Here's a heads up on a major gotcha when changing gas suppliers.

I live in a 7 odd yr old house. The gas pipeline and infrastructure was not supplied by Transco, but by a company called Connect (also known as Agas and ElfGas).

When i came to transfer my gas billing from Southern Electric gas to Sainsburys Energy (Scottish Power) the gas was never transferred but they still billed me for it. SE Gas never stopped supplying the gas so they billed me too.

To cut a long story short, I was told by Transco, SE Gas and British Gas that if you live on a development that had the infrastructure fitted and has the supply carried out by an independant company (not Transco) then the billing is quite complicated and most gas companies cannot handle this (Scottish Power included).

So basically when you come to change the gas billing company, make sure you know who your supplier is and tell the billing company before you sign anything so they can check to see if they are able to bill you. Will save alot of headaches, time on the phone (2hrs today alone!) and overpaid gas bills.

Dave