Switching from Powergen to british Gas

binnie

Hi, Not sure what to do here. We are currently with British Gas for the gas and pay about £57 a month.
Powergen for electric which was £39 a month, but now had a letter to say we owe them £75 or they will put our monthly direct debit up to £54 a month.

There are two adults in the household, we have two laptops which are on about 12 hours a day total, not each laptop.
We have the lounge lights on when it goes dark with normal bulbs, I would say for about 6 hours in autumn/winter.
We use the washer about 3 times a week, the dryer about 3 times a week.
Have energy saving bulb in the light at the top of the stairs.
Electric oven and microwave which gets used once a day.
Electric power shower, but hot water comes off the boiler heated by gas, and we use that about three times a week.
Don't use an Emersion heater.

Sky digital plugged in all the time, two printers on standby, used about 5 times a week.
Electric settee which if we recline, you press a button and it reclines (lazy gits), hee hee, use at the weekends mostly.

Hairdryer use about three times a week.

Does £54 qa month sound expensive with Powergen.

I hear too many horror stories when switching suppliers, but I was maybe thinking about switching to British gas for the electric, but am worried about them stil charging me for the electric when switching as it has happened to a lot of my friends.

Can anybody tell me their stories whether good or bad, then I can make a decision.

I don't understand all the figures like amps and units etc, just need to save some money on the bills.

xx

Cardew

You don't have to understand 'amps and units'.

You look at your bills and see how many kWhs you use and that is the basis on how you are charged.

If you haven't kept your bills or can't understand them - the ring your supplier and ask how many kWh(kilo-Watt-hours) you use each year.

Armed with that information, and your postcode, you can find out the best deal for yourself.

Nobody can give you any objective advice from the information you have given above.

If you read this forum you will have horror stories about every supplier(in particular BG) - so that won't help.

Terrylw1

Hi,

You can get some advice on what your appliances use to try and understand your usage a bit more.

Have a look at sites such as this by typing in Energy Efficiency in Google:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

Not sure on your comment about "still being charged when switching". Do you mean that PGen may still charge you after you go to BGas?

If so, PGen can only bill you up to the day of the transfer, then BGas take over. All these Suppliers have lots of complaints about processes such as this going wrong so it may affect you, it may not.

The only thing you can do is protect yourself.

To do this, make sure you take readings off your meter in all the following scenarios:

1 - each quarter. You can then get your Supplier to get your bill accurate (which helps them to estimate further quarters as well). At least take them for your own peace of mind.

2 -when your meter is changed. Take the removal reading of the meter coming out and the installed reading of the meter going in.

3 - when you move properties. Always take your moving in/out readings.

4 - when you change Suppliers. On the day of transfer, get a reading. Give your Supplier a reading to transfer as to avoid an estimate. This will get your old & new Supplier to bil you correctly.

Do the above and you won't go far wrong with any Supplier despite all the complaints you may see.

As for the usage, have a look at the link and see if that offers you any help on the devices.

Have PGen being sending you estimates? Remember, if the bills are estimates and your current meter reading is lower, you are being overcharged hence your DD is possibly too high as well.

binnie

Hiya thanks for the comments.
Terry, yes I meant still being charged by Powergen once switching.
My sister in law swapped her supplier, then never got a bill for two years. She constantly rang them and they said they couldn't trace her on their system.

Eventually after two years, she got a massive bill and they expected her to pay it all at once.

Then others have told me that even though they have switched that the old supplier was still sending bills out even though they weren't using them anymore.
They had to make upteen phone calls to sort it all out.

If I was to save a minimum of £10 a month for switching then I would do it, but can't be bothered with the hassle if it's less than that.

Will try and work it out with that website you gave me.

Terrylw1

No worries, glad to help.

Not everybody has these problems and a lot of people switch each day. You will only hear the horror stories though.

Once the old Supplier gets the closing reading, they just have to issue one bill. However, their billing systems tend to bill each quarter but they are supposed to dispose of any of these rather than post them. As far as the billing after 2 years, they have to give adequate time to pay. Energywatch is there to support customers when they have problems with their Suppliers.

To save money it is a necessary evil, but you have to protect yourself against the potential problems. Remember that as long as you have taken and submitted your reading for the transfer, you know how much to keep back to pay the final bill since you only have to calculate the difference between your transfer reading and your last bill and then multiply by your unit charges etc...

Cardew

The mechanics of changing supplier should be gone into once you find out if it is worth changing supplier.

To do that you need to know your consumption; and that you can find out.