First time shopping for utilities - Not sure where to start?

CharlieDelta

Hi there, 

First time poster and first time ever dealing with utilities so apologies if this thread is a little dumb. 

My partner and I have moved in together in April (into a houseshare at that) - the novelty of house sharing has worn off sooner than anticipated after having done it for so long separately. We're finally looking towards renting a gaffe of our own, having scoped out the local area and knowing what we want. 

Naturally a lot of these places will not come with bills included. Having only ever lived with my mum or in houseshares, I've never really had to look at utilities. 

I find myself overwhelmed trying to pick out energy providers/plans and quite frankly don't know where to start. I was wondering if MSE could point me in the right direction/ open my eyes up to considerations I should be baring in mind when looking. 

I've considered pre-payment as I heard it's good for budgeting as sometimes on the normal plans you can be overcharged, but I've also heard bad things about using meters. 

We're a couple in the East Sussex area on a decent ish joint income. (£60k where £32k is mine and £28k is my GF's). We'd be looking to heat/light up a 1-2 bed flat. 

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Try to find somewhere with gas central heating because it will be the cheapest to run.  If you can only find somewhere that's all electric, High Heat Retention Night Storage Heaters on Economy 7 are probably the least worst option; oil, heat pump and similar systems are unlikely to be available in a flat.

Whatever you do, avoid anywhere with panel heaters: there's nothing more expensive than using day rate electricity for heating.

Make sure you read all the meters (including water) and take photos the day you take possession; don't let anyone do this for you.

Register with the existing energy supplier(s) and set up Direct Debits.  Don't forget to register on the Electoral Roll.

Gerry1

You don't have to opt for a fixed rate tariff; if you do nothing except register and give DD details you'll be on the Standard Variable Tariff.  At the moment most companies' SVT charges are much the same, although Octopus's standing charges are slightly cheaper by about 4%.

However, rates for Economy 7 electricity vary considerably so if you end up having to use HHR NSHs and an immersion heater it would then be worth shopping around.

CSI_Yorkshire

CharlieDelta said:

I've considered pre-payment as I heard it's good for budgeting as sometimes on the normal plans you can be overcharged, but I've also heard bad things about using meters. 

You are almost never overcharged.  True errors like that are rare.  What actually happened when most people talk about 'overcharging' in this way is that you have 'topped-up' your account by more than you needed and have a lot of credit with the supplier.  Not really much different from having topped-up a prepayment meter and having credit on there.  If that happens, you can either reduce how much you top up each month (eventually most suppliers agree) or get a refund of (some of) the credit.

The cheapest way to avoid that credit balance (if you don't want to have one) is a variable direct debit, where each month you give a meter reading and then they take from your bank exactly how much it is to cover what you used.  No topping up, no credit balance, and also no debt (small debts on energy accounts have been pretty normal in the past).  It is harder for some people to budget that way because the monthly payment can be very small in summer and very high in winter (because of heating), even 5 or 6 times bigger in winter for some people.  The same thing would happen with a prepayment meter of course, you would need to top up more often in winter because you use the energy faster.  If you're not comfortable with budgeting yourself for that, a fixed direct debit might be better for you.

Robin9

CSI_Yorkshire said:

CharlieDelta said:

...............................It is harder for some people to budget that way because the monthly payment can be very small in summer and very high in winter (because of heating), even 5 or 6 times bigger in winter for some people.  .........................

My June bill was £24; January was £202

CharlieDelta

Gerry1 said:

Welcome to the forum.

Try to find somewhere with gas central heating because it will be the cheapest to run.  If you can only find somewhere that's all electric, High Heat Retention Night Storage Heaters on Economy 7 are probably the least worst option; oil, heat pump and similar systems are unlikely to be available in a flat.

Whatever you do, avoid anywhere with panel heaters: there's nothing more expensive than using day rate electricity for heating.

Make sure you read all the meters (including water) and take photos the day you take possession; don't let anyone do this for you.

Register with the existing energy supplier(s) and set up Direct Debits.  Don't forget to register on the Electoral Roll.

Thank you Gerry, you've been extremely helpful. 

I didn't realise the point about the different heaters! 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

pre-payment can be convenient for some folks as you pay before you use, so no bills, though not so convenient at times as you have to visit a PayPoint shop to top up key, though some you can top up online, so check out meter situation when viewing, and, as above, summer/winter variations in cost

Gerry1

Another problem with prepayment can be that your frozen food can be lost and your freezer damaged if you don't remember to top up sufficiently before going away on a summer holiday.

High standing charges can mean the credit runs down relatively quickly even if there's virtually no energy consumption, and there's always the low but non-zero risk of a delayed return because of an accident, medical emergency, car breakdown, pandemic lockdown or whatever.

Payment by DD means one thing fewer to worry about !