The Captain's Blog ™

From today (23 March 2009), British Gas WebSaver 2 prices will be just a little lower. I say a little, because the tweaks really aren’t all that significant, amounting to just £20 (around 1.9%) based on the illustration provided (below). However, any extra reduction helps.

In fact, based on a quick bit of research at utilities switching site uSwitch, the changes seem to have been engineered so as to budge npower off the top of the price comparison results table. This finding assumes dual fuel supply at the average consumption figures detailed below, with payment by monthly direct debit. Results may also vary depending on your postcode (as utility prices for any particular area include an element of transport-related costs).

The specifics of the British Gas price reductions are as follows:

1. The dual fuel discount for British Gas WebSaver 2 customers has increased by £10 (from £115 to £125).

2. Electricity and gas savings versus the British Gas standard tariff have increased by £4 and £6 respectively (based on average annual consumption of 3,300 kWh for electricity and 20,500 kWh for gas, delivering improved savings from £42 to £46 for electricity and £73 to £79 for gas).

Tweaking of price plans and jostling for position in results tables is something we can expect to see plenty more of in future, given both the increasing popularity of utility price comparison and switching services and growing consumer awareness of the potential savings on offer.

If you still haven’t considered switching utility supplier, there’s no time like the present – especially as the major suppliers seem to have concluded their most recent round of price changes (thankfully in a downward direction, at long last).

Online gas and electricity price comparison and switching services include Energy Helpline, uSwitch and Money Supermarket. Or you can get quotes and switch directly online with energy suppliers including British Gas, npower and E.ON.