Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

discomixkid

hi, ive just signed up 2 websaver 12 with BG, just get 4% of variable rate
i fancy fixing. martin keeps sayin theres one firm left who havnt increased their fixed rate, who is it????
also using the comparison sites they all come back with different results! also will they be comparing the bg rate now
or from when it goes up in august?? i think to save £100 im not that bothered but if that doesnt inc the new 16% rise then i am bothered
i pay £100 amonth for elec as it is, thnx in advance....

DonnySaver

everythingsrosie wrote: »

Hi
Im about to move house and are in a bit of dilema on what to do

Im currently on dual fuel with British gas - standard tarriff (price freeze run out i hadnt realised)

The house Im moving into is with Scottish Southern electric

Should I stick with BG and get a fixed tarriff or go with SSE and fixed tarriff

The property Im moving into is larger so i have no idea what i may use, I am in the house a lot with a little one so do use quite a bit electricity and gas.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

I would say that you should find out how much gas & elec you've used with British Gas over the last year. This then gives you some sort of indication to go and do a comparison search with the likes of uSwitch, Energyhelpline, Moneysupermarket etc a find the best tariff for you.

Like you say, you don't know exactly how much you're going to use because every house is different. The only thing you can really do is ensure your new house is insulated to the best of your ability. You'll have a good idea after 6 months how much more (or less) energy you are using than compared to your old house.

Hope that helps you a bit.

uSwitch_company_representative

Hi,

Noticed a few people talking about cashback from uSwitch and just thought I might be able to clear things up

uSwitch itself does not pay cashback to every customer who uses the site to switch gas and electricity.

We do have two cashback offers on the site - one from ScottishPower and one from npower for switching to certain tariffs that they offer. You might have to look quite a long way down the results table to spot this though - they aren't the most competitive tariffs.

The cashback available from Quidco is totally separate - we don't adminster it, it's all done via Quidco.

Just give me a shout if you have any more questions.

Lauren

prudence41

I have finally switched - from the Scottish Power Online Saver 6 to the Npower Price Protector with £80 cashback from Topcashback. Hope it all goes through - but not until after 31/07/2011 so that SP don't charge the cancellation fee!

boobbby

uSwitch_company_representative wrote: »

Hi,

Noticed a few people talking about cashback from uSwitch and just thought I might be able to clear things up

uSwitch itself does not pay cashback to every customer who uses the site to switch gas and electricity.

We do have two cashback offers on the site - one from ScottishPower and one from npower for switching to certain tariffs that they offer. You might have to look quite a long way down the results table to spot this though - they aren't the most competitive tariffs.

The cashback available from Quidco is totally separate - we don't adminster it, it's all done via Quidco.

Just give me a shout if you have any more questions.


Lauren

The problem with sites like uSwitch is that they will give the cheapist tariff on any particular day. I took your advise and switched to British Gas Web Saver 11. Immediately after the change British Gas raised their rates making the new rate more expensive than than my previous rate. Makes you wonder if the bother of the change is worthwile.

Synonymous

prudence41 wrote: »

Hope it all goes through - but not until after 31/07/2011 so that SP don't charge the cancellation fee!

Like you, I was wanting to switch to NPower also but am tied in to Scottish Power until 31 July, how likely do people think that we will get away with a weeks grace until NPower get around to contacting Scottish Power? I know it can take up to six weeks, it did last time I did it, but I don't know at what stage they swap details.

Also Scottish Power have told me that I wont get my bonus (£100ish) unless I stay right up to 31 July, however the T&Cs state that the bonus (£100 ish) is payable on or after a date in June - so should I get it regardless?? Added to the £50ish switching charge its quite a costly one-week gamble.

ALSO (!) I was reading the article about getting out of the switching fee as the rate is going up by more than 10%, does this apply if your fix (with the penalty) ends the day before the price increase?

I'm very unsure what to do!! The cashback with topcashback is £80 for switching to NPower so that takes some of the sting out of it, and I guess that although my comparison says NPower will save me £120ish, that is based on my current rate and not when the big Scottish Power rise occurs the day after my fix ends - right?? So really I'm saving more in the long run and should just get on with it??

