I have talked about this subject in the past…I have urged you all to swop at least once a year. But do I follow my own advice? Well I try to…but maybe not this time, I could offer excuses of lack of time and the house extension. But no I could have done this earlier…and I havn’t.
Alas bill shock time. We had our first bill from Npower about 6 weeks ago, the first since swopping energy providers Jan 2013 months ago (!!). Cheeky company I hear you say..it came with an apology for the time its taken to bill me along with a nasty complicated letter containing 3 different bills and a statement telling me I owed them £600. I re-read and read again the bill, surely not correct, but it appears the £56 per month I was paying for gas and electricity together was not enough. Especially after we increased the size of the house with our recent extension. Im annoyed no 1 that they have taken so long to tell me and no 2, that we have spent so much money on something pretty boring like gas/electricity.
They have estimated the new bill should be double the old. I’m not having this, so here are the steps I have taken. This whole process took me 15 minutes, including finding the bill:-)
1) Worked out my average annual usage. Npower are quoting that we use 3649 KWh of electricity at £621 and 10,409 KWh of gas at £537. Total cost of £1,158.
2) I’ve gone to www.uswitch.com to work out who is the best energy provider for us. Click on the compare gas & electricity button at the top of the homepage. Firstly enter your post code, email address and mobile number. Then answer some simple questions including your usage as I have written in point 1, but use your own bill;-). And uswitch will find a better deal for you.
3) My comparison has given me the following top 3 deals
First Utility Fixed rate for 15 months will save me…..£249 per year!!!
or Ovo Energy fixed rate will save me £230 per year
or Flow energy fixed for 16 months will save me £219 per year….
4) BEFORE you click on swop…check out the cash back options on http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/lynnbeattie
First utility cash back of £42
Ovo Energy and Flow nothing.
5) Decision made, I’m swopping to First Utility but buying it through Topcashback. Total cash saved £249 plus £42 cashback = £291!!!! RESULT.
6) It took me maybe another 5 mins to fill in my details on the First Utility website and they will do everything to swop over energy providers.
Go on, everyone have a go. Pull out your annual usage, plug them into Uswitch. Whats the harm..you could save £291 like I’ve just done.
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Hi
I know I’m a bit late to the party on this one – but wanted to add a “watchout” on the utility savings websites.
First of all – as you did – make sure you use your own useage not their “national averages used for comparison purposes only”. Particularly important if you have dual-tariff meter (economy seven).
Then, make sure you understand what they are using as a base-line cost to calculate your “savings”. This can be; staying on the same deal you’re are on even though it’s expired, early switching penalties even though you wouldn’t do it until the end of your contract or just assuming the really expensive standard variable rate of you exisiting supplier.
I’m not saying don’t check or don’t switch – just don’t spend your savings until they’ve actually been realised as they may be lower than you think.
Agree. When they took my first utility tariff it was the higher variable rate one I was moving onto at the end of July. However I compared my actual spend in pounds year on year and found a deal cheaper. Everyone should switch annually to save cash. I plead everyone to do it☺