4 Original Tips To Reduce Your Energy Bills

Read about the most accurate comparison tool on the Web and three other tips to reduce your bills.

It's time to share some more gas and electricity tips with you. Rather than the usual tips like switch to energy-saving lightbulbs, here are four that are a bit different. (You can read about more commonplace tips in Seventeen Ways To Cut Your Fuel Bills.)

1. Use the most accurate comparison tool on the Web

OK, comparing prices is not a new one! But what will be new to most of you is that we host the most accurate gas and electricity comparison tool available.

Not only does it list all the suppliers in due order, but our unique variable tariff search is unbeaten for accuracy. Users can type in the details of their own tariffs, thereby removing many of the assumptions made by other comparison tools.

So far this year, The Motley Fool's energy comparison service is celebrating almost £400,000 in savings quotes. Compare gas and electricity prices.

2. Get in debt!

40% of us are still paying by cheque, even though it's almost always far cheaper to pay by direct debit.

Thing is, switching to direct debit does come with a small problem. Suppliers often set their direct debits high, so that you are always in credit. Although you can eventually Claim Your Cash Back, you're effectively giving your supplier an interest-free loan. Consequently, your money isn't in your bank earning you interest, or reducing your overdraft.

It's not often The Fool actually recommends that you deliberately go into debt, but this is one of those rare times. You should push for a lower direct debit, so that you're never in credit. Recently I found out that I owed my suppliers an extra £14, which is perfect. It means that even in winter I'm underpaying a little, so they are effectively giving me an interest-free loan!

• Look back over your past bills and estimate your usage, then contact your supplier to lower your direct debit. This may take some persistence! The strongest argument you have is that you are in a better position to estimate your future usage than they are.
• When underpaying, the trick is to budget properly; make sure you have savings enough to pay for any excess you owe.

3. Submit your meter readings regularly

It will help you to budget properly if you get regular meter readings. It'll also help to avoid high blood pressure: before I submitted my reading and got a revised bill of £14, my supplier estimated I owed it £340!

There is another advantage to submitting regular readings. Lets say that your supplier reads your meters just once a quarter. Let's also say that its rates go up half-way through a quarter. So, how does it know how much gas and electricity you've used before and after the price rise?

Your supplier might use its 'best guess', which means it may estimate you used more energy during the more expensive period than you actually did. To be safe, I'd submit meter readings to them regularly.

4. Online and paperless tariffs

More than half of us are still on standard tariffs, but online tariffs are usually much cheaper. There are additional benefits too. Firstly, you can view your account online and secondly you can submit meter readings online, which saves the cost of a phone-call (after quite possibly a long wait in a queue).

I'm sceptical about the environmental benefits of green tariffs, but at least with online tariffs you know you're saving paper. Plus, since you save so much more money with online tariffs than green ones, you could always contribute some of the extra money you've saved to a green cause of your choice.

> Compare gas and electricity prices through The Fool. You can filter the results for green and/or online tariffs if you want.