"Just Move In" or "Look After My Bills"?

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime

matelodave said:

When you do it yourself you'll learn how it a ll works, you'll understand what your energy consumption and costs are and you'll have control over your costs. When you relinquish it to a third party( who generally don't actually do this out of benevolenc)e someone ends up paying - usually the customer. You also end up losing control and can find it very difficult to extricate yourself from a poor deal.
There have been several posts on this forum where the intermediary has put someone on a poor deal and it's cost the customer exit fees to escape.
Do it yourself and and do it properly and it will put you in good stead for the rest of your life. Sorting out your own bills is a life skill that's well worth learning - just trawl through all the tales of woe on many of the other threads for people who haven't bothered to sort themselves out and are then blaming others for the stress and ginormous bills that they've racked up.

Very wise thank you ! 
It's more life admin but if it means saving money long term then I'm all for it 

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime

macman said:

Students are often hoodwinked into using these kind of services: then at the end of the tenancy they find that readings are wrong, DD's were set too low, and the supplier is now pursuing them for hundreds of pounds in debt. Don't go near them: they pay the agent or LL a bung to solicit for them, as you have found.
All you have to do on day one is to read the meter, contact the existing supplier (with whom you are now in a deemed contract), open an account and submit your opening reads. Once that's done, you can commence a switch to your preferred supplier, which will take around 5 weeks.
There's nothing you need to do before moving in. Same applies to the water authority and council tax: just get in touch on day one, or soon after.
Unless you want to pay Just Move In a generous £290 to do it for you...

That's good to know. So for now, all I can do is research and shortlist providers and on the day of moving in, I'll make the necessary calls. 

Well the charge isn't applied to us, the estate agent is partnered with "Just Move In" so it will be free for us, its just a case of making sure whether they ACTUALLY WILL get us the best deal - don't want to be caught in the tangled web promises but really shackled to a deal you can't get out of that doesn't benefit because to tell you the truth, I am none the wiser... so I very much appreciate the experienced advice on this

Gerry1

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime said:

macman said:

Students are often hoodwinked into using these kind of services: then at the end of the tenancy they find that readings are wrong, DD's were set too low, and the supplier is now pursuing them for hundreds of pounds in debt. Don't go near them: they pay the agent or LL a bung to solicit for them, as you have found.
All you have to do on day one is to read the meter, contact the existing supplier (with whom you are now in a deemed contract), open an account and submit your opening reads. Once that's done, you can commence a switch to your preferred supplier, which will take around 5 weeks.
There's nothing you need to do before moving in. Same applies to the water authority and council tax: just get in touch on day one, or soon after.
Unless you want to pay Just Move In a generous £290 to do it for you...

 ... it's just a case of making sure whether they ACTUALLY WILL get us the best deal

NO WAY will they get you the best deal, or anything close.  They will only find you an expensive supplier that will pay them a nice commission, their customer service rating may be poor, and there may be exit fees.

In contrast, you can find suppliers who will give you the best deal, and you can decide between dual fuel / separate suppliers, fixed / variable tariffs, exit fees / no exit fees etc.

MWT

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime said:

... its just a case of making sure whether they ACTUALLY WILL get us the best deal - don't want to be caught in the tangled web promises but really shackled to a deal you can't get out of that doesn't benefit because to tell you the truth, I am none the wiser... so I very much appreciate the experienced advice on this

Use the time you have now to decide which energy provider you want to use. Ask the agent what sort of heating you have as well, then come back here for more advice.

On your move -in day take meter readings and make sure you have photos, do not accept excuses, do not accept readings someone else has taken, insist on access to the meters so you can do it yourself. 

Once you have the readings register with the current supplier to the address (is it electric only or gas as well?) and make sure they put you on their cheapest tariff that does not have an exit penalty, then begin the switch to your preferred supplier.

Gerry1

This won't be what you want to hear, but...

• If it's all electric and has storage heaters, it will be expensive.  Make sure the immersion heater only comes on during the cheap rate periods, and leave any Boost switch off.  If there's a local timer for the immersion heater, make sure it follows the cheap rate periods exactly, noting that there may be an expensive two hour daytime rate in the middle of the night.  Consider moving before the winter.

• If it's all electric and has panel / convector heaters, or anything else that plugs into daytime electricity, it will be prohibitively expensive.  If there's an E7 meter, switch to single rate (this doesn't need a meter change because many suppliers will just add the readings together).  Definitely move before the winter !

matelodave

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime said:

macman said:

Students are often hoodwinked into using these kind of services: then at the end of the tenancy they find that readings are wrong, DD's were set too low, and the supplier is now pursuing them for hundreds of pounds in debt. Don't go near them: they pay the agent or LL a bung to solicit for them, as you have found.
All you have to do on day one is to read the meter, contact the existing supplier (with whom you are now in a deemed contract), open an account and submit your opening reads. Once that's done, you can commence a switch to your preferred supplier, which will take around 5 weeks.
There's nothing you need to do before moving in. Same applies to the water authority and council tax: just get in touch on day one, or soon after.
Unless you want to pay Just Move In a generous £290 to do it for you...

That's good to know. So for now, all I can do is research and shortlist providers and on the day of moving in, I'll make the necessary calls. 

Well the charge isn't applied to us, the estate agent is partnered with "Just Move In" so it will be free for us, its just a case of making sure whether they ACTUALLY WILL get us the best deal - don't want to be caught in the tangled web promises but really shackled to a deal you can't get out of that doesn't benefit because to tell you the truth, I am none the wiser... so I very much appreciate the experienced advice on this

You won't actually see a charge but you wont end up on a decent deal - for example a poster on another thread had the misfortune to be put with Spark Energy who were charging nearly 21p/kwh and about 28/p day. I'm with Symbio who charge 12p/kwh and 15p day. I'm not suggesting that you go with Symbio (in fact I'd suggest that you didn't) but going with Spark would increase my annual energy bill by nearly £700 a year.

If you look at the JMI website and see all the wonderful things they'll be doing for estate agents, letting agents and even customers you really do have to wonder who is paying for it all. Don't wonder - it will be the customer through higher charges to cover the commission costs. Take heed of the old saying - "if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is"

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime

 "if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is"

1000% !! Did you find your providers by using just going to moneysupermarket? 

Gerry1

Start doing you homework now by finding out the existing suppliers.  You can then get quotations to find out their cheapest tariffs without exit fees, although you'll have to guesstimate your likely usage.

It's easy for gas, but for electricity, first find out who is your DNO and then go to their website to check who is your supplier.

Register and send them the opening reading(s) the day you move in, and then you'll be good to start the switch to the supplier(s) of your choice.

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime

Gerry1 said:

This won't be what you want to hear, but...

• If it's all electric and has storage heaters, it will be expensive.  Make sure the immersion heater only comes on during the cheap rate periods, and leave any Boost switch off.  If there's a local timer for the immersion heater, make sure it follows the cheap rate periods exactly, noting that there may be an expensive two hour daytime rate in the middle of the night.  Consider moving before the winter.

• If it's all electric and has panel / convector heaters, or anything else that plugs into daytime electricity, it will be prohibitively expensive.  If there's an E7 meter, switch to single rate (this doesn't need a meter change because many suppliers will just add the readings together).  Definitely move before the winter !

Woah currently speed typing to the estate agent asking these q's now before they clock out for the weekend! We will be moving on the 31st July as it stands

AllTheGearNoIdeaAllTheTime

Leccy: Scottish & Southern
Gas: E.ON Energy Solutions Limited
Water: Thames Water

Like you say I'll have to guesstimate energy usage but I'll be on the case, thanks so much Gerry and Matelodave