Electric and Gas suppliers, please

[Guest thebeans]

Hi all, it's been asked a few times before but seems to change all the time, we move into our long term rental on Friday and need to get connected and was wondering who are the cheapest provider for these two utilities, had a look on a comparison website and it was no Go Compare I can tell you, so was wondering what your experiences and advice are, thanks a lot in advance Steve.

[SarahB]

When it comes to utilities the prices are all very similar, what differs is the discounts here. You can get discounts around the 15% mark with most companies but you would need to ask for it, some do discounts on the whole bill some on just the usage charges. But don't be fooled into thinking if it's the whole bill its better, it isn't always, you will probably be billed on a step tarrif for electric you want the first cheaper tarrif to have a higher kwh allowance to keep the cost down and for gas you want the first mj step to be smaller as the more you use the cheaper it gets and each companies steps are different. Then look at your discounts you can usually sign up for 2 years an get a good deal and most are moving in the way of pay on time, direct debit, paperless billing discounts now so if your happy to do all of those things you will get better discounts. And so far as moving to a new house here in south Australia goes if you call before 230pm you will get a same day connection (takes longer for disconnection at old house though). Unfortunately compare websites aren't that great here so you have to do the legwork yourself but if you do sign a contract and find its not the best deal you have 10 business days cooling off period to change your mind.