Power and Gas Providers

[Argee]

This isn't meant to be a rant, but it might get that way!

I've always bought my electricity from Seeboard (S.E. England) and my gas from British Gas. This started because there was no choice in the matter, but now, of course, there is. Like most others, I've been inundated with requests from both providers to switch to dual-fuel supply and I've ignored it so far. However, the latest impending hike of gas prices has forced a re-think and that's where the fun started!

I went to Seeboard's on-line calculator, entered in my annual consumption figures (as monetary values) and they claimed I'd save £137 by switching to them for my gas as well. British Gas were my next visit, who claimed that they would save me £137 if I bought my electricity from them. HELLO! what's going on here?

I finally went to U-Switch.com and entered in my figures. Their calculations turned out different from mine in the results window, but they said I should go to Powergen for both. At that point, I wished that I drank!

Anyone got any useful experience, points of view, horror stories, tips, whatever, in this confusing area? I'm sure that there are savings to be made, but what about calling out the Gas engineer if I'm no longer with BG? I don't mean boiler servicing, I've got that covered by the company that installed it.

Anything that can clear the fog will be both welcome and appreciated!

Ray - confused in Crowborough.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Ray,

Try Martin Lewis' site at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bi ... 5326,64493

He has loads of tips on saving money. If you've not heard him before he's usually on Jeremy Vine's show on Radio 2 on Fridays. He's worth listening to.

Hope this helps

Paul

 

[matt]

Transco look after the Gas from a safety point of view. After that, it's a Corgi registered fitter for installations etc.

I'm with Powergen, however, the jury is out re any savings over my previous provider. In fact, I don't think I'll ever be sure because I've installed a new boiler and stopped using gas for cooking (i.e. no like-for-like comparison).

If it helps, I think all energy providers are rubbish (in fact, I think all service providers are rubbish). These days it seems as though you need to lower your expectations to manage your own stress levels when dealing with these organisations.

 

[ike]

I've checked with Uswitch for several years and have found it to be pretty comprehensive and seemingly unbiased. The problem is that the recent spate of price hikes result in different service providers leapfrogging each other on their prices. I can be pretty certain I'm at any point in time not paying more than £40 p.a. on total energy bills over the cheapest offering. Trouble is, it's getting more difficult to know really waht the best deals are with the offering of capped longer term tariffs, but at a premium unit rate.

It's not too hard though to keep fairly close to the best offers. One thing I'm sure about - cheap energy is now history, we must all try to minimise our consumption of it as best we can.

Ike

 

[Paul Chapman]

Ray,

Something you need to watch with these service providers is that they will sometimes try to get your business without your consent. I had this problem recently with telephone service providers. I received a letter from one thanking me for switching my business to them and a letter from my existing service provider saying how sorry they were that I had decided to stop using them. I had requested no such thing.

I immediately telephoned OFCOM, the regulator, and spoke to a very helpful person there. Apparently this is a trick most of the utility companies (gas, electricity and telephone) have been up to in order to get business. In the case of telephone service providers OFCOM have received numerous complaints and they are maintaining a register of the complaints they receive and the companies concerned. Presumably at some time they will have the companies in in give them a slap over the wrists.

Unfortunately the regulator won't do anything to sort out the specific problem and it is still down to the consumer to sort it out, which I managed to do with a few swift and irate 'phone calls.

It's all very irritating and a good example of how the utility companies are playing on the confusion that has been caused by all this consumer choice we now have.

Paul

 

[RogerS]

The Which website also offers a comprehensive switching tool. It can be found at http://switch.which.co.uk/home.php?m=home&cid=wsm1&

It may be necessary to view in Explorer as, just recently, their site seems to have a few problems with Firefox on some pages

 

[Argee]

Thanks for the replies.

Due to Paul Chapman's suggestion, I went to Martin Lewis' site, where I discovered it's possible to get paid for switching suppliers, a fact I was unaware of - thanks, Paul!

Thanks to Roger Sinden's reply, I went to the Which site. Their calculator confirmed the one on energyhelpline.com (link from Martin Lewis) and I've decided to go to npower for both electricity and gas.

I've still got everything crossed - nature of the beast, I suppose. I'll report on how it goes, if anyone would be interested?

Ray.

 

[trevtheturner]

Ray,

I am with npower for electricity (no gas where I live) so I was particularly interested/concerned to hear on local radio a few days ago that npower have announced an imminent price increase of between 15% - 20% for gas and electricity although I haven't received any notification of the exact figures yet. One figure was mentioned for gas and another for electricity.

Not trying to confuse the issue but, FWIW, I wonder whether your info. includes the new rates?

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Ray,

Pleased to hear that you found Martin Lewis' site helpful - yes, I'd be interested to hear how it all works out.

On Trev's point, yes the situation is extremely volatile at the moment with all the service providers hiking up their prices. Martin Lewis covered this in some depth a few weeks ago on Jeremy Vine's show. He will no doubt keep the situation under review on his site and on the show as the situation unfolds.

Paul