New Home Owners - Where do we start with Utility bills?

bri160356

srisport wrote: »

Hi All,

So last Friday we finally got the keys to our new (new to us) Home, As a FTB it is certainly very overwhelming trying to get everything set up while trying to move our personal belongings and furniture in.

So my question is, We need to set up our utility bills and we would very much appreciate any guidance and advice on what and where we should start. The previous owners were on EDF but I have been told by a family member that we don't have to stick with them if we don't want to.

Soooo... where do we start? obviously we have no idea how much energy we will use, so is it just a case of picking any energy provider to first establish our energy usage before shopping around for the best deal?

will using a comparison site be any good, or will this be pointless because we cant tell them what our energy usage is?

Help and Advice very much appreciated.

Kind Regards.

My son moved house in July’17 and the incumbent supplier was EDF for both Gas and Electricity. The previous householders’ EDF tariff lapsed on the day my son became the new householder.

EDF moved my son to their (very expensive!) Standard tariff as is their wont;…there is no option but to accept EDF’s Standard Tariff as a starting point.

However, although he immediately asked EDF to move him to a cheaper tariff called Online Saver Aug’18 it still took EDF about 13 days to swap tariffs,…during which time he obviously faced much higher charges.

At the moment EDF only have two tariffs (apart from their v.expensive Standard Tariff) and neither of which look particularly appealing, IMHO,…and both of which have exit fees.

You need to make it a priority to appoint another Energy supplier as you will probably be stuck with EDF’s expensive Standard tariff for about 4 or 5 weeks from the day you appoint your new supplier.

It’s probably worth spending a little time in an attempt to work out your forthcoming annual gas/electricity consumption figures as accurately as possible. As others have said it’s always going to be a best guess for a new householder but I reckon it’s worth the effort to at least try to get it right..’ish!

When my son moved to his new home he used the previous homeowners annual energy consumption figures and whittled it down from there as best he could,… the previous owner had three children whereas my son has no children.

As it turned out over the last 12-months he initially over-egged his consumption somewhat, but it wasn’t massively awry and EDF did a very good job of adjusting his monthly D/D accordingly.

P.S. for what it’s worth,… my son was with EDF for 13-months but has just completed a move from EDF to Avro energy. Avro Energy became his new supplier on 10th Aug;...the switchover took 31 days to complete.

Good luck in your new abode.

srisport

waamo wrote: »

Most switching sites let you put in a few details such as your house size then make a "best guess" based on similar users.

Their guess is probably as good as any method in determining your usage at this stage. Once you are up and running you will get a better idea.

It may be worth looking at a supplier who has low or no exit fees at this early stage, although in saying that it will probably take at least 12 months to get a true figure of your usage.

That's exactly what I did

Skools_Out wrote: »

When you consulted the MSE CEC, what data did you input as your current supplier & tariff? :huh:
Because that was obviously wrong, so yes, start again.

Post#3 above simply summarizes what you should do. Yes it really does :cool:

We know the supplier because the previous owners noted it on the forms which they filled out for us, and I just put standard variable tariffs because I didn't know what else to put

What would everyone think would be a rough ball mark on how much we should pay for both Elec and Gas combined? is £89 considered high for a dual fuel plan?

Is dual fuel the best route to go, what about fix rates against non-fix rates?

Again thanks to all those who have contributed to the thread, it really is much appreciated.

Regards.

bri160356

srisport wrote: »

That's exactly what I did



We know the supplier because the previous owners noted it on the forms which they filled out for us, and I just put standard variable tariffs because I didn't know what else to put

What would everyone think would be a rough ball mark on how much we should pay for both Elec and Gas combined? is £89 considered high for a dual fuel plan?

Is dual fuel the best route to go, what about fix rates against non-fix rates?

Again thanks to all those who have contributed to the thread, it really is much appreciated.

Regards.

A dual-fuel 12 months fixed-tariff with no exit fees are my preferred options at the moment.

Only 1 company to deal with and you know exactly what your usage charge will be for at least a year,…with the added bonus that you can jump-ship at any point if something more attractive sashays along.

If you’re worried about moving from EDF (which is one of the Big-6 Energy companies) to a cheaper ‘minnow’ energy supplier then I would say do your research (lots of feedback on this forum regarding most of the suppliers),…. then go for it!

As the old saying goes “you pays yer’ money and you takes yer’ choice”.

