chris955

I like to know to some extent what I will be paying for my electricity and Gas and as world prices seem quite volatile it might be worth fixing your costs. I have just signed up with EDF until March 2017 so wont have to worry about any price increases for the nest 3 years.
The unit costs arent that much higher than the standard rates so it isnt as if you would be paying over the odds.
I have absolutely no links to the company but the deal is certainly worth looking at.
http://www.edfenergy.com/

rebs

I'm also in the process of switching supplier - my fixed price deal with Scottish Power ends in a few weeks.

I've signed up to the energy club on MSE - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

Ovo were the cheapest supplier for me, so that's where I am moving...

chris955

Yeah I checked out Ovo and although their unit rate was a little lower the daily charge was a bit higher and I couldn't fix it for more than 12 months.

Mummy in the foothills

We are trying to decide who to go with. I tried to figure it out, but gave up, I need to sit down and go through while theres no one to interrupt me.

chris955

The way I look at it is that the cost of utilities is only going one way so I prefer to know where I stand for the next 3 years. I know I will be paying a bit more than I could be for awhile but the long term benefits will outweigh the short term 'pain'.

rebs

I don't think you have to trawl through all of the deals individually - you can use a comparison site, like Uswitch, or moneysupermarket, or gocompare and so on. Or the one I linked to earlier, from the Martin Lewis site. The MSE one says it will keep checking once you have switched and let you know if a better deal comes along... no idea how successful that is likely to be, but can't hurt!

Having said that, it can be a pain getting all the data together to plug into the comparisons - your usage, the name of the tariff you are on etc

mikelincs

Only one suggestion here, keep away from Utility Warehouse, we've had a lot of problems with them, including threats to enter the property and change the meter to a pre-payment meter, with a charge to us of £720. This despite us telling them we were changing to another company. They did back down when they got a call from the landlord of the property. I've looked at them on-line and there are a whole shed load of complaints about them and their practices.

formula

I use a site like this which works it all out for me.http://www.energyhelpline.com/
I check their calculations but I have always found them to be correct. I use it for checking my elderly relatives best deals with utility companies too. They just look on their bill to see what tarrif they are on and most companies now give an annual KWh used either on their bill or online. KWh is the more accurate way to get the best deal. Then it's all checked and moved in 20 minutes tops (I always read the utility companies T&Cs so that's why it's 20 minutes) or just 2 minutes per household to check we still have the best deals.

You can use another site too if you want to double check the best deals.

Don't sign up via the comparison site but instead use www.topcashback.co.uk to sign up to the companies with (if topcashback give cashback for that deal). Make sure you clear your cookies first by using something like ccleaner. http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ The other year the utiltiy companies were giving so much cashback to change to them (£80 - £130) that people changed several times a year

At the moment I have found it cheaper to split my gas and electric between two different utility providers. The top link calculates this for you too. I found a fixed electricty contract that didn't have any cancellation charges so that I can move if I find a better deal and gas utility provider without tie-ins either (for the same reason) and both worked out cheapest for our consumption.

I switched some elderly relatives to dual fuel with coop as not only were they the best one for them, but they allow me to contact them on behalf of my eldery relatives and they have a really good customer service. Plus for some areas they give £20 to join and coop points (for consumption and if you read your own meter) which were not advertised on the comparison sites: just the price came up as one of the best for their annual KWh on the comparison site but when I read the Coop site I saw the extras that made it the best one for my relatives.

It really is easy to do. If I can do it then anyone can. Better in our pocket than theirs.

formula

People would need to look at what other deals are available in their area, to see if this was a good deal for them based on their own consumption.
http://www.energyhelpline.com/

removalizer

Freind of mine is an agent for utilities warehouse, I refer him to all my clients, never heard of any complaints yet

Mummy in the foothills

We went through it all this morning, using Compare the market, and also Money Supermarket and another one. Finally ended up going with British gas for both fixed amount a month for a year, they'll reassess and it'll go up or down in a few months time when I call in the meter readings.
We'll get Nectar points too.