Gas and electricity prices rose sharply during the autumn of 2011. For many, this will have been the second such increase in less than a year. Energy price increases generally hit ‘loyal’ non-switching customers the hardest. As we enter the peak winter period for energy use, it’s vitally important that you act quickly to be certain that you’re with the best value energy supplier.
Failure to maintain your billing service with the best available energy deal could be costing you over £300 extra each year. If you’ve never switched, the savings will be significantly higher. Checking with uSwitch only takes a few minutes and costs nothing. Once you’ve picked a cheaper deal, switching is free and easy to do.
Don’t be bamboozled into staying put. In practice, switching suppliers is really only changing the company who sends your energy bill; everything else stays the same. See how easy it is to find the best value supplier and take control of your energy bills with our five-step guide.
Your energy bill contains all the information you need to compare prices and switch suppliers. The overall appearance of bills will understandably vary by supplier, but the core information will be the same. We’ve included a collection of real energy bill images from some of the big six suppliers so you can see what to look out for in your own bills.
In the never-ending chase to attract new customers, the energy suppliers regularly release new deals or ‘plans’. The names of these deals can often sound quite similar, but are specific to each supplier and identify the rates you pay. In the example E-on bill below, you can see that the customer is signed to their SaveOnline 9 deal. The British Gas customer is on their Standard Tariff and so really should be checking prices for a cheaper deal straight away!
Providing uSwitch with the name of your existing energy supplier deal will tell them exactly how much you are paying now, making the comparisons accurate. If you’ve never switched or your bill doesn’t show a named deal, you are likely to be paying your supplier’s ‘Standard Tariff’. This will probably be their most expensive rate and you really must take action to switch to a cheaper deal straight away.
There are a few ways you can let uSwitch know how much gas and electricity you use for the purposes of comparison. Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to guess or just enter how much you have been paying each month. The best way is to be aware of your last twelve months’ consumption in kWh for both gas and electricity. We know this sounds technical, but it’s really only two simple numbers which are printed on every bill you receive. You just need to know what you’re looking for. Take a look at the example bills to see how this might be displayed on your own bill.
As a rough guide, the average UK household uses 3,300 kWh of electricity and 16,500 kWh equivalent of gas. These two figures are just averages, so your own consumption may be considerably different. Knowing the most recent actual kWh figures for your own home will make checking prices online quick, easy and accurate any time you have a spare few minutes.
If your current energy supplier doesn’t include annualised energy use totals on every bill, look for your most recent bill which includes an Annual Energy Statement. Alternatively, you can add together the quarterly amounts from your last four consecutive bills to manually calculate these figures instead.
Once you’ve seen how much money you’ll be saving by switching, you’ll probably want to get the ball rolling to switch suppliers straight away. In addition to the information above, the only other detail you need to make the switch is your supply ID numbers. These are not the ‘Meter Serial Numbers’ on your bill, although they may be listed in the same area of your bill as the meter serial numbers.
For electricity: The ID number for your electricity supply will be shown on your bill as the ‘MPAN’ (Meter Point Administration Number) or ‘Supply Number’. The box on your bill containing this unique number will be prefixed with a large letter ‘S’ as in the example below.
For gas: The ID number for gas is called the MPRN or ‘Meter Point Reference Number’ or ‘M Number’. Your MPRN will be a ten digit number.
We’ve given some examples of what they look like below. The format of these numbers is the same regardless of which supplier you currently use.
Congratulations! You now have all the information you need to compare energy supplier prices and start the switching process if you decide to go ahead. Just pop your postcode in the box below and click ‘Compare Prices’ to go to the uSwitch website and find the best deal available in your area.
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