British Gas

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Pay my bills by DD. British Gas in their wisdom have decided to stop DD customers receiving notice of the cost of fuel each month. They'll let me know every SIX months. Just about to try and work it out myself. If I stop paying by DD then they'll bill me each month. WHAT?
 
Change supplier, I submit readings each month and pay for what I have used only. Account stays at £0, and that's DD.
 
I ditched British Gas just this weekend and saved £70 per year. They are deliberately making it harder for you to switch by using comparison sites.
 
I imagine by only billing twice a year, they are not providing the annual consumption figures people need to use when switching.
I wonder if OfGem are aware of this
 
mossienet said:
Pay my bills by DD. British Gas in their wisdom have decided to stop DD customers receiving notice of the cost of fuel each month. They'll let me know every SIX months. Just about to try and work it out myself. If I stop paying by DD then they'll bill me each month. WHAT?
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I have British Gas and it annoys me how they refund any credit over fifty quid.
Thought the whole idea was build it up in the summer to pay for the dearer winter bills.
Hadn't heard about the six monthly thing, my billing is usually worked out quarterly.
How about sending them a meter reading each month, think it automatically works out if you are roughly on track.
 
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Lindsay56 said:
I imagine by only billing twice a year, they are not providing the annual consumption figures people need to use when switching.
I wonder if OfGem are aware of this
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Write them down yourself.
I have mine going back a couple of years, monthly readings.
 
tijuana taxi said:
I have British Gas and it annoys me how they refund any credit over fifty quid.
Thought the whole idea was build it up in the summer to pay for the dearer winter bills.
Hadn't heard about the six monthly thing, my billing is usually worked out quarterly.
How about sending them a meter reading each month, think it automatically works out if you are roughly on track.
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That's what we do. I keep all the readings in a spreadsheet too.
 
I do keep my readings every couple of months, but use the summary consumption figures on bills to do my switching - note that I do not use what a lot of companies provide which is their expected annual consumption figures. These are provided based on the EAC/AA standard figures provided by the distributor companies, which are generic for geographic areas (I can't remember which definition of geography - it's many years since I worked in utility billing systems).
 
I send them a reading every month, it's only recently that they've stopped the monthly ... "This is what it costs."
 
I take a photo of both gas & electric meter readings each month before submitting my readings online to our energy supplier.
 
robj20 said:
How do they make it hard to switch?
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What Lindsay said :)

Their recent web site update is also less intuitive to navigate. To my mind this makes it harder to get the information you need to switch and that is a deliberate plaoy on their part.
 
Bristolian said:
I ditched British Gas just this weekend and saved £70 per year. They are deliberately making it harder for you to switch by using comparison sites.
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How do you know your saving before you have used any fuel?
 
broc said:
If the new supplier is charging less per unit of energy and a lower standing charge it would be reasonable to assume a saving?
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You might expect ,may, assume, should are all vague terms, the very words used by the endowment mortgage sellers.
These possible savings never seem to take into account any discount for paying by DD or dual fuel reductions.
Looked once and for a few quid just couldn't be bothered, know it wouldn't go smoothly for me.
The losing company has no incentive to be cooperative and spent far too long dealing with these companies when my old ma died.
 
tijuana taxi said:
You might expect ,may, assume, should are all vague terms, the very words used by the endowment mortgage sellers.
These possible savings never seem to take into account any discount for paying by DD or dual fuel reductions.
Looked once and for a few quid just couldn't be bothered, know it wouldn't go smoothly for me.
The losing company has no incentive to be cooperative and spent far too long dealing with these companies when my old ma died.
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Switching supplier works for me, we have seen real savings over the years, I was paying £140 a month for energy in 2014 just after we replaced our elderly gas central heating boiler.

In the last 7 years we have been with Ovo, Octopus and Shell Energy. Last year I paid £110 a month, this year I am paying £104. Switching on each occasion was quick & painless.
 
broc said:
I was paying £140 a month for energy in 2014 just after we replaced our elderly gas central heating boiler.
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Just replacing the boiler would likely reduce your gas consumption by 20-25 %, possibly more, depending on how elderly it was....
 
Switch every time my fixed period runs out. Why wouldn’t anybody if it saves money? Anyone on a variable tariff needs to look what’s available. I now use “Look after my bills” who do the switch automatically- all I do is a quick sense check on the rates.
If anyone is interested this link give me and you some sort of incentive.

lookaftermybills.com

Look After My Bills

Sign up once, get great energy deals forever. We'll get you a great deal taking care of everything. When that deal ends, we'll switch you again. You don't need to do anything.
lookaftermybills.com lookaftermybills.com
 
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Bobsyeruncle said:
Just replacing the boiler would likely reduce your gas consumption by 20-25 %, possibly more, depending on how elderly it was....
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We certainly did, replaced a useless Ideal combi with a Worcester Greenstar Compact.
Made quite a bit of difference and even better it actually worked.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Just replacing the boiler would likely reduce your gas consumption by 20-25 %, possibly more, depending on how elderly it was....
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It was a 30 year old Potterton, replaced by a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 30CDi system boiler, prior to the swap we were paying £160 a month. The boiler has paid for itself over the time we have had it. Switching supplier has probably saved a similar sum.
 
we have smart metres for gas and leccy ask for them installing.
 
tijuana taxi said:
How do you know your saving before you have used any fuel?
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I worked out the cost of my last year's gas and electricity would have been with the new suppliers unit charges. Took all of 15 minutes. The £70 calculation doesn't include the £96 uplift in tarriff cap that BG would have imposed at the end of March either. My energy unit costs are now fixed for the next 12 months.
 
That nice Mr Martin says that if you're been with the same supplier for 2 years, you are probably paying too much. *Sometimes* changing to a slightly more expensive supplier can even save you money since they often pay cashback (though I just checked and it seems not at the moment :( - but if Bulb is still a good deal they pay friends introduction bonuses)

USwitch, 10 mins, once a year. It's probably the best paying 10 mins of your year.
 
i have been with green for the last year and they seem pretty good - they have just put my electric up from about 12p to 16p per unit (sweb is one of the most expensive areas) and i thought i would switch but i still cannot find a better deal
 
You don't need to know how much energy you are using or how much you are paying per unit to swap providers.
I was paying £138/month for gas and electric. I swapped to Octopus in August and told them my monthly payment. They came back with £69/month which I thought ridiculously low, so I gradually increased it over a few months to £90/month. I currently owe about £48, but that will soon go into credit now the weather is warming up and daylight is increasing. Their rate is held for 2yrs too.
 
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