Utility Bills

[Bibs]

It's staggering that some 70% of homes are on standard, overpriced tariffs for their gas & electricity. I recently swapped providers (to GB Energy Supply whoever they are!) and my estimated saving is £400/year. It was painless, there were no charges to pay but I just get cheaper bills for minimal effort!

I've also signed up for this. Martin Lewis's site will email me if there's a tariff which will save me over £100/year compared to my current provider. Again, if I do see that, I'll click one button and will switch to someone new. No charges. no hassle again. 

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

I'd encourage everyone to do this, it's lunacy to be on the standard tariff, you're throwing money away! 

[Kimbers]

Erm.......I don't think I have ever changed mine. 15 years in last house and was still with Eon. I could never figure out how much cheaper it was anywhere else! Am now with Scottish power but only through Elecs as am Oil.

[Bibs]

Click that link. the whole process takes an average of under 6 minutes. 

Quote

Electricity only? You can save too. While the BG deal's dual fuel, direct debit only, there are still HUGE savings available if you're on elec-only. Someone on a standard tariff paying £1,000/yr would pay about £750 with the cheapest. So do an electricity-only comparison. Also theiChoosr collective switch does allow electricity-only switches.

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[oneshot]

£1000/year for elec - if only! triple that and that's about it. Do use it for business though. 

Have LPG gas heating.

[Bibs]

Well you could save £750 a year by switching. Do it! 

[oneshot]

We are currently on a business tariff which doesn't end until July 2016. It has separate rates depending on the time of day.

[Bibs]

Did anyone actually do this or are you all too wealthy to care? Be interested in how much you've saved if so...

[Advantage]

It's not (just) that I'm too wealthy to care, but you say you're projected to save £400 pa, well I don't think I even spend that much per year. Have you tried wearing a jumper or some larger pants?

[Bibs]

Bloody cave dweller!  Our bill has gone from £1600 to £1200, the joys of a 300 year old house that leaks heat like a sieve. 

Wear pants you say,  interesting...

[Kimbers]

Checked and I can only save about £8 a month. I just can't be arsed for that amount TBH because in 3 months the people i'm with will be cheaper and I'll change back then someone else....its just a ball ache!

[Advantage]

Npower have just been fined £26m for being a bit crap. 

Npower clicky

[Bibs]

Just took 2 mins to swap again, this time to new firm Avro Energy. Estimate is less than £1k pa which is much nicer than the £1.6k I was paying this time last year

[Alfa2Evora]

I've just signed up to this and will be switching when my Scottish Power Dual Fuel fixed price contract expires in January 2017 (or 50 days before then if the 'no early exit penalty' clause is utilised).

Currently paying just over £2k p/a (SP's prices have dropped such that I'd now be slightly cheaper on their standard tariff, ) but according to Mr Lewis I can save just shy of £800 switching to E.ON or £760 with GB Energy Supply who get a better customer service rating - a few more Lotus goodies with either saving methinks,  .

[march]

Does anyone know what the impact of switching is if you have solar panels fitted and receive FITs payments? This has always held me back from switching supplier due to the potential for Cock ups and loss of payments. 

[Barrykearley]

Fit comes from the same company it always has done. The contract is with the original company

[MPx]

You can choose to swap FiT payments or not.  When I switched to Ovo from Scottish and Southern I chose to swap FiT payments as well because Scottish had no customer service if anything went wrong - and stuff did!  Ovo have been good for customer service and are reasonably cheap....but they take 8 weeks to pay the FiT whereas Scottish managed it in 4.   Swings and roundabouts as always!

[Barrykearley]

Now I never knew you could transfer the FIT provider - live and learn 

[100th_Idiot]

9 hours ago, Bibs said:

Just took 2 mins to swap again, this time to new firm Avro Energy. Estimate is less than £1k pa which is much nicer than the £1.6k I was paying this time last year

I've just switched to Avro as well. Best deal out there at the moment.

[TAR]

What really annoys me is the standing charge. It makes it impossible to know if a tariff is any good. Its so much harder to compare as you cant be sure exactly how much energy you will consume; who thought the weather in September would be so good, my heating is often on by now.

 

[megalomaniac]

As much as I hate Martin Lewis that tool's pretty useful, we used it to switch last time. What really annoys me about Energy providers is the fact they all now insist on monthly direct debit for anything even remotely close to a decent deal, which they inevitablly over charge for and make super difficult to claw back. What the hell is wrong with just paying for what you use?

[Barrykearley]

Just don't EVER opt for a smart meter.

Within 10 years you will be getting a spanking at different rates at different times

[megalomaniac]

True but one way or another I suspect they'll get forced on us, either through much higher bills for those without or through legislation.

[Barrykearley]

It's not happened with water bills has it ??? We are protected by the ancient laws presently - and that's pretty knotted up legally as well

[Alfa2Evora]

4 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

Just don't EVER opt for a smart meter.

Within 10 years you will be getting a spanking at different rates at different times

I also heard somewhere (I can't recall exactly where and haven't verified this - perhaps someone on here can?) that once you have a smart meter installed, it makes changing supplier a whole lot more difficult.

Apparently, they all use different systems to transfer the data so the meter from one company won't communicate with any equipment from another company. Therefore, if you want to change supplier, you have to get the meter changed too but as you already have a smart meter you no longer qualify for a free installation and so your new cheaper deal loses some of its attraction before you even start.

My current supplier, Scottish Power, wrote to me a couple of months back to advise that they were rolling out smart meters in my area and that, to avoid them just "turning up on my doorstep unannounced", I should contact them to arrange a date and time "convenient to me". I have 'conveniently' filed their letter under B for bin and will equally 'conveniently' not be in any time they should happen to call.

[ramjet]

Changing supplier here is easy with the SMART meter. We had no choice, by the way. They were simply installed.