Compare Gas And Electricity Prices - Is It Actually Worth It?   by Paul D. Brown

in Finance / PersonalFinance    (submitted 2011-02-09)

Unless you have been living under a rock lately, you will have noticed all the adverts appealing to you to compare gas and electricity prices. On the face of it, it seems like sensible advice, but in reality is it actually worth the effort?

My general view would be that it is worth it, but that you need to be careful and takes lots into consideration.

The rise of the price comparison website appears to make it easy to look at the prices offered by different companies, and then if one is cheaper than your current supplier, you could be tempted to simply switch. However, it may not be as straight forward as that, and the main reason would be charges in the small print...

Many energy companies looking to get your custom will offer to do all the change over work for you, including cancelling with your current supplier. What they may not tell you is that your current supplier may charge you to terminate your supply.

This could include a charge to stop the actual physical supply, but another charge to stop the administration of your account!

If the change-over is not done correctly with your bank account, you may even end up with bank charges on top. That could make a huge dent in any saving you make.

It's also important to check whether any new company is looking to tie you into longterm contracts, or fixed rates for your energy supply. Either of those factors could end up wiping out anything you may save in the longterm, maybe even more which would end up costing you money!

Watch out too for any introductory offers, offering a cheaper rate for 6 months to a year for example. That's a common technique to use, as the new company might even take a loss on your account for a few months, and then quietly increase the price.

You can be sure they will not make as much noise about the increase as they did for the initial offer that reeled you in.

You may want to look further into any company suggesting you switch to them. Is it a new company, with a solid reputation? You may be influenced by whether it's a foreign or domestic company.

Something you could do even before you start looking at other companies is to check that you are making all the savings you can with your current supplier. Could you save money if you paid by direct debit for example? If you have different suppliers for gas and electricity, maybe either of them could offer you a saving by offering you dual fuel, both together?

A quick phone call to your present supplier telling them that you are making comparisons may yield surprising offers from them, they will do as much as they can to keep you as a customer.

So to sum up, while it does no harm to investigate, it's important not to rush into any snap decisions when you compare gas and electricity prices.

About the Author

To learn more about comparing gas and electricity, please visit us at: http://comparegasandelectricitypricessite.com/. For another informative article on the subject, please go to: http://ezinearticles.com/?Things-to-Look-for-With-Gas-and-Electricity-Suppliers&id=5838965 Hope this will help you in the never ending quest to save money