I like to think that I’m quite good at getting a good deal. Every year I spend the time comparing our home, buildings and car insurances to make sure I’m getting the best coverage and most importantly price. I shop via cashback websites to gain a little bit back on the shopping that I would have ordinarily got nothing back on. Whenever we go on days out I try to make use of offers and discount coupons. Where is this all leading? I have a confession when it comes to saving money… I’ve never switched energy supplier, ever!
That’s right I’ve never switched energy supplier! When we first moved into together we lived in a block of flats where we all had to use the same energy supplier, I suppose this was for ease of use for the management company. So when we moved into our current home, I simply rang up the energy supplier that the previous owners had used, gave them a meter reading and here we are nearly nine years later.
Why I’ve never switched
There are several reasons as to why I’ve never switched…
- Having heard nightmare stories from family and friends about when they have changed energy suppliers, including the amount of time it takes to complete the switch over – Switching times have been cut in half to about 17 days, down from 5 weeks last year
- I’ve never really been that convinced that I’ll save that much to make the effort to switch – Families can save around £200, sometimes even more, by switching
- I don’t know which energy supplier would be the cheapest and even how to do about starting the switching process – It is easy to compare using Ofgem-approved comparison sites via www.BeAnEnergyShopper.com
Having watched the ‘Power to switch’ DECC TV advert it appears that I could be making much bigger savings than I thought and that by comparing the 27 different energy suppliers I could find the right tariff for us as a family.
How do I switch?
There are 3 steps to switching supplier:
1. Before you start shopping around, you’re going to need some key information about your current gas and electricity tariffs. So grab a recent bill or an annual summary sent any time after April 2014.
This will have the following information:
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- Your tariff name.
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- Your tariff end date.
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- Your method of payment.
- Your annual consumption
2. Start comparing tariffs – Price comparison sites are a great way to accurately compare current prices, along with any comparable tariffs. But there are a number of other ways too. For more information visit www.beanenergyshopper.com
3. Switch either by switching through a price comparison website or contacting the energy company you would like to switch to.
It looks like I have no excuse not to compare my current energy deal with others that are on the market (wonder what I could treat myself to with the savings?)
Disclosure: I’m working with BritMums and DECC alongside the #PowertoSwitch campaign. I have been compensated for my time. All editorial and opinions are my own. Visit www.BeAnEnergyShopper.com (NOTE: make the backend link our bit.ly: http://bit.ly/BritMumsPowertoSwitch) for more information about switching energy suppliers.
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