If you haven’t reviewed your gas and electricity tariffs for a while, I would recommend you do so to make sure you are not paying too much for your energy. Our tariff was a 12 month fixed tariff and it ended recently. The energy supplier recommended us a new tariff which was their lowest priced tariff based on our usage. However, when we compared the TCR from the old tariff to the new tariff, electricity was increasing from 11.89p/kWh to 15.64p/kWh and gas was increasing from 3.6p/kWh to 4.44p/kWh. This would have been a hike of 32% and 23% respectively! So unsurprisingly, we didn’t take up their recommended tariff and we changed supplier. Now our new electricity and gas TCRs are 12.5 p/kWh and 2.79 p/kWh respectively which we’re really pleased with as the price of gas has come down!
In case you didn’t know, TCR is the Tariff Comparison Rate and was introduced by Ofgem in 2014 to allow easier comparison from one tariff to another tariff from any energy supplier. The TCR assumes for a medium energy usage household so while it does give a good idea of energy costs, it is always best to run an energy price comparison for a more personalised quote.
There are many useful websites out there which can help you understand and compare your tariff. A really useful one we found is Ofgem’s Be an Energy Shopper. Here they tell you how to compare your tariff and explains the different types such as fixed, variable, dual fuel, online and prepayment. They also include a list of Ofgem accredited comparison sites. Using one of these is the easiest way to find the cheapest tariff for you and is also how we found our new tariff.
Once you’ve found your new tariff, don’t be afraid to take that final step and switch. We have switched many times over the years and we have never had any problems with it. This was the timeline for the milestones of our recent switch:
- 11th May – email received from old supplier telling us that our tariff was ending soon on 28th
- 19th May – we researched and shopped around and we switched online via a comparison website.
- 23rd May – we received a welcome email from the new supplier.
- 6th June – we were asked for meter readings from new supplier.
- 8th June – new tariff begins with new supplier.
- 30th June – final bill received from old supplier for supply up to 7th
Note, we had no exit fees with our old tariff otherwise we’d have waited to switch until after the 28th June.
So have a look at your tariff and see if it’s an appropriate time for you to compare your tariff or if not, diarise to check on it at a later date. Hopefully you might save yourself some money!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.
