I’ve never switched #PowerToSwitch

I like to think that I’m quite good at getting a good deal. Every year I spend the time comparing our home, buildings and car insurances to make sure I’m getting the best coverage and most importantly price. I shop via cashback websites to gain a little bit back on the shopping that I would have ordinarily got nothing back on. Whenever we go on days out I try to make use of offers and discount coupons. Where is this all leading? I have a confession when it comes to saving money… I’ve never switched energy supplier, ever!

That’s right I’ve never switched energy supplier! When we first moved into together we lived in a block of flats where we all had to use the same energy supplier, I suppose this was for ease of use for the management company. So when we moved into our current home, I simply rang up the energy supplier that the previous owners had used, gave them a meter reading and here we are nearly nine years later.

Why I’ve never switched

There are several reasons as to why I’ve never switched…

1. Having heard nightmare stories from family and friends about when they have changed energy suppliers, including the amount of time it takes to complete the switch over – Switching times have been cut in half to about 17 days, down from 5 weeks last year 
2. I’ve never really been that convinced that I’ll save that much to make the effort to switch – Families can save around £200, sometimes even more, by switching
3. I don’t know which energy supplier would be the cheapest and even how to do about starting the switching process – It is easy to compare using Ofgem-approved comparison sites via www.BeAnEnergyShopper.com

Having watched  the ‘Power to switch’ DECC TV advert it appears that I could be making much bigger savings than I thought and that by comparing the 27 different energy suppliers I could find the right tariff for us as a family.

How do I switch?

There are 3 steps to switching supplier:

1. Before you start shopping around, you’re going to need some key information about your current gas and electricity tariffs. So grab a recent bill or an annual summary sent any time after April 2014.

This will have the following information:

• • Your tariff name.

• • Your tariff end date.

• • Your method of payment.

• Your annual consumption

2. Start comparing tariffs – Price comparison sites are a great way to accurately compare current prices, along with any comparable tariffs. But there are a number of other ways too. For more information visit www.beanenergyshopper.com

3. Switch either by switching through a price comparison website or contacting the energy company you would like to switch to.

It looks like I have no excuse not to compare my current energy deal with others that are on the market (wonder what I could treat myself to with the savings?)

Disclosure: I’m working with BritMums and DECC alongside the #PowertoSwitch campaign. I have been compensated for my time. All editorial and opinions are my own. Visit www.BeAnEnergyShopper.com (NOTE: make the backend link our bit.ly: http://bit.ly/BritMumsPowertoSwitch) for more information about switching energy suppliers.