Slightly OT: Gas+Electric (combined) suppliers

[Frank Watson]

Can anyone advise which company provides the best deal for the small householder when supplying both gas and electricity?

I hear Amerada'a online service was cheap, but now they've been taken over by Powergen so prices may well rise...

Thanks

Frank

[Andy Hall]

I think that another factor in all of this is the monthly budget plan which the energy suppliers and BT like to promote.

I quite like to have an even payment over the course of the year.

The suppliers like to arrange things wih the level of the payment such that at the end of the accounting period, there is a surplus which is carried forward. Of course, this amounts to lending them money, which I don't like to do.

Therefore, in the first year I arranged that the monthly payments met approx. 80-90% of the actual cost. The supplier's proposal was then that I should pay the shortfall and then increase the monthly payment such that over the year it covered 120% of use.

I declined their generous offer and put it to them that if they insisted, I would pay the shortfall and immediately switch suppliers.

My counter proposal was to take the cost for the past year, add the shortfall to it and divide by 15 to arrive at the monthly payment. They then suggested dividing by 12 instead so that assuming the same use in the following year, there would be a zero balance.

I pointed out that I might use less energy and would then again be lending them money. We settled on dividing by 14.

This has worked quite effectively for three years and I always end up with a shortfall which is carried forward and paid for in the following year, amortised over the entire year.

Competition is a surprisingly effective negotiating tool.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Frank Watson]

It is, if you can manage to speak to someone in the company who actually cares whether you stay or go elsewhere. Obviously you did...

Thank you for your thoughts on this, and to David for his helpful comments.

Frank