in that with the old meters a multiplier of about 31.52 was applied to units used to convert to kilowatt hours, with the smart meter it appears that this multiplier has changed to 11.192. Will a new supplier be aware of this if I am giving readings myself?
So many questions, I'm sure that I have others. I have read what I can online but am confused as to the best way to go forward.
Any advice, in layman's terms, will be greatly appreciated. I'm sure that there will be many other BG users, who have had smart meters installed, in the same predicament as me.
Thanks
John

[Deleted User]

You can swap to who ever you want.
You do not have to ask them first.
When you move to another supplier, the smart meter will just lose the smart bit and you will have to read the meter yourself and send the readings to your supplier.
Your new supplier will understand the unit size (it isn't a smart meter thing , it was a change from imperial to metric that gives rise to the different multiplier to get the KWh for gas)

System

It cannot be that time of the day already.

Mumof3b

I am in the same position my collective fix 2017 is now finished and looking at new deals but just had new smart meters installed. Not sure if the free day of power on Saturday or Sunday with British gas will make their tariffs more competitive to stick around for or Switch? What did you do in the end?

System

Mumof3b wrote: »

I am in the same position my collective fix 2017 is now finished and looking at new deals but just had new smart meters installed. Not sure if the free day of power on Saturday or Sunday with British gas will make their tariffs more competitive to stick around for or Switch? What did you do in the end?

Hi - welcome to the forum. You are now on BG's most expensive tariff. BG's Freetime Tariff is going to be a lot more expensive than a fixed tariff with another supplier. Do a full market comparison and see for yourself.