Switching gas supplier

[Davey]

I have a flat, which is used as occasion arises, ie not regularly, but when we or friends or family need it. The heating is switched on all the time, at a sensible maintenance temperature. The gas supplier is currently British Gas. It is renewal time, and they have offered a Fixed Tariff, which could save some money if gas prices change.

Looking at options on a comparison website, I can make substantial savings by switching supplier, to either Bristol Energy, Greenstar Energy, or PFP Energy. I called British Gas to ask about them matching these lower prices, and they don't do that, but suggested that I research the other companies before jumping to one of them. So does anybody here have any experience, good or bad, of any of these suppliers? It's a fair question, I don't know how the website Service Ratings are calculated, but Bristol Energy is pretty low. The only one I have even heard of is PFP.

Useful comments welcomed.

[Bob Eager]

Worth looking at the moneysavingexpert site. They give details of user surveys on customer service, etc. Not always useful as the sample sizes are sometimes small, but worth a look.

[Davey]

Thanks, I'll take a gander.

[Martin Brown]

Dual tariffs paid by DD are usually the best deals if you can get them.

[Davey]

The ones I have looked at save about £15-20, which may or may not be offset by the savings of the different supplier.

[Roger Mills]

I've got no experience of any of them, but it's worth looking at one or two of the comparison websites such as "switch with Which?" - or whatever it's called. If you feed in details of your likely consumption (assuming you know it!) you can see relative prices *and* get an idea of the customer satisfaction rating for each potential supplier.

If your consumption is very low, it's worth looking at tariffs which don't have a standing charge. You pay more per unit for the first so many units (until the equivalent of the standing charge is recovered) but save overall if you don't use enough to qualify for any cheaper units. Hope that makes sense!

[Michael Chare]

For electricity only I avoid the small suppliers that I don't know. One of them went broke recently though I don't think their customers lost money. The customers were taken over by the Co-op.

Very likely it is important to switch supplier immediately the contract ends, otherwise you end up with some expensive standard tariff.

It appears that Theresa May wants to change the energy market because many people don't switch to get the best tariff as often as they could. I expect that this will make life worse for those who do switch at the moment, and remember to switch again immediately their contracts end.

The switching process is very tedious and slow. You can't just make a phone call with a meter reading and say I want to switch.

I can order a year's supply of oil, get it delivered the next day (if urgent) and then pay for it. Doing the same with utility energy supplies takes weeks.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Michael Chare was thinking very hard :

Around four weeks, so do the research early.

[LSR]

Switching online is a doddle, we've done it several times. Only takes a minute or two using one of the comparison websites. We've never had a problem.

[Bob Eager]

And remember that you can switch up to 49 days before the old contract expires, and still not pay an exit fee.

[Harry Bloomfield]

LSR submitted this idea :

Only twice so far, but the process is simple and easy.

[tim...]

you the lucky one

one attempt 9 months

another attempt (different address) 6 months

there should be automatic fines for these c*ck ups, but no they just wash their hands of it and say "national database fault"

tim

[Ash Burton]

AFAlAW Bristol Energy is run by Bristol council, although l have no direct experience of them, l have successfully changed supplier several times without problem, go for it!

[Michael Chare]

Avoid Extra Energy - the most complained about energy company!

(You and Yours 23/3/17)

[Mark]

also worth looking at

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[Chris B]

I have been with Greenstar Energy for a couple of years, no issues with them. I pay quarterly by DD for energy used in that quarter. They have a good website for entering meter readings and if you do that a couple of days before the bill is calculated you will get an accurate bill not an estimate.

but it's worth looking at one or

I have a friend who uses very little energy in a holiday flat. They used to be on a no standing charge tariff with NPower, but NPower have just abolished that raising the predicted bill by over £100/ year. We have just switched to Ebico in a perfectly quick and painless process.

You pay more per unit for the first so

[Davey]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

NPower always seems to be in the news for the wrong reasons!

[Dave Liquorice]

Meh the delivery networks for the actual gas or electricity never changes and it's the reliablity of those networks that is the really important bit.

Extra Energy where slow with bills when I was with them but no cockups. They did offer good prices and I suspect they weren't quite prepared for the demand. I think EBICO are going through that now with the move from SSE to Robin Hood Energy as their supply partner and the EBICO Zero tariff which is about 5% less than their previous Equipower/Gas offering via SSE and will be nearer 15% when the (SSE) Equi.. tariffs go up on the 27th April. Oh and don't get confused by SSE's Zero tariff...

[Dave Liquorice]

That only starts the process, your actual switch date will be about 3 weeks later, a week of which is your "cooling off period". Not as bad as it was though, ISTR the first switch I did took 7 weeks.

Niether had I until the one of the recent switches which is in the process of being reversed.

Ten company changes, nearly as many tarrif chnages with the same company.

Funny you should mention "national database fault". That's the root of the problem the suppliers are having with my latest switch. nPower can't cope with having two supplies at one place when the postcode of that place doesn't match the postcode in the national database for either supply and the NDB address's have different first lines (building names, no silly numbers around here). They closed the wrong account and passed the wrong supply information to EBICO... *None* of the EBICO paperwork has the MPAN or meter number on it. First I know is when I get emails and final bill from nPower detailing the wrong account/supply as closed...

1/2 hour call to EBICO and very helpful, *knowledgable* and able to work without a script chap, managed to track down the supplies in the NDB, see the cockup by nPower and suggest course of action. Reverse the incorrect switch and start a fresh one for the correct supplies. The EBICO site lists supplies properly ie the MPAN and meter number but of course to get to them I had to enter the wrong post code and enter a billing address to overide the incorrect address...

All three supplies we have have incorrect postcodes and first lines in the NDB. When the dust settles I'm going to try and get them corrected.

[Dave Liquorice]

There are lots of comparison sites but only two maybe three backend databases. Once you've looked at a couple you'll start to recognise any free form text, supplier ratings, reviews etc. The eye candy will be different but the information the same.

Many sites default to only showing you suppliers that you can switch to via the site. Look for the show all suppliers button, and a couple of cheaper ones may appear, like EBICO...

Guess why I'm (trying) to do the same switch...

Those "Tier 1 / Tier 2" tarrifs haven't been available for a good couple of years. The standing charge can vary from 0.00p/day to the best part of 30.00p/day, The unit cost for the true no standing charge tariffs is higher but a single flate rate.

You really need to know your annual consumption and plug the actual tariff costs into a spreadsheet to work out which of 0.00p/day

16p/unit or 13p/day 11p/unit is the cheapest for your consumption.

The "Tarrif Comparison Rate" (TCR) is a load of bollocks unless your consumption is close to that they use to calculate it. 3200 kWh/year?