Wednesday, May 18, 2011

To Switch (Your Energy supplier) or not to switch. That is the question....

Is it just me or is it a nightmare trying to find out how to save money on your energy bills. It's such a tedious process that I'm left wondering if it is deliberately so. It seems that the gas and electricity suppliers rely on customers either not being bothered to switch to another company or else being so baffled by the various tariffs that they don't know whether or not they'll be better off. Confused? I certainly was but it's certainly worth pursuing because the savings aren't minuscule by any means. If you are on EDF's standard tariff, as I am, then it seems that the savings can be as much as £400 a year just for taking out one of their basic contracts and paying by monthly direct debit instead of quarterly! Not to be sniffed in these hard times. That would pay for a few meals on holiday, perhaps even pay for a holiday if you're camping. If you switch to British Gas or one of the other suppliers the savings might be even greater. The thing is EDF don't make much of an effort to tell you about this and, if you're busy then the chances are you don't even know what tariff you are on. It seems that you get practically nothing for being a loyal customer these days (surely the opposite should be true and you should get the best treatment and prices) so you may as well be promiscuous and start switching or, at least threatening to do so. All I'm saying is do yourself a favour and invest an hour or so of you time and you could save quite a chunk of money. Don't and you definitely won't....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do yourself a favour and click on the Utilities section of the www.moneysavingexpert.com web site. Not only points to the comparision web site but gives you the news of pending price hikes by the utility companies.

And while you are there check out the restaurant deals and even get a family rail card free for 2 months followed by 12 months at half price.

Tonbridge blogger said...

Yep did that and a good tip it was. I looked at some other price comparison sites as well and concluded that I'd stick with EDF but at least I was able to speak to them armed with relevant info. I reckon I'l save at least £270 in the next year which cannot be all bad....