Moving home is a stressful affair. On a par with divorce as one of
life's most traumatic events, many of its anxieties come from dealing with
people and situations over which we have little or no control. Whether you're
renting or buying; the treadmill of viewings, estate agents, packing and
unpacking, "interested" buyers and waiting for an offer or waiting to see if
your offer has been accepted can really take a toll.
Often overlooked in the turmoil of a home move are the services that we
require in our new home. Top of the list is the home energy supply. When an energy
supplier receives notice that a resident is moving out, they change the account
to a "deemed rate", and there it stays until the new resident changes it.
Sometimes referred to as "emergency tariffs", deemed rates are amongst
the most expensive tariffs in the marketplace and customers usually end up on
deemed rates when they move into a new home. It happens when the previous
resident contacts their supplier with meter readings and closes their account.
This leaves a limbo period where the supplier doesn't know who's responsible
for the energy supply and they don?t have any billing information. Generally
they are very slow to actually shut off the supply, so instead they send a
"Dear New Resident" letter requesting billing information to the address and
set the account to their deemed rate.
Until the new resident contacts the supplier and provides billing
information or changes the tariff and supplier altogether, their electricity
and gas will cost them way above the odds. In fact, even a dual fuel deemed
rate can be 25% more expensive than direct debit internet deals, and if the gas
and electricity supply is from two different companies, the combination of two
deemed rates can make the cost of home energy even higher.
Most new residents are unaware that they are paying so much for their
gas and electricity and because the supply doesn't get shut off, they are slow
to contact the energy company. Even when they do respond to the requests from
their supplier, very few people think to change the tariff to a more
competitive rate - leaving them on the deemed rate indefinitely.
"There is so much to do when moving that many people forget to
transfer accounts and services to their new home." says Eileen
Rutschmann of movers help service iammoving.com. "We find that one of
the most commonly overlooked services is the energy supply. Because the lights
stay on in the new home, people often leave it far longer than they should to
contact their new supplier or get onto a better deal. And during that time
suppliers are charging away at their most expensive rates. It's important to
contact suppliers and check for a better deal as soon as possible because it
can take a couple of months for the changes to take place."
Home movers can switch tariffs and suppliers shortly after they have
taken over residence. The existing supplier will write asking for account and
billing information and once the existing supplier is identified a switch can
be done using an online comparison service or by going direct to the energy
suppliers. It is worth using a comprehensive comparison service because they
generally show the entire market and new deals frequently become available.
A common stumbling block for home movers who want to switch is trying to
figure out how much gas and electricity they will use in a new home; especially
if it's bigger or more energy efficient than their old home. Because of this
most comparison services and energy suppliers are able to estimate usage based
on the size of the house and the number of people living there. When a usage
pattern is established, the direct debits can then be adjusted if they are set
too high or too low.
"Many consumers are expecting energy prices to come down now" says Florian Ritzmann of comparison site Unravelit.com,
"but when was the last time your car insurance came down when you didn't shop
around? In August suppliers introduced a range of new internet based tariffs
that are much cheaper than the rates they replaced but they are only available
if you sign up to them. People need to be prepared to spend a few minutes
comparing and be prepared to switch - this is doubly true for home movers on
deemed rates."
Simon Moynihan is the Customer Support manager for Xelector. Xelector provides the gas and electricity comparison service for MSN.
This article also appeared on MSN and can be seen here
Thursday September 3rd, 2009 
