I'm looking at using uswicth to change gas supplier. I don't want to play this game but just had another hike in my direct debit to brit gas - so thought I see if switching words (ie results in cheaper bill).
Looking at the feedback on uswitcg site, one of the gotchas is that of sync'ing the D debits. One chap (somehow) endup up with 2 dd's -one to existing supplier and 2nd to the new one.
Does uswitch autmagically stop the existing dd and start a new one? (Rather, is that was is supposed to happen). I'd like to find out before I click the "doit" button. thx
Just tell your bank to cancel the old direct debit - that's the way the DD system is designed to work.
Obviously, if there is anything outstanding on the old account, you'll have to settle that. Perhaps you might need to let the existing DD run on until it is?
Well only if it doesn work properly - as I mentioned that chap ended up with two DD. What I'm asking though is is uswicth *supposed* to handle the business of sorting the DDs. Seems I have to actually do a switch to find out.
Why use uswitch at all? The few times we have switched suppliers we have DIY-d it - that is, just told the new supplier we want to join and the old we want to leave. Indeed, the most recent time we did not even have to tell the old supplier we wanted to leave as the new supplier handled that, albeit the old supplier (quite rightly) checked with us that we had initiated the move. As regards DD, I agree with Terry you should let the old one run on until the account is closed and cleared.
When I switched away from them, they were a bit reluctant to issue a final bill, but kept sending me 'come back to us' letters.
Finally, I phoned my new provider to complain at what was going on, and was astonished to get, about 15 minutes later, a grovelling call from BG promising 'action this day', followed very shortly by the final bill. I don't know what the young lady said, but it was very effective.
The DD guarantee system should take care of any problems, as they refund you for any mistakes, rather than BG.
*If* that's the only reason and you know your annual consumption, ring them up and tell them what it should be or threaten to leave. I use a spreadsheet and have rung up suppliers on several occasions and had my DD adjusted. It's not a savings scheme ! As for changing supplier, again I do that regularly. Just tell the company you want them to supply you and leave the rest to them. Don't close the original DD as they will want to take the final bill.
I imagine she said, "regulatory complaint", not only are the numbers of these collated as performance indicators but the offending party pays a fixed investigation cost, about 300quid I think. Sort of sharpens their interest.
To the o/p, DD's are nothing to do with Uswitch, they just pass the data to the new supplier who initiates the switch and notifies the loser. Keep in touch with both new and old supplier to ensure that they don't screw up but the ones I have supervised have gone ok and even when a panicing elder (with plenty of money to afford a double payment) cancelled a DD prematurely the old supplier (Scot Hydro IIRC) was fine with a final cheque settlement. People screw this up all the time.
Uswitch don't have anything to do with DDs. They provide you with information to help you decide whether you would be better off switching, pass your details to the new supplier and receive a hefty back-hander for doing so. There are several 'switching' websites, but you don't have to use any of them - you can contact your new chosen supplier direct. The new supplier contacts the old one, and arranges for the switch to take place on a specified date. You supply meter reading(s) on that date, and the old supplier issues a final bill.
Bear in mind that, in all cases, you end up paying for the *actual* energy which you use. Your supplier makes an estimate of your annual bill and takes 1/12 of that in each monthly DD. Whether, at the point of switch, your old supplier will owe you a refund, or whether you will owe them some money, will depend on the accuracy of their estimate. So, if you have under-payed your old supplier, switching may result in a short-term cash-flow spike!
In order to decide whether it's worth switching, you need to do a calculation (or let a switch-type website do it) of your current costs, and projected costs with a different supplier, based on your *actual* consumption. If you don't do that, you could get misleading results and may end up worse off by switching.
You missed out on the freebies. I can't remember which switch sites I've used but the first time gave £30 cashback and the second time six bottles of perfectly decent wine.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.