Saving Money on Electricity and Gas

There are lots of different ways of saving money on basic utilities, one of the most important is to be able to have some choice about how you pay. If you have a good credit score and are not using a meter then you will be able to get a lower price. It seems very unfair that the unit cost for people paying on a meter in this country is more expensive than for people paying on direct debit, but that is a rant for another day.

The first thing to do is identify which tariff you are on, which you can find out from your bill and then call your existing company and see if you are on the cheapest tariff they can offer you. Often the company's very cheapest rate is reserved for people who are switching to them so if you have been with the company for a while the chances are you are paying too much,

Next look at your annual usage, which the company should tell you about once a year. Armed with that figure go to a comparison website (moneysaving expert has great list) and plug in your figures. The website will quickly tell you whether or not switching supplier can save you money.

People are often put off changing because they think it will be complicated and difficult or because they don't have regular access to the internet. We change every year and it is very simple, the gas and electricity continue to come into your home, only you pay less and the heading on the bill changes ! The complicated and difficult thing can be getting your old company to return any money they owe !

Spark were our energy suppliers until this September but when we switches they owed us over 300 pounds as they had been taking too much from the direct debit, it took 2 months to get the money back because of the way their billing cycle works. So if you are going to switch regularly you must read your meters regularly and keep an eye on how much you are using. It is worth it as by switching in September our monthly direct debit went from 134 pounds a month to 83, a saving of over 50 pounds a month !

My challenge to you today :- Can you change gas and electricity suppliers to save money ?