Tracking down the cheapest energy supplier is often harder than you'd think. There are many factors that can affect your eventual choice. Many of them are outside your control. In America, for example, your choice will often be limited to the energy companies that operate in your locality. In practice, this means that someone in Los Angeles will have totally different choices to a buyer living in Colorado, Michigan or New Mexico. It will almost certainly end up that all of them will be paying vastly different dollar amounts for their utilities. It may not be fair, but it's the way things are.
In The United Kingdom, there are plenty of power companies able to sell gas and electricity direct to home-owners. Having said that, most UK energy is sold by what are known as the Big Six Energy Companies. They are: EDF Energy, British Gas, E.ON Energy, npower, Scottish Power and SSE. These six combined supply over fifty million homes in Britain.
Your best way of getting a great deal for your energy is to make use of the Internet. Aside from the information provided on the energy company's own sites, there are a large number of other sites offering comparisons and background information. You must balance all the information you find and work out which of them are independent and unbiased. Quite a few of these so-called "independent" websites are there to push you towards one supplier or another.
When comparing energy suppliers, you might - or might not - consider any of the following important: If you need a call-out how efficient are they at repairs? How good is your provider for service? Do you think about the long term costs as well as the short term? Would you rather get your gas and/ or electricity from a supplier that makes efforts to source renewable energy? Can the company increase your tariffs without giving you notice? Is cost the only motivational factor? How vital is a loyalty scheme to your way of thinking?
There's more to life than just money and when you look for the cheapest energy supplier, you may or may not want to consider any of the following questions: Have you looked at the longer term costs as well as the short-term? If things go wrong how efficient are the companies at putting things right? Do you take note of the ecological credentials of the provider you are looking at? Can the energy provider increase your prices without warning? How good is your provider for service? Would you prefer to get your gas and/ or electricity from a supplier that is committed to sourcing renewable energy?
Making choices when it comes to energy suppliers is not, as we say, as easy as it looks. The important thing is not to be rushed into agreeing to anything you are not 100% sure of. Never make up your mind when pushed by a salesman at your home or on the phone. In spite of their golden-tongued sales talk, the guy in front of you - or on the other end of a telephone line - might not be working for the best company. In fact, he almost certainly will not be. A rule of thumb that's served me well in life is that the best companies are the ones who do not have to employ hard sales techniques in order to ensnare their customers.
IMPORTANT: never, ever sign up to any new energy supplier without knowing all the facts. These two useful websites helped me and should help you: best home energy providers and a truthful review of Power4Home.
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