Uswitch gas and leccy

[Four Cofffee]

I switched from Npower to EDF about 4 years ago after the Uswitch calculator said I would save about £300 a year. With all the prices rises and falls, within 12 months that advantage seemed to have gone and Uswitch was saying I could save by moving back to Npower. I have just been on to Uswitch again today and it is calculating I would save £200 moving to Eon.

Is this all some 'smoke-and-mirrors' game the suppliers play ior do you really have to switch every few years to kep on top?

Any experiences/views?

[m4tt]

I call BS, never really seemed worth it. All very confusing with lots of different tariffs etc, I just stick with EDF shame their French though....

[Four Cofffee]

I thought I would see what the next bill looks like in December EDF suddenly went from wanting £55 a month to wanting £85 for gas, and £45 for the leccy from £25. Now the leccy is overstuffed with cash and the gas is still understuffed Sounds most odd.

[Merlot]

Four Cofffee said:

I switched from Npower to EDF about 4 years ago after the Uswitch calculator said I would save about £300 a year. With all the prices rises and falls, within 12 months that advantage seemed to have gone and Uswitch was saying I could save by moving back to Npower. I have just been on to Uswitch again today and it is calculating I would save £200 moving to Eon.

Is this all some 'smoke-and-mirrors' game the suppliers play ior do you really have to switch every few years to kep on top?

Any experiences/views?

Uswitch and any comparison website can only give you a snapshot of the current unit prices at the time you do a comparison.

If you really want 'best value', then you need to monitor and change quite frequently as the prices change often and suddenly different providers will be cheaper. However, it is a bit of a faff and it depends on the savings as to whether or not it is worth it, a 6 bed house where you can save £1.5k a year is probably more worthwhile than a 1 bed flat saving £25 - your call.

Also, most providers will stick you on their cheapest tarrif rather than let you go to a different company. I did this recently with NPower; the cheapest comparison quote was from EON, so I called NPower who changed me to their latest tarrif which was a good saving over the old, although not quite as good as EON's price (but small enough a difference not to make switching worthwhile.)