British Gas Price Freeze

Michael_Nottingham

Yes you can exit but there is a penalty payment unless you move house

bikeman

jem16 wrote:

Gas is £41.50pm and Electricity is £61.50pm.

Blimey!! How big is your house?

I've got a 4 bed detached and my stos are about a third of yours.

mandi_moles

Well this is a bit worrying !!

I capped both my gas & electric with BG ages ago and just to check, i phoned them today to check and also asked if that means im protected from this big increase coming up. I was told that my bills WONT go up because they are capped.

Is this wrong then ? Please dont make me use that o870 number again for 20 mins lol

Cardew

bikeman wrote:

Blimey!! How big is your house?

I've got a 4 bed detached and my stos are about a third of yours.

Re:
"Originally Posted by jem16
Gas is £41.50pm and Electricity is £61.50pm."

My Gas is £66.50 and electricity £47.50.(£114 a month total)

Assuming you don't have another form of heating(oil/solid fuel etc)I would love to know how you can only use a total of £34 a month for both gas and electricity in a 4 bed detached.

bikeman

I'd like to say that I economise but no, apart from some energy saving bulbs I don't anything. In fact I thought my elec was quite high since I started using a computer all day working from home.

A wise man did tell me once to leave the gas central heating on 24 hours from oct to march and regulate day and night temp with the thermastat. I do this and I think it cuts back on gas usage because the CH never has to struggle to heat up a cold house.

jem16

bikeman wrote:

Blimey!! How big is your house?

I've got a 4 bed detached and my stos are about a third of yours.

3 bed semi detached bungalow but two sons who are usually in theri own rooms with lights, hi-fi and pc running almost constantly.

trisontana

I think if you do think of switching you have to look at the bigger picture. I have my gas, electricity and phone service from British Gas. I get various discounts for dual fuel, direct debit and paperless billing as well as free phone calls (for no extra fee) evenings and week-ends. To switch just one element of this means losing some of these benefits. Also how do I know that the company I switch to won't increase their prices?

I have never had any problems with British Gas, even when I moved house and I think I will stay with them. I have also applied on line regarding the price freeze , they are going to write to me in the next few weeks , after the new tariffs come into force. Finally British Gas announced in the paper today that they have had a net increase in customers last month after people who had switched from them found out that the new companies were putting up their prices and the service was not as good as they were led to believe by all that advertising and had come back to them.

isayoldchap

trisontana wrote:

I think if you do think of switching you have to look at the bigger picture. I have my gas, electricity and phone service from British Gas. I get various discounts for dual fuel, direct debit and paperless billing as well as free phone calls (for no extra fee) evenings and week-ends. To switch just one element of this means losing some of these benefits. Also how do I know that the company I switch to won't increase their prices?

I have never had any problems with British Gas, even when I moved house and I think I will stay with them. I have also applied on line regarding the price freeze , they are going to write to me in the next few weeks , after the new tariffs come into force. Finally British Gas announced in the paper today that they have had a net increase in customers last month after people who had switched from them found out that the new companies were putting up their prices and the service was not as good as they were led to believe by all that advertising and had come back to them.

Trisontana
Wow, are you really saving money or are you just happy for BG service and the fact that they give you discounts?The all eggs in one basket doesn't do it for me.I enclose a link against what BG would charge now and my capped online tariff with Scottish Power ending 30/06/06.This free calls deal-are you paying £10.50 for your monthly line rental to your phone supplier?
http://www.energyhelpline.com/energy/rg_searchresults.aspx?pc=RH11+7PH&rg=10&gst=172&gcpm=1&gpp=False&gsp=0&gspp=0&guhml=2&gukwh=0&est=172&ecpm=1&epp=False&esp=0&espp=0&euhml=2&eukwh=0&ee7=False&enu=0&ft=2&opt=1&fpm=1&sortby=1&uif=495903&cw=False&CID=45&rpp=36

Massive savings eh!£711 with bg-£492 with SP
According to the BBC's morning news report this week,I think I had heard that over a million customers had left BG over the last month.Surely they can't all be leaving because the chairman of Centrica ,after 8 years is off?But it was nice to see that the beeb balanced up their news bulletin with a happy Bg customer reminding us how good the prices are.Better if they had one also who disagreed.
Capped prices are available which don't increase your prices during the term.It's the scare stories that are putting people off.
Oh and if there are quarterly payers out there or you have to use meters which maybe no fault of your own,I feel sorry that the industries price rises will definetely hurt.If you can go direct debit do it and make sure your timers are set to run efficiently.Good luck

isayoldchap

jem16 wrote:

Some very interesting points you have.

First I prefer internet accounts so no problem with that.

Secondly I already use 18866 for phone calls but then it's very much easier to see the charges for telephone calls. Gas and electricity charges, especially gas, need a Maths degree to work out or plenty of time.

I don't have any big problem with switching but just don't have the time to do so every month. The way fuel prices seem to be changing it would need a change every month just to keep ahead. I'm not a pensioner either so change doesn't bother me.

The capped deals sounded promising but not sure if I wanted to be tied in till 2010 - hence the thread to see what others thought. Scottish Power's deal is until 2007 - maybe better. I used to get my electricity from them up until two years ago.

Jem16
A quick two minutes on energyhelpline from this site does the trick for me.I avoid 'Switch' as I find they are not showing the whole picture with all the available companies(because I guess some don't pay them a fee).This saves me time without the need for as you say a maths degree.

Selecting a good capped deal or even going for a much lower priced company than your current supplier may also avoid the monthly switch as you say.

Back in 10/2004 the Scottish Power deal worked for me.This actally was only £36 more for 3 years against there best online tariff for dd customers at that time.Also stick out the term and the £36 comes back to you as a bonus.

Of course come June 2006 I may have to get the firewood out to boil the water but then the sun will be out won't it?

I bet the departing boss at Centrica changes his fuel supplier away from BG

trisontana

I am afraid you misheard that report Isayoldchap. It was a million customers in a year . This might sound a lot but is in fact less than 6% . Also, as I said above, over the last month British Gas have reported that there are more people coming back to them than there are leaving , because they realize that all the other companies are either raising prices now or will have to in the very near future.