Tarrif Switch

PaulLynn

Hi , Im looking for a bit of advice here. Just moved into our house in april and have went with edf for both our electricity and gas energy. They have just told us they will be increasing the bill by £50 per month now! Am I able to switch tarrif although I have signed up to a years deal or do I need to see the year out before I can switch? Thanks

Raxiel

You can switch, but there may be a fee applied if you leave before the term is up (You don't have to pay in the last 56 days but that doesn't apply here). You would need to check your tariff details to see if there's a fee.



The supplier Bulb will refund any early termination fees you incur while switching to them, there may be others but I'm not aware of them.


If you know how much energy you use on average each year (in kWh not £) you can consult a price comparison site to see if its worth switching despite any possible fees. Not easy when you've not been there for a year, but if you didn't get any numbers from the previous occupant, EDF should be able to tell you the historical average consumption for the address which would be a good start.


It's important to note though, that the monthly direct debit is just a payment on account. The price you pay per unit used is fixed. If the bill goes up it means either the initial estimate was wrong, and you're using more than expected, or the supplier has produced an estimated bill that assumes you've used more than you have and they increased the DD to cover the estimated total.



If you've not already been doing so regularly, you should take a meter reading as soon as possible and provide it to EDF, give it a day or two to process in their system and then call and ask them to take another look at the DD, they may return it to the previous level, although if they don't think payments will cover usage - with an aim to hit £0 credit/debit by the end of the contract they may still increase it.


Estimates can also be low, leaving you with a big catch up bill too, so its important to give regular readings even without DD hikes.


EDF occasionally have quite good tariffs, so what you have may or may not be cheap already, but prices have risen since April so it might still be hard to beat.

System

As @Raxiel has said, DD payments are meaningless. You need to look carefully at whether you agree with EDF's projected annual consumption. The supplier may have based its projections based on (a) your usage and (b) the historical property data held for your property. If you don't redefine your projected consumption then you could find that you switch and a couple of months later, your chosen supplier hikes your DD yet again.

I moved into a new build property a couple of months ago. My monthly DD has just been doubled. I don't think that the supplier is 100% right but I accept that with no historical and little actual usage data, we are both in the guessing stage. Moreover, with Winter almost upon us, I would like to see slightly more credit in my account. If the supplier goes bust tomorrow - which I doubt - my credit is fully protected. Finally, I make sure that I give my supplier frequent meter readings.