Am I right in thinking these are my sums:

Potential Costs:
£50 from Scot Power for switching early
£100 bonus lost for switching.

=£150 Loss

Potential Gains

£80 cashback topcashback
£124 saving on my bills at their current fixed rate
£??? Untold savings compared to the price hike in August

EDIT: Just realised that energy helpline took into account my price rise, so my saving is £124 after the price hike, but actually £120 higher than what I am currently paying

So still a 'Gain' of about £200.

So I'm gaining overall, please someone help me make a rational decision before the fix is pulled tomorrow! Thank You

Synonymous

Hello again, panic over!

I have discovered the small print of an email Scot Power sent me..

"Our standard monthly Direct Debit prices are higher than those you are currently paying....

If you don't think these prices are right for you, you are free to end your agreement by changing your supplier*

*If you notify us that you wish to do this before 1st August 2011 and we receive a request for your supply from another supplier within 15 working days, we will not move you to our standard monthly Direct Debit prices or charge the agreed cancellation fee. If you have an outstanding debt, we may object to your supply leaving us, but we will give you time to pay the debt and leave us without incurring the increased prices. "

Sadly the customer service is closed now for the weekend, and I want the NPower fix that will be pulled before Monday, so I've sent them an email informing them of my intention which should be just as good.

ALSO.....

The risk of loosing my £105 bonus for staying on their tariff was also bothering me as the same recent email claimed I would not get this if I left before 1 August 2011. But my original terms and conditions state this is payable if I stay until 7 June 2011, so I've also argued my case that they better give me that too!

Hope this is helpful to someone, I missed the small print the first time around (not like me at all!) but appears we who are stuck in a fix can get out of it too without the exit fees, and (hopefully) keep hold of our bonus too! :T

uSwitch_company_representative

boobbby wrote: »

The problem with sites like uSwitch is that they will give the cheapist tariff on any particular day. I took your advise and switched to British Gas Web Saver 11. Immediately after the change British Gas raised their rates making the new rate more expensive than than my previous rate. Makes you wonder if the bother of the change is worthwile.

Hi,

It's a real pain when this happens, I know. Unfortunately we don't know about price rises in advance, so we can't warn you. However, if this situation there are a few thngs that you can do.

1 - Reject the price rise. You can actually reject the price rise so that you don't have to pay the higher rates for the time it takes you to switch to a cheaper tariff. Just write to BG and switch within 15 days of getting your notifcation letter.
2 - Switch your gas and electricity supplier 9again). You can switch again. Just be aware that if you're in a contract you may have to pay a cancellation fee, although it looks like BG are waiving the fee for lots of customers hit by the price rise.
3 - Switch to a fixed price energy plan. With fixed price, you can be reasssured that you won't be hit by another price rise for the duration of the plan. They might be a bit more expensive than the cheapest online plans, but they'll probably save you money in the long run.

Hope this helps.

Lauren

JoeMoomin

Having looked for quite a while different suppliers and comparing unit cotsts etc, OVO seems to be coming up best. Is this still a top fixed tariff?


EDIT: Should also mention that the price comparison brings up EDF and NPOWER as being good buys, but the overall unit charge and standing charge are lower with OVO.

irrelevant

irrelevant wrote: »

In the intervening period I emailed BG asking if they would levy a cancellation charge if I moved, and just just got a standard response back ignoring my question, and saying they don't want to lose me and will give us a £100 credit *if* "any one of SSE, NPower, EDF and E.ON don’t announce a price rise by 1 December". Sorry, not willing to gamble on that, especially as I can save more than £100 by switching. Anyway, they'll have a fight on their hands if they try imposing a charge now.

I had a phone call from BG whom said there would be a cancellation charge, but after digging out their T&Cs and quoting back to them, I -subsequently got this by email: (as an embedded image???!!)
http:\\https://www.irrelevant.com\rob\MyImg.gif

"i can confirm that customers on all of our variable tariffs to be increased from 18th August are able to leave British Gas, or move onto Price Promise March 2013, without paying their cancellation fee between 8th July and 18th August."

But tight on timing, mind..

Rob.