Renewing your energy contract can be a struggle regardless of its type, whether it’s a fixed rate or variable, business or residential. Some retailers and their call centre operators are always finding new ways to extract the maximum out of your pocket with additional charges and exit fees, so you need to be extremely vigilant about what you’re signing up for.
One way to protect yourself is by considering it vital that you outline exactly the period when your contract starts and ends – according to energy law, if you fail to draw attention to this before signing, you could be exposed to a number of charges for the full term of the contract.
You should read your Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) and retail agreement thoroughly before signing up – never sign anything on the spot and always ask questions whenever possible. You will also need to know your rights concerning exit fees and cooling-off periods; most commonly, a cooling-off period will give you up to 14 days to change your mind after signing your contract. You can also sometimes get out of a contract if you find your new provider has not been clear with you about the market rates – these will rise and fall daily, and directly impact your unit rate, and therefore your bill, so always check before signing up.
You should always shop around when renewing an energy contract – comparing deals on sites like Switch Energy or those from renewable energy providers themselves can save you hundreds of pounds every year, even though the actual subscription costs may be similar between two companies at first glance. Alternatively, using a broker will bring you offers that you will be unable to find elsewhere, and takes a lot of the work from you, making the process much easier.
We feel a good tip is to look for fixed-rate deals as they are rarer and tend to be more competitively priced than variable ones; often comparing with other suppliers in this way will reveal that a particular deal really is cheaper than others despite its per kWh price being higher.
Sometimes it is also worth looking at the other services an energy company has to offer; if you are happy with your current electricity and gas supplier but want a broadband contract, for example, switching to one that includes this may save you money on the whole.