Cheaper Electric Cheaper Electricity Bills

I do not necessarily want the cheapest supplier although, obviously, I do not want to pay miles over the odds. What I would like is an ethical supplier that doesn’t pester me with offers I’m not interested in, cold call me on the phone or bother me on my doorstep. I would also be interested in "green" credentials. Can you help me?

Try" consumer choices" you may need some info ready i.e/bills/amount of gas elec used/they will need that to compare

I am a first time buyer. I have to change everything over to my name but wanted to know how i go abouts on picking what gas and electric supplier I should go with.

How do you know you are getting the cheapest deal?

I have searched on some of the price comparison website but it askes the figures for how much gas and electric I would use in a year. I am not sure what this would be because I never had to pay for electric or gas before as I was living with parents.

Any tips or advise would be appriciated.
Thanks

Everything you did was correct. You need to search a price comparison. When I bought my first house, the pervious owners provided me with a statement of how much gas, water, heat, etc that they used over the past 5 years to give me an idea of how effecient the house and utilites were. I would contact your previous owners and ask them for some sort of statement to see how much they used to you can find out who can give you the best deal. Good Luck!

i did just mouve in and the meter wos in

There will be a number on the meter and it should give a clue as to who it belongs to, how do you get the credit for the meter payment, is it a card or key, I would presume it will be your local electrical supplier, I am in scotland and I think the only one that does the payg is Scottish Power, there must be something with a phone number on it because if the previous occupant left you a key/card it will be credited to them and they could have arrears to pay? If they previous occupant informed the power company they were moving out the key/card will be blocked.

No one believes me when I’m telling others I’m paying £1,222.per year just for my electricity I am getting no help with this matter my home is 3 bedroom semi detached when I added my post code to how much the average house hold in my road uses in a year was £5500 I no something is wrong i asked my first supplier about this and they said i would be charged for call out ETC witch i could not afford i asked a energy adviser got no were with them reason being not believing me i do not go out on my own because of my illness so i was told to change my meter as i tried to pay for my electric over the phone and it was a prepayment meter and i could no do it so the person i spoke to told me to pay by DD it would make it easier but i explained my other supplier wanted 85 per month and 75 for my gas i can not afford it but to be honest i was putting in for both gas and electric was £220+ every month now with changing my meter i was told it was against the law to have more than 1 feeds supplying 2 houses in which there was 1 feed supplying 4 houses so i was told they were going to have 1 feed to one home and i was happy with that now when the work was just to go ahead my next door neighbour told them she was ill and st oped the work going ahead this as hap pend 3 times the last one they did all the work and only wanted to drill a small hole from the joining ally way to cut the live wire but again she would not let them in so they packed up and said they can only carry out the work if she would be willing to let them I phoned the council about this has she never used the ally way because she blocked her self off from putting a small gate on her side I caught her son and his mates weeing down the ally in which my daughter used to run up and down so husband put a metal gate on and gave her a key for the gate it got locked at 10 pm and was open at 7am when some one from the council about her not been able to use the alleyway i told him every thing that she had only did this to prevent the work going ahead so i showed him that the gate was open and we gave her a key and said that we locked it at 10 pm outwith he agreed with us doing so when my husband confronted her with the council man she sent to us she went back indoors and shuck her head help me please I’m having a lot more health problems now i just don’t no what to do and to top it off when the electricians started to put the mole in from the path he found a fault with the street lights out-side my property were they moved them further up to my home when they started to modernise the council homes I no I sound stupid but if you got electricity bills for over £1,222.per year I no some thing is not wright please help me

Reading and understanding your post was quite hard. However, take a look around your at all of your electrical items. Do you leave any of them on just for the sake of it, ie leave the tv on in the sitting room and go into the garden (I am not saying you do, just an example). General rule – if it is not being used – switch it off. This includes lights. Plasma TVs drink electricity. Boiling a kettle many times during the day, drink electricity. Take a look at your electricity useage habits – and work from there.
If you can, switch off ALL of the electrical items. Then go and check your meter box. Has the meter stopped – then your problem is down to you. Is the meter still spinning, even slightly – get the electric board out – this will be free of charge. Hope this helps.

