01-Mar-2007
Could you earn £500 per hour at work?
Unfortunately, you can't earn this every hour or even every day, but by spending around 30 minutes of your time, you could make savings of up to £300 per annum on your Utility bills, earning the sorts of money I opened with here....and all tax-free.
By now you will realise that the free cash I refer to in the title starts off as your own, but if you are not with the cheapest supplier, you are paying more than you need to.....start today to take control and get your money back in your mitts.
Continuing an editorial I started with late last year, I told you to forget the pessimism being shown by Utility analysts talking of higher gas and electricity prices for some time to come; instead I suggested that prices would fall if there was sufficient consumer pressure. I also anticipated the reduction in spot prices arising from changes to the supply\demand mix.
For those that don't understand why prices rose so high, this has come about because of :
(a) a squeeze on our supply versus the demand creating volatility and record high prices in the wholesale spot markets.
(b) Supplier long-term contracts (25 years+ ?) with producers will have other various price indexes and adjustments built into their pricing mechanism and of course needed to recover these costs. I would anticipate that although contract base prices would have been fixed at historically lower prices, particular pricing mechanisms would have taken account of available spot prices, oil prices and a whole host of other potential factors from the commercial environment
(c) Utilities are not always secured 100% through long term deals and there is reliance upon the spot markets to provide fuels to all consumers - the high prices in that market passed through to customers and potentially created upward pricing spirals in the long term deals.
(d) Movement away from Coal-based Electricity Generation to Gas exerted further pressures on supply versus demand.
Recent changes to the supply arrangements whereby new interconnector pipelines are bringing additional Gas into the UK from Continental Europe have eased the pressures on supply; therefore wholesale spot pricing has fallen dramatically from its highs - as a comparison 32p/Therm on the coldest day of winter 2006/7 compared to 70p/Therm the previous year. The major players have now started responding to this and there is now scope to take advantages of the cheapest rates applicable to your own usage patterns and postcode - it is not necessarilly a universally cheaper provider.
Here are the most recent announcements:
British Gas
Announced a 17% reduction for gas and 11% for electricity on 8th February with its new prices effective from 12th March. It has also reduced prices twice on its online plan “Click Energy 2”.
npower
Announced a 16% reduction in gas and 3% in electricity prices on 19th February, effective from 30th April. Offers an additional £21 discount to its online dual fuel plan for new customers, which is available immediately.
Powergen
Launched four new plans on 15th February, which it guaranteed would be cheaper than British Gas’s standard plans until September 2008. It also reduced its online plan “Energy Online Extra Saver” with immediate effect. This has been followed on 27th February by a 16% reduction in gas and 5% reduction in electricity prices. Prices are effective from 30th April for standard plans.
Scottish and Southern Energy
(includes Scottish Hydro Electric, Atlantic Electric and Gas, Southern Electric and SWALEC) Just announced a 12% cut in gas prices effective from 1st March and 5% in electricity from 1st April.
Now that the major players have shown their hand, it is a good time to review your own circumstances by visiting one of the readily available pricing comparison engines on the internet ... just do a search on google.co.uk for "price comparison"...There are many around.
Remember to price Electricity and Gas separately as well as looking for a Dual Fuel offer with the same supplier...it could be cheaper to take your fuels from different suppliers.
My own personal favourite price comparison engine is Uswitch. The reason for choosing Uswitch over others for me is that it is a portal covering all sorts of household opportunities to save e.g. Broadband Internet, Digital TV, Credit Cards etc.. and for many of the suppliers will have actual customer reviews if that is a consideration in your switching decision.
Many of the price comparison services will allow you to switch directly through their own internet sites when they have a direct relationship with the supplier. Uswitch is no different, but will also allow you to look at additional suppliers and for a little more time and maybe greater savings you might need to switch outside of the price comparison site.
So, David Cameron says - Earn Fat Cat Wages for yourself and if you do one thing this weekend, whether you use my recommended comparison service or search google for another, use one of them at least and dig out your fuel bills to check what savings you can make and start switching to a cheaper provider now - you will be switched in around 4-6 weeks as the lower prices come in to force. If everyone did that, the prices would fall even further.
Fuel bills are definitely where most people can make savings, but don't forget to look at other areas where you can save.
Labels: Electricity, Fat Cat, Gas, Price Comparison, Uswitch, Utility
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