Help a Noob with his Duel Fuel please?

sho_me_da_money

Hi guys,

Complete Newbie here regarding Energy but this is what im paying for at the moment:

Gas with British Gas

1. Fixed Rates (2009)
2. Tariff = Click Energy 2
3. Paying Monthly Direct Debit of £35.00

Electric with British Gas

1. Tariff = Standard Tariff
2. Paying Monthly Direct Debit of £36.00

After speaking to the British Gas advisor, i was told nothing has been confirmed regarding this 15-30% price increase and the dual fuel deal i am on, is the best.

His recommendations were to upgrade the Gas and Electric to the new Click Energy 5 tarriff.

Now i know most of that is sales banter so i checked out Uswitch and Saveonyourbills.co.uk and both reported that Scottish Power Discounted Energy is the best supplier.

Is this true? If so, should i take advantage of the fixed term till 2011?

Any other advice and/or guide would be appreciated?

espresso

Your monthly DD amount is irrelevant if it does not accurately match your usage. Find out what your annual usage in kWh is and use this in one of the better comparison sites (not uswitch!). Compare the actual unit prices of the different suppliers.

sho_me_da_money

Thanks for the reply mate.

This is what i was told:

Gas - average anual consumption - 24,400
Electric - average annual consumption - 6,792

Does that help?

As a tip for anyone that may not know, the advisor was really friendly and told me that just having one appliance on standby could potentially cost about £40 per year! Now based on my house we have loads of stuff on standby - TV, VHS, DVD, PS3, COMPUTER, WASHING MACHINE, MICROWAVE, HIFI - that's a big saving.

He did say most people would find it annoying to unplug from the socket as they can lose configuration and settings with certain devices but as of tonight, plugs are coming out!

Now that we have the figures above, who is best to go with please?

espresso

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Thanks for the reply mate.

This is what i was told:

Gas - average anual consumption - 24,400
Electric - average annual consumption - 6,792

Does that help?

No you need to use your own actual annual kWh consumption figures.

As a tip for anyone that may not know, the advisor was really friendly and told me that just having one appliance on standby could potentially cost about £40 per year!

Typical bullsh!te from the call centre advisor! Work it out for yourself, how many appliances do you have on standby costing you £40 per year and how much is your annual electricity bill!

Now based on my house we have loads of stuff on standby - TV, VHS, DVD, PS3, COMPUTER, WASHING MACHINE, MICROWAVE, HIFI - that's a big saving.

He did say most people would find it annoying to unplug from the socket as they can lose configuration and settings with certain devices but as of tonight, plugs are coming out!

So you believed the bullsh!te! :rotfl:

Now that we have the figures above, who is best to go with please?

Use your own figures not those so called average figures!

Try ukpower or energyhelpline in the resource bar at the top of this page.

................

sho_me_da_money

Dude,

Why would he lie? I mean, it's not like he was trying to retain me as a customer, he was just giving me some moneysaving advice.

Now i agree with you that theres no way the saving is £40 per appliance but i bet you any money that i would save money if i unplugged at the outlet as opposed to leaving stuff on standby?

Now i checked out the energyhelpline AND UK power links above, and both report back that British Gas Click Energy 5 is the way forward for me.

Will check out more info soon.

Cardew

I doubt he is lying, he is simply an idiot! Why would a person in a call centre have any idea of appliance electrical consumption?

Of course you would save money by switching off at the socket; but how much is the question.

A TV left on Standby 24/7 will cost anything from 40 pence a year for some very modern sets, to £5 if you are very unlucky. £1 -£2 a year would be typical cost for a TV.

There are 2 fixed to 2009 BG tariffs. ( Price protection 2009 & Price protection December 2009)

You need to accurately compare the prices you are currently paying with BG click 5.

If you are on the Dec 2009 tariff I would think very carefully before changing to Click 5 as you know your tariff will not increase over the next 18 months.

sho_me_da_money

Changed over to Click 5.

Thanks mates!

I was on a fixed contract on my Gas but just standard on my Elecy so it made sense to go with Click 5 for both.

Ive compared my monthly payments and current plan on 6 websites and it reports that Click 5 is the cheapest by £8.12 .

Im happy with Click 5.