Gas & Electric supplies

[SpiceMan]

I need to reduce my Gas & Electric costs and would welcome any advice you may have. I have always used British Gas and Southern Electric and for the past 12 years had pre-payment meters for each. I now wish to a) change the meters to Monthly Direct Debit (I think that`s the cheapest tariff) and b) consider changing to cheaper suppliers for each or one supplier for both if it`s beneficial. Has anyone else made these changes and is it better to get the meters changed first or do it all in one go?

[buildersmate]

Start by looking here - it will answer many of your questions. The one it won't fully answer is what to do about the prepayment meter (look in Q&A section). The only thing it says is that you can't use uswitch to make the switch, unfortunetley.

http://www.uswitch.com

[Postdog]

I think the pre-payment meters are going to be obstacles actually. I know they are a very good way of paying, in that you pay up front, and only for what you use, but I think most companies seem to offer cheaper rates if you pay by direct debit and/or take both gas and electric from them. That way they still get the money OK. it's just you having to suffer because if you haven't got the money at the time, you just end up owing the banks, not them.