Switching to Dual Fuel when gas and electricity currently being paid by two separate people?

Starfish93

Pretty much as the title says - my friend and I have lived in a flat in South London for the last 3 or so years, and so far been (stupidly) paying gas and electricity separately on standard tariffs. This COVID pandemic has given me the kick up the butt to finally switch and save some much needed money right now, but every time I've looked into this I always get stumped on this question!

I currently pay the gas bill with British Gas and my friend pays the electricity bill with EDF - I am the one looking into switching onto a dual fuel tariff under my name which will save a ton of money, but is it quite simple combining the two under one name when so far it's been separate? Is it just simply a question of informing the previous companies (particularly EDF who I am not associated with) that it'll now be under my name? Or when everything switches does it just look at our outgoings from our flat in general and figure out that way? Or does my friend need to cancel her account with EDF all together and let them know it'll be under someone else's name when we switch?

I don't know why I get so confused with this but have so far not seen an answer to it despite searching the internet high and low. Any guidance appreciated!!!

Robin9

Why ??    It's cheaper to have separate fuels.

JJ_Egan

As above my last search in may again showed dual not cheaper .

Talldave

Separate suppliers are often cheapest and for some London postcodes, even the cheap dual fuel deal from Outfox The Market is beaten by using Outfox The Market for separate supplies!!

Give us your consumption figures and we can advise?

Starfish93

Oh seriously? I've always been told that it's so much cheaper to combine, but perhaps this is not quite accurate anymore. 

In some way my question still stands - whether to choose to dual fuel or keep them separate, I would like to put both under my name. To do so, would my friend have to close her account or if I signed up for electricity with another company, would it automatically "detect" that we've got an account under our flat and do the switch for us? 

JJ_Egan

Depends upon the friends account and contract . Out of contract or a penalty to pay for leaving early .

Robin9

Apply for the electricity in your name.

Get your friend to ring and close the account .As per JJ there may be a penalty

There's nothing automatic about detecting names.

Talldave

Can you not just use your name when switching?

Robin9

Your savings will come from moving to a fix from standard tariffs. If this is your first switch then you can save good money.

Give us your annual consumptions .

Neil_Jones

The market ebbs and flows - sometimes its cheaper for dual-fuel, sometimes its cheaper for separate.  At the moment its cheaper for separate utilities.

You need to get your usage, your tariffs and feed them into a comparison site.  You can then do a filter to see what the gas cost is and what the electricity cost will be with separate supplires or a duel-fuel tariff and see what happens.  If you go for duel-fuel, just sign up and they'll do the work.  Doesn't matter that they're separate now, they'll be dual afterwards if that's what you go for.

Cardew

There used to be an attractive discount for a customer taking both fuels from the same supplier. However that practice has finished with most suppliers. Customers in areas without gas complained - with justification - that it was unfair that they paid more for their electricity than customers lucky enough to have gas.