Coming up to the end of my fixed rate, switching questions!

AFK_Matrix

Hi there,

So once again I am coming to the end of my fixed rate and have thus gone on the comparison sites to see who to switch to.

Now on all these comparison sites (including the energy club on this website which I am a member of) they show that you could save £100s on this rate etc. But thinking about this surely this figure is totally meaningless? Surely I want to take not of the Standing Charge and the Unit rates of each supplier? I know how much Gas and Electricity I have used over a year and then I just do the sums to work out how much things will cost based on the Standing Charge and the Unit rate.

Is that right or am I missing something?

And one other question is about smart meters, I haven't had one fitted yet and have read that there was an issue with them when you switched supplier, in that some had to disable the smart function as it didn't work with the new supplier.

Now I also know there is supposed to be a national database or something to allow smart meters to work with all suppliers, is this database working?

As it seems pointless getting a smart meter until this database is up and running, and with which ever supplier I go with I'll be saying no to a smart meter if this database isn't working.

Neil_Jones

By default if you're in the 49 day switching window the "savings" calculation assumes you don't switch provider but roll onto their default tariff, which are more expensive so this makes the "savings" look huge.

Energy Club does this but has the option to switch compared to your current rates - its under the tariff details of your current suppliers top left of the results screen.

With regards to Smart Meters, if you was to have one put in and change supplier and they can't receive or work with the readings from it it'll just become a dumb/traditional meter that you feed the supplier the readings from as you do now.

teddysmum

If you put in your usage (not cost) then look down the list,the best fix with your current supplier should appear. The difference between their 'saving' and others above in the list, will show the true approximate saving (nothing is certain as usage changes) if you move, so you can see if it's worth doing so.

footyguy

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

Hi there,

So once again I am coming to the end of my fixed rate and have thus gone on the comparison sites to see who to switch to.

Now on all these comparison sites (including the energy club on this website which I am a member of) they show that you could save £100s on this rate etc. But thinking about this surely this figure is totally meaningless? Surely I want to take not of the Standing Charge and the Unit rates of each supplier? I know how much Gas and Electricity I have used over a year and then I just do the sums to work out how much things will cost based on the Standing Charge and the Unit rate.

Is that right or am I missing something?

And one other question is about smart meters, I haven't had one fitted yet and have read that there was an issue with them when you switched supplier, in that some had to disable the smart function as it didn't work with the new supplier.

Now I also know there is supposed to be a national database or something to allow smart meters to work with all suppliers, is this database working?

As it seems pointless getting a smart meter until this database is up and running, and with which ever supplier I go with I'll be saying no to a smart meter if this database isn't working.

You need to compare the annual cost of each tariff based on your anticipated annual consumption

That's what comparsison sites do for you

Just comparing standing charges and unit costs won't be enough