Buying a house - organising gas/electric

shorty1988m

So currently in the process of buying a house and hoping to be ready to move in, in October. The absolute worst time as far as energy prices go but what do I do here?

The current owners use octopus and they’re prices seem to be fair (3 persons in a B rated home with solar panels) and I’ll be moving in on my own but I’m only going to be using the house around 6 months a year at most. 

I can’t even get quotes at the moment as most energy providers and comparison sites are saying don’t switch but I don’t currently pay gas/electric. My usage is generally going to be low but do I just phoned octopus when I move in and change the bills to me or will I get stuck paying 4000 a year when I’m never going to use that much??

BUFF

yes, take photos of the meter when you move in & phone/online Octopus to open an account with them using those readings.
you should initially be on a deemed tariff as a new householder but I am going to make no predictions/recommendations as to what to do tariff wise once you move in. I suspect that October could be chaos as the full enormity of the SVT changes sink in.

shorty1988m

BUFF said:

yes, take photos of the meter when you move in & phone/online Octopus to open an account with them using those readings.
you should initially be on a deemed tariff as a new householder but I am going to make no predictions/recommendations as to what to do tariff wise once you move in. I suspect that October could be chaos as the full enormity of the SVT changes sink in.

Yeh worst possible time to move but hey ho!

Luckily I’ll be straight off to sea for 4 months so should be easy enough to keep the bills down initially and won’t be spending money so I can weather the storm until someone decides to come up with a plan 

BUFF

b-rated so it shouldn't be too bad anyway for you. Look into the FIT/SEG payments from the solar panels.

[Deleted User]

shorty1988m said:

My usage is generally going to be low but do I just phoned octopus when I move in and change the bills to me or will I get stuck paying 4000 a year when I’m never going to use that much??

If you're not going to use that much, then you won't be paying that much.

shorty1988m

BUFF said:

b-rated so it shouldn't be too bad anyway for you. Look into the FIT/SEG payments from the solar panels.

Unfortunately leased. Almost killed off my whole sale but I’m looking on the bright side of at least having some savings

shorty1988m

[Deleted User] said:

shorty1988m said:

My usage is generally going to be low but do I just phoned octopus when I move in and change the bills to me or will I get stuck paying 4000 a year when I’m never going to use that much??

If you're not going to use that much, then you won't be paying that much.

Yeh when away for 6 months of the year the most I’ll have will be the heating ticking on occasionally to prevent the cold doing damage but other than that all will be off

BUFF

you will probably need non-standard insurance if you are going to be away that much.

Alnat1

Octopus will let you pay by VARIABLE DD which mean you pay the bill in full every month by DD. This might work well for you if you're not around that much and energy use is up and down.