Combined Gas+Electricity supplier - a Mug's game?

Roy1234

OK, so my combined Gas+Electricity fix with Avro is soon expiring, and I recently tried the Which? site to glance at deals one evening.

I was disappointed to find even the best deals cost slightly more than now. Then I tried 'Gas only' and 'Electricity only' options, each offering deals saving £100 or more, i.e. £200 cheaper in total.

Am I missing something? Standard web advice used to be that the Dual Fuel discount of keeping both fuels with one supplier was worth having, nominally costed around £30 I think, but if the above (which I haven't studied in detail) are correct then spitting providers would be far better?

molerat

Roy1234 wrote: »

....... Standard web advice used to be ........

Same as with everything, times change. Dual fuel has not generally, with the odd exception, been the cheaper option for at least the past 5 or 6 years. I have just checked and my last dual fuel supplier contract ended in 2013.

Roy1234

molerat wrote: »

Same as with everything, times change. Dual fuel has not generally, with the odd exception, been the cheaper option for at least the past 5 or 6 years. I have just checked and my last dual fuel supplier contract ended in 2013.

OK thanks. Apart from the obvious fact that you're dealing with two separate suppliers/websites/Direct Debits, are there any other issues in splitting? I'm wondering if, assuming slightly different swap-over dates for the two suppliers, I'd face complications later reuniting them into single supplier/dual fuel deal in future if that ever returned as a better option?

Talldave

I did that last year, moving from Ovo & EDF to Pure Planet for dual fuel (because I wanted their gas price but they don't do gas only). I've since moved gas away from them, and later did electricity too.

It all went smoothly, apart from the faceless industry body that screws up meter readings changing my electricity readings on the switch to PP - but that wasn't related to the dual fuel deal in any way.

So go for it and get the best deal.

If there's a website that alerts to a "you'd be better off with separate suppliers" situation, I'd like to know!

Roy1234

Well I'd have hoped that transferring of the meter readings was one of the simplest parts, but obviously not! I always take pics of important readings like at swap-over points.

It is an interesting point you raise though: Why don't the same comparison sites alert you to when you are far better off separating Gas & Electricity?

If I was a cynic I might susupect that there might be a much better kickback with a dual fuel swap for the comparison site. But if the better rate for Gas rarely comes from a cheaper Electricity supplier (and vice versa) it does have a certain profit cushioning effect for power companies if switching sites fail to alert you.

Talldave

Roy1234 wrote: »

Well I'd have hoped that transferring of the meter readings was one of the simplest parts, but obviously not! I always take pics of important readings like at swap-over points.

It is an interesting point you raise though: Why don't the same comparison sites alert you to when you are far better off separating Gas & Electricity?

If I was a cynic I might susupect that there might be a much better kickback with a dual fuel swap for the comparison site. But if the better rate for Gas rarely comes from a cheaper Electricity supplier (and vice versa) it does have a certain profit cushioning effect for power companies if switching sites fail to alert you.

To be fair to the faceless unanswerable meter reading screwing up organisation, my latest switch values were used without tampering, so I think they've now twigged that I use a half to a third of the electricity used by the previous tenants.

Your cynicism is probably well placed!

Flt._Lt._Biggles

Roy1234 wrote: »

OK, so my combined Gas+Electricity fix with Avro is soon expiring, and I recently tried the Which? site to glance at deals one evening.

I was disappointed to find even the best deals cost slightly more than now. Then I tried 'Gas only' and 'Electricity only' options, each offering deals saving £100 or more, i.e. £200 cheaper in total.

Am I missing something? Standard web advice used to be that the Dual Fuel discount of keeping both fuels with one supplier was worth having, nominally costed around £30 I think, but if the above (which I haven't studied in detail) are correct then spitting providers would be far better?

I can't remember the last time we opted for a dual fuel tariff.

However, I have just checked the figures on the CEC for our usage, and the oncost for dual fuel is about £15 per year looking at the very cheapest suppliers, but one of the cheapest suppliers as a single fuel supplier we would have issues with going with anyway, and if we take the next cheapest, it would wipe out the £15pa saving.

But we are mid term in our deals, and so no need to switch currently.

When the time comes, we will consult a comparison site, and see what is best for us ... as we have done for many, many years now.
The only mugs are those who don't do this