However, I’m sure there are differing opinions on here.

macman

No one can tell you what is best, it depends on region and usage. Run all your different options through the comp site and see what it throws up.

srisport

macman wrote: »

No one can tell you what is best, it depends on region and usage. Run all your different options through the comp site and see what it throws up.

Thanks for your response,

Yeah I suppose that's understandable, at the moment I'm looking at around £84/Month for Dual Fuel fixed for 12 months and that's with Yorkshire Energy, the closest Big 6 Energy company to that is SSE which comes in at £85/Month (After £35 cashback), although they have a £60 Early Exit Fee.

What about this Economy 7 I keep reading about? is that worth looking into or not?


I'm going to do some research on this Yorkshire Energy, but while I'm here does anybody have any experience with this company?

Regards.

bri160356

OP,

It’s always worth checking the comparison sites right up to the last minute before you appoint a new supplier;…the energy companies change their tariffs at the drop of a hat these days so last night’s best deal may not be this morning’s best deal.

Also, make sure the tariff you’ve seen on the comparison site is the one you actually get for when you access the Energy companies own website.

Some of the tariff names can be little befuddling especially with companies like AVRO who use tariff names like Simple&Supreme, Simple&Superior, Simple&Summertime et al.

macman

srisport wrote: »

Thanks for your response,

Yeah I suppose that's understandable, at the moment I'm looking at around £84/Month for Dual Fuel fixed for 12 months and that's with Yorkshire Energy, the closest Big 6 Energy company to that is SSE which comes in at £85/Month (After £35 cashback), although they have a £60 Early Exit Fee.

What about this Economy 7 I keep reading about? is that worth looking into or not?


I'm going to do some research on this Yorkshire Energy, but while I'm here does anybody have any experience with this company?

Regards.

Dual rate tariff, generally used in homes with night storage heaters and an immersion heater. Night rate is cheap but the day rate is expensive. You'd require a meter change.
As I've already said, you can run all these options through your comp site to compare E7 to single rate etc.
YE are very new, little feedback on them.

steveouk

Its not really worth all the hassle of switching to economy 7 this is for flats and other properties with night storage heaters and is fine if your property is all electric. As this has not been mentioned before i would assume you have a gas boiler and central heating in which case Economy 7 will not be of use to you. As said previously a switch to E7 involves a meter change and a responsible supplier would check to make sure it is appropriate when booking this as it should not be done if you have gas central heating.

Anthorn

srisport wrote: »

Hi All,

So last Friday we finally got the keys to our new (new to us) Home, As a FTB it is certainly very overwhelming trying to get everything set up while trying to move our personal belongings and furniture in.

So my question is, We need to set up our utility bills and we would very much appreciate any guidance and advice on what and where we should start. The previous owners were on EDF but I have been told by a family member that we don't have to stick with them if we don't want to.

Soooo... where do we start? obviously we have no idea how much energy we will use, so is it just a case of picking any energy provider to first establish our energy usage before shopping around for the best deal?

will using a comparison site be any good, or will this be pointless because we cant tell them what our energy usage is?

Help and Advice very much appreciated.

Kind Regards.

Pretty simple really: Choose an energy supplier and tariff and switch to them simply by signing up to them. They will know your existing supplier from the entry in the national database and will inform them. There is no need to sign up to the present supplier for the property. Then when the switch is due provide the meter readings to both the old supplier for the property and your new supplier.

Yes check with comparison sites but remember to list all supplier and not just their promoted deals. Personally, I use comparison sites to find likely candidates and then do my own comparison. Again personally, if a saving is less then £50 a year it's a waste of time switching.

macman

Anthorn wrote: »

Pretty simple really: Choose an energy supplier and tariff and switch to them simply by signing up to them. They will know your existing supplier from the entry in the national database and will inform them. There is no need to sign up to the present supplier for the property. Then when the switch is due provide the meter readings to both the old supplier for the property and your new supplier.

Yes check with comparison sites but remember to list all supplier and not just their promoted deals. Personally, I use comparison sites to find likely candidates and then do my own comparison. Again personally, if a saving is less then £50 a year it's a waste of time switching.

This is completely incorrect and very poor advice. The deemed contract system has been in place for over 30 years now, and if you attempt to switch without being registered with the existing supplier, then the switch will most likely be blocked.