The fact that gas prices have been rising at a steady pace isn’t news to households or businesses in the United Kingdom. However, switching providers is often proving to be an effective way to reduce the comparative cost of annual gas expenses for businesses in particular.
As stated by multiple small business owners, there are a few considerations that need to be made before any commercial venture should switch business gas providers, as we will outline below.
The Timing is Quite Important
Utility Bidder is a website for comparing quotes from various gas and electricity providers in the country. They explain in their blog that timing is everything when it comes to switching gas providers. Businesses, in their experience, are often seen to wait too long and, as a result, they miss out on the opportunity to negotiate a better deal from the present or a new gas provider.
Utility Bidder recommends looking at switching business gas providers around a year before the contract expires, which is unfortunately, seldom the situation. The businesses that do act in advance and with enough time, actually help the negotiation experts find them cheap business gas and electricity rates.
There is Always Room for Negotiation
The gas provider will not make it evident, but it seems that there usually is quite a bit of room for negotiations, or the brokers wouldn’t be able to get a better deal. Irrespective of whether the business itself is negotiating or an expert broker is doing it on their behalf, negotiation before deciding to switch business gas provider is quite possible and highly advised.
Are Professional Brokers Really Able to Get Better Deals?
It is apparent that professionals with better contacts and internal business deals will almost inevitably be able to get better quotes for their clients than the smaller businesses.
The main reason why this is actually true is because when a business gas provider deals with a small company, they generally are not willing to negotiate much, simply because there’s not much profit to be made from one business. However, when the same gas provider is being approached by a professional group with thousands of clients, they are looking at a much bigger business prospect.
Preventing Automatic Renewals Can Help Immensely
Automatic renewals cannot happen without the permission of the business of course, but businesses generally do not act in time. The rule states that if a client is to cancel an auto-renewal, then they need to communicate the same to the gas provider officially, at least 60 days before the contract expires. Autorenewal eliminates the chances of a better negotiated deal by default.
The price of gas or most things in general is not about to come down anytime soon in the country, but after going through some of the points made by various small business owners and Utility Bidder, it looks like there is still some room for seeing cheaper expenses when a business decides to switch gas providers.
