I've just bought a home and I have a question about how to change my gas and electric provider. The previous owner used Scottish Power and he has warned me not to use them 'cos they're rubbish. The completion date is this Tuesday, he will be giving them his final meter readings Tuesday morning. Now, will this automatically cancel Scottish Power? Do I just phone another company to start providing me power? Or do I have to phone Scottish Power to tell them that I don't want them?

Another thing. His current phone provider is arranged through his cable TV package. I'm not haing cable TV when I move in, i'll just have Freeview. Will I still be able to have a landline phone through a different company or does it still have to be cable? He has already cancelled his cable TV and phone company so what do I have to do?

Cheers guys, as you can tell this is my first home and I haven't got a clue!

I've just noticed that i've posted this in sheffield discussion and not general discussion, sorry mod's.

Best thing to do is work out who you want to go to and ring them up - give them the details and then when you have moved in give them the initial readings - the rest should be done by them (it was when I moved).

As for the phone providor again just ring up who you want (say BT) tell them you are wanting to move in on a date and can they arrange a phone line.

re:- gas and electricity companies, unfortunately you have to give them 28 days notice to change over, even if you are moving in as a new tenant, which I think is outrageous.

If you are a new tenant, I don't see why you should be forced to use the previous tenants' supplier, when it wasn't your choice.

Just a quick note - I've just changed my supply recently to Scottish Power, they are much cheaper than some of the others. Might be worth you doing a comparison on www.uswitch.com to find the cheapest supplier for the size of the house.
You'll probably have to give Scottish Power a go anyway because you won't be able to switch suppliers so soon (ours took 4 weeks to change across from npower).
Any reason in particular why the previous owner said they were rubbish?

Another thing to note re phone line - do you know if the previous owner had the cable company install the phone line, or was it originally installed by BT? If originally BT you should be able to get re-connected to them pretty quickly, just give them a call - i think this is free or a small charge. If the cable company originally installed the line and you want it to be BT you're looking at an installation fee of approx £125...

I was also going to say that you would be hard pushed to beat Scottish Power.

I used USWITCH and changed from British Gas & NPower to Atlantic Electric & Gas (recommended by a friend and the cheapest at the time). They contacted BGas & NPower on my behalf, and all was sorted out within a month. im now saving about £15 per month ! :D

Another thing to note re phone line - do you know if the previous owner had the cable company install the phone line, or was it originally installed by BT? If originally BT you should be able to get re-connected to them pretty quickly, just give them a call - i think this is free or a small charge. If the cable company originally installed the line and you want it to be BT you're looking at an installation fee of approx £125...

Im with cable for my BB, TV and TELEPHONE. Cable do not use a bt socket they have there own socket as theirs is a CABLE from under grounf and not over head like BT, If i was you i would stick with cable for you landline as you can get a great deal from them now thay are virgin, if you have the telephone, you can later add tv or BB package if you want BB and telephone thats cool. I recomend virgin all the way Im paying £15 a month for talk unlimited (thats including line rental and unlimited calls to any landline for as long as i like) also i have 4mb BB with unlimited download (no cap) for £13 a month. basically the telephone package is the minimum requirement you can have from virgin.

Its the same gas and electricity whoever you get the bill from, the only two things you need to think about is the price per unit and the service you get from the biller. If you pay by drect debit meter reading is not so important as most companies let you self read, if you pay by other methods meter reading is important as you only want to pay for what you use. Unless you are hooked up to the street lights for your electric LOL

I'm with Scottish Power now, and would highly recommend them from a service pov - single, easily understood bills, all done online inc. entering meter readings etc.

Only thing I would say (as I am looking to change now my capped plan is up) is that there are currently slightly cheaper suppliers (EDF comes out on top for dual fuel/online prices atm)

If a couple of you are saying that Scottish Power are good then I think i'll stick with them for a bit then use uswitch.com to switch providers if I need to. Not sure what the reason is for the previous owner to say they are rubbish. I also didn't now that you have to give 28 days notice to switch providers even if you didn't choose them in the first place. Thats rubbish.

I'll phone BT on tuesday, don't want cable TV or broadband so might as well stick with a landline phone for now.