If you are soon to be out of contract with your energy supplier and will need to look for a news energy contract, then it will pay you to do some research and look around for what different tariffs are out there. Utility Bidder is a great website for seeing what options are currently available and finding a contract that is right for you.
Prepayment meter
If you live in a property where there is a prepayment meter present, this requires you to pay upfront for the energy that you will be using. When it comes to tariffs for prepayment meters, there are very few to actually choose from and they will always be more expensive than even the cheapest tariffs that are paid for via direct debit. If you have no outstanding debt owed to your energy supplier, then it may be worth considering if this is the right way for you to consume energy. It is likely to be the case that you will be much better off by changing over to a regular meter and paying for the energy that you use on a monthly basis. This way you do not run the risk of being left without any energy if you use too much.
Cheapest tariff
For those people looking for the cheapest possible option, it is a good idea to go for one that is either ‘capped’ or ‘fixed’ for a set amount of time, such as 12 months. This means that during this time period, the price of the tariff can not go up and so your bills should remain constant, providing that the same amount of energy is being used. If you are someone who finds it difficult to budget, then this is a good option to go for. However, you should only sign up to this type of contrast if you are happy with agreeing to something long term.
Using energy at night
An economy tariff will award you for using energy at night, but it will also punish your using it during the day time. This is a good option for those people who work shift patterns or use electric heaters, which are charged up at night. However, they only really pay off if you are using large amounts of energy at night, as you will be paying more for using it the rest of the time.
Environmentally friendly
There are now many different green tariffs out there for those people who want the energy that they use to come from a renewable source to pick from. Whilst they are typically more expensive, they do help you to seriously lower your carbon footprint, which is very important to a growing number of people in society. When looking at green tariffs, the supplier is required to tell you exactly how much of their energy comes from renewable sources and if they contribute financially to any type of environmental schemes with the money that you pay them for the energy that you use.