Hi guys,

Ive been living at my current property since july 2008 and just found out that my current energy supplier has been charging me for my electric on an economy 7 meter (which i never knew i had)the thing is i changed to my current supplier from another earlier in the year, so was with the previous supplier for nearly a year also being charged through economy 7 meter when i have central heating. I have no bills from the first supplier (as it was a long time ago and i shread my bills) and dont know if im entitled to a recalculation or if that they can do it or that im entitled to a refund of the difference??. Now i know why my electric bills were expensive!! need some help/advice please!!??

get the old company to send you copies of the bills and then you will be able to check.

I understand the Deregulation of the Telephone System back in the 80s but now I am hearing about Deregulation of Energy can this even be possible? the energy companies are so old.

Does this really main we can choose our own energy supplier? What is the benefit if any for me to change and get my Electric from a different place?

There is a relationship between government and distribution of goods (including energy) within the state. Republics and Democracies often rely upon markets to distribute the goods. But not always. Sometimes companies get so big that they become virtual monopolies and eliminate the moderating power of markets. Sometimes governments want to create monopolies as a way to handle certain areas like electricity. In these times regulations take the place of markets. Sometimes governments hand out advantages in the form of subsidiaries. This changes market preferences so regulations are attached as a counterbalance. And sometimes markets are influenced by advertising as in the case of cigarettes so that regulations attempt to control this.

So markets are generally preferred but they don’t always work. Government often blindly go from supporting regulations to supporting markets. Conditions change overtime and regulations may not change as quickly as markets can adapt absent unequal pressures.

Deregulation is the process of shifting back to allowing markets to distribute goods like energy. If there were a silent group fixing prices or media control, deregulation will not work as markets depend upon price to influence buying decisions. If there are too few players in a market deregulation will not work as alternative choices are not available. In theory deregulation will allow prices to fluctuate and permit buyers to choose between different parties offering the same goods or services. In theory this means you could go out and buy your petrol from different suppliers or choose to use another alternative fuel entirely. You could choose to heat your home in any number of ways from different suppliers and could change as quickly as you decide.

Deregulation when there are few alternatives gives more control to the suppliers.

…after marriage, but not in the usual manner. My partner and I are considering changing our names via deed poll. We’d both take my last name, but with her last name as our middle name.

If we do this, I assume we’d both have to change the names on our passports, but otherwise could we just carry on as before? Since we’d both still be keeping our old names in a way, could our banks, electric suppliers, insurance companies, tax office etc etc still keep records of us with our previous names?

Thanks for answering. Relevant links would be especially useful, as would providing an information number I could call!

You do not need to do anything other than start using your new names – changing by Deed Poll is not a legal requirement. However banks, government departments will make life difficult if you don’t go through the formalities.

I am thinking to change Energy supplier. I have just top-up (£50 each) my prepayment meters (both gas and electric) credit, If I change Energy Supplier now, what would happen to my current credit. Would I loss all my current credit if I insert a new gas/electric card into the meter?

to get a TRUE answer just call the company to find out.

it was rented and my landlord asked me to leave details of water and electric suppliers so that he could change it to the new tenants name. I’ve recently found out that this didn’t happen and that the new tenants have been getting their supplies in my name. The companies have told me that it was my responsibility to inform them of my move when i left and are trying to charge me. Could I get the new tenants done for fraud? I live in UK. Thanks

Against the tenants the theory is called unjust enrichment. Basically it means they got something for free which they knew was not free. You could also sue your landlord for negligence. You collect only once. You sue them both.

.I’m a student living in a rented one bedroomed flat in Blackpool. My electricity is costing me £50 a month! I am very energy aware and live in one room in the evenings with one light and the TV. i turn off all lights and appliances when not using them so the amount i’m paying is confusing and upsetting me. The flat uses economy 7 and I think this is part of the problem as I cannot set any appliances to come on in the night (as they don’t have timers) so I have to cook, shower, use the washing machine etc at peak prices during the day. I still cant see how this is costing me £50 and I really need some help. I don’t know what to do for the best- to change electric supplier (i’m with Eon) or change the meter if I can? or try and ask the landlord to get rid of economy 7? but I know the cost of that would be huge. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
What do you guys mean, change the tariff on EON to one that does not include Economy 7? or remove economy 7 from my account? Would this mean paying for electric and heating separately? Sorry this is the first time i’ve had to deal with this stuff.

Are you solely responsible for the bill, or are you paying a set amount to your landlord? If the electricity is down to you, and you are allowed to switch suppliers, then go to uswitch.com to assess if there is a better supplier for you.

Also, is the £50 the initial direct debit that you set up? It is possible that you are building up a lot of credit with the electricity supplier?