Switching electricity supplier

looks like it saves you £247/year, You don't mention gas, presumably dual-fuel deals are out for you?

Is GB fixed or variable? Exit charges?

No sorry

The only way to really tell which gives the cheapest overall is to do the maths. Either pencil and paper or a spread sheet. The spread sheet is preferable as you can set it up an plug the numbers in for multiple tarrifs and get how much any one will cost. You can also adjust useage and see the effect.

E.on: ((5971 * 14.952) + (365 * 16.422))/100

Thanks chaps. I don't think our overall consumption is likely to change much, so have gone with GB Energy. Seems they had problems when they first launched, but seem to have settled down.

Rate is variable, but no fixed term, and no exit fees, so worth watching the rate.

Now join

They will email you when you could be saving a preset amount per month.

There does not seem to be any downside of membership - no spam etc and if you do use them to switch again, in most cases there is a £30 cashback.

What matters is the total cost - standing charge plus units - for your level of consumption.

With a high standing charge and low unit price, the savings are greater the more fuel you use. If you were a very low user, the standing charge would be significant and would offset the unit price savings. But, according to my calculations, you'd have to use less than 800 units per annum before you were worse off with the GB Energy tariff - so it sounds like a good deal to me.

I would just add beware the VAT. Some include it in their tariffs, some do not. The unit charges on your current bills are always excluding vat.

They would be cheap for me, but they do not have a fixed rate so I would need to monitor the price all the time.

Traditionally I have had a fixed price detail with a major supplier. Usually Scottish Power has been the cheapest for me in Kent, lately it has been M&S Energy. I will likely move to Scottish Power or EDF at the end of this month. What annoys me is the slow change over process which is just a paper exercise.

Done. Thanks.

No, if they are going to change the price they have to give you advance notice. Doesn't matter if the tarrif is a fixed or variable.

It's certainly slow, it really ought to be quicker but you still need the "cooling off period" (of a week?). Not in the interests of the power companies to make it easy/quick though.

Which is 5% for domestic energy.

Used to be a bit of a mess but the "Tarrif Information Cards" are now all VAT inclusive, at least for domestic tarrifs. Most householders can't claim the VAT back so it doesn't make sense to quote VAT exclusive prices. Also householders don't understand the piss simple bill in the first place what hope have they when VAT, at a different rate to "normal", thrown is a well?.

I think the bills have improved somewhat in the last year or two, but a few years ago I tried to decipher mine, none of the rates I'd been charged equated to the rates I'd been quoted with or without combinations of vat, discounts, adjustments for estimated readings and god knows what else.

That is a interesting point thank you.

I ordered a tank full of oil (years supply) on Monday, it was kindly delivered on Tuesday and the debit card payment disappeared from my bank a/c on Thursday.

From the T&Cs:

Unless your meter is a Prepayment Meter you are required to provide us with a meter reading each month at a specified time.

Noted, thanks. I'm fairly good at recording the meter readings regularly. Just need to remember to tell the supplier, now :-)