RecordAceFromNew
Swinging Member
- Location
- West London
With the recent tariff increase announcements by British Gas, SSE and Scottish Power by up to 9%, and having received my price increase notification from Britsh Gas, hitherto my dual fuel supplier, on 23rd, I did a little research and changed my suppliers.
1. Apparently many users who have not been changing their tariff schemes or suppliers yearly can be overpaying by around £300 a year. I can certainly believe that based on my comparison of tariffs when I changed a year or so ago and now. Just like insurance companies, utilities love taking advantage of user apathy towards change.
2. Because Ofgem has just announced an investigation due to utilities are raising prices while profits are increasing, I think there is now a better chance that utilities that have yet to increase their price may hold their prices or increase less than the ones who have already announced, while utilities which have already increased their prices will IMHO be unlikely to drop prices until the investigation completes in probably 6 months. In my own case, Edf is one of the cheapest alternatives, and they have committed to keep the vast majority of their tariffs constant until March 2011, so it was a no-brainer to me (for reasons see see point 5 later).
3. What I then found, is that if one switches within 20 days of a utility telling you about their price increase, one can force the utility to keep tariffs constant by notifying them that you will change supplier, as long as one then notifies them which utility you will be switching to within 15 days after your earlier notification. For example in my case British Gas announced on 23rd November that my tariffs is to increase on 10 December, but since it can take around 6 weeks for the change of supplier, I was able to tell them I was changing supplier and that they must keep my existing tariff constant until then. Since now is likely the most expensive period over the year, this little known rule can probably save many people some money. British Gas has indeed acknowledged that they will indeed keep my tariffs constant until the switch (while at the same time offering a £60 bribe for me not to switch, which is not enough to sway me albeit I have a pretty good tariff with them currently).
4. It is worth checking which utilities offers a better price by using a comparison site armed with a rough idea of one's annual spent. However a) it is important to check a new utility out (by googling e.g) in terms of user satisfaction before committing, and b) you can potentially save even more money by signing the new utility up through a cashback site (i.e. not the comparison site, which does offer some, but less). In my case I found that First Utility was the cheapest, but am unsure if their customers are happy. I also found that Topcashback offers £80 cash back with Edf, and they tracked it within 2 days of my signing up, the £80 will be payable in March.
5. Obviously switching is not without risks. Risks include a) the utility you choose might increase their tariffs even more (in my case I feel even if that is the case I would have gained from now till next March), b) if you wish to change again before a certain date in the future you may have to pay a penalty (in my case that is £30 per fuel, but Edf's current sign up bonus of £100 till end of November which is yours if you do not switch before April, plus the above £80 cash back more than mitigate that).
Just some thoughts based on my own experience, hopefully they can help save others some money towards some bike bits.
1. Apparently many users who have not been changing their tariff schemes or suppliers yearly can be overpaying by around £300 a year. I can certainly believe that based on my comparison of tariffs when I changed a year or so ago and now. Just like insurance companies, utilities love taking advantage of user apathy towards change.
2. Because Ofgem has just announced an investigation due to utilities are raising prices while profits are increasing, I think there is now a better chance that utilities that have yet to increase their price may hold their prices or increase less than the ones who have already announced, while utilities which have already increased their prices will IMHO be unlikely to drop prices until the investigation completes in probably 6 months. In my own case, Edf is one of the cheapest alternatives, and they have committed to keep the vast majority of their tariffs constant until March 2011, so it was a no-brainer to me (for reasons see see point 5 later).
3. What I then found, is that if one switches within 20 days of a utility telling you about their price increase, one can force the utility to keep tariffs constant by notifying them that you will change supplier, as long as one then notifies them which utility you will be switching to within 15 days after your earlier notification. For example in my case British Gas announced on 23rd November that my tariffs is to increase on 10 December, but since it can take around 6 weeks for the change of supplier, I was able to tell them I was changing supplier and that they must keep my existing tariff constant until then. Since now is likely the most expensive period over the year, this little known rule can probably save many people some money. British Gas has indeed acknowledged that they will indeed keep my tariffs constant until the switch (while at the same time offering a £60 bribe for me not to switch, which is not enough to sway me albeit I have a pretty good tariff with them currently).
4. It is worth checking which utilities offers a better price by using a comparison site armed with a rough idea of one's annual spent. However a) it is important to check a new utility out (by googling e.g) in terms of user satisfaction before committing, and b) you can potentially save even more money by signing the new utility up through a cashback site (i.e. not the comparison site, which does offer some, but less). In my case I found that First Utility was the cheapest, but am unsure if their customers are happy. I also found that Topcashback offers £80 cash back with Edf, and they tracked it within 2 days of my signing up, the £80 will be payable in March.
5. Obviously switching is not without risks. Risks include a) the utility you choose might increase their tariffs even more (in my case I feel even if that is the case I would have gained from now till next March), b) if you wish to change again before a certain date in the future you may have to pay a penalty (in my case that is £30 per fuel, but Edf's current sign up bonus of £100 till end of November which is yours if you do not switch before April, plus the above £80 cash back more than mitigate that).
Just some thoughts based on my own experience, hopefully they can help save others some money towards some bike bits.
