Top Tips on on how to change your Gas and Electricity supplier.
Follow these top tips to give you confidence to switch your gas and electricity supplier.
Before you begin, get together your last few energy bills, add up the amount you have spent or work out how many units you have used. If you don’t have these and you pay by direct debit work out your monthly payments and hence your yearly payments.
Tip 1 – make sure you look at summer and winter bills as they will be different.This will give you a balanced view of your yearly spend spread out over different seasons.
Tip 2 – If you do pay by monthly direct debit then make sure when you look at the pricing you tick the box saying you pay by direct debit as you will get even bigger savings by paying by direct debit.
Tip 3- when looking at different suppliers you are obviously looking for a supplier with lower costs and the biggest savings but also look at the customer services as some Uk suppliers have much better customer service ratings than others, this may have an effect on who you choose as lousy customer services may be a problem if something goes wrong. You can look at these ratings at www.energywatch.org.uk
Tip 4- Are you looking for a Green energy product. Most suppliers have a green energy option. Some suppliers offer this at no extra cost and some charge a little extra. By taking the green option you can reduce your carbon footprint and help protect the environment.
Tip 5 – Consider an online managed account. Most of the UK suppliers have online managed accounts. This means you can submit meter readings online, get paperless billing and contact customer services via the internet. This again saves paperwork and you are in control of your meter readings.
Tip 6 – Try to steer clear of Pre payment meters. This is by far the most expensive way to pay for your energy and if you want to change the new supplier may want to change your meter. As said before the cheapest way to pay is by direct debit.
Tip 6 – When changing supplier be aware that you have a statutory cooling off period which is 7 days from the date of your application.If you are going to change supplier and you are going to pay by direct debit you will need your bank account details handy.
Tip 7 – when you have completed your registartion for your new supplier take meter readings so you can give these to your new supplier, make sure you pay any outstanding bills to your old supplier. If you have overpaid your current supplier you will get this money back.If you don’t clear any outstanding bills your new supplier will not be able to make the transfer.
Tip 8 – Always use more than one comparison site. They may have different deals on offer on each site. Having looked at all the sites out there the two reccomended are shown below as they cover 90% of the market.
Tip 9 – Ignore the win back teams who may call you if you switch unless they can beat the new supplier you have chosen ( sometimes it does happen). It does gaul me that if you switch supplier and a win back team offer you a better deal from your current supplier why were they not offering you the same deal before. Loyalty in this market counts for nothing as all the energy companies will never tell existing customers about any special deals for new customers.
Take a look at these two comparison sites and see if you can save money on your gas and electricity Bills.
Comparison site 1. This is Uswitch.com you will have seen them adverting heavily on the TV. They specilise in Gas ann Electricty and there system is very easy to use. They cover virtually all the suppliers out there depending on your postcode.
Comparison site 2 This is Moneysupermarket.com. Most people have seen them on TV and they are a well respected comparison site that although they do not specilise in the energy market they sometimes come up with better deals than Uswitch.
