www.iva.co.uk

For anyone on oil fire central heating, check out the boiler juice website. They do price comparisons for oil suppliers and also do buying weekends, where they group locally placed orders together and so save money as the cost goes down the more you buy.
Also has a handy graph which shows you the price of oil over the past 2 years so you can get a good idea as to when is a good time to buy!

www.boilerjuice.com

Must admit that I would never have oil fired - too expensive and I am thankful I am on gas.

Same here Jan - gas is expensive enough, let alone oil! I'd use way too much the amount I have the heating on!

I used to have oil when I live around two miles ouside of the town I live in but now have gas having moved into town. Lots of places where AR and I live being rural don't have gas!

I'll stick to the town!

Hence me moving into town but not happy here, having said that I've lived here for 14 years so I'm guess I've not always been unhappy only since things have changed.

That's the problem. Obviously I don't know who will be moving in next door - we never hear a peep out of the guy who lives there now and I'm hoping we'll be lucky with whoever's bought it.

umm, actually it is cheaper for us to have oil. Have had both and we have a very efficient and cost effective system. Besides, I live in a teeny tiny rural village and we don't have gas supplied.
Also those of you on gas have to pay what you are billed. I don't! I get to shop around, buy when the price is low,when it suits me, buy in bulk and buy wih friends and neighbours to knock the price down even further. Total flexibility and plenty of opporunities to get a lower price.

We can shop around though - we just change companies if the price gets too expensive.

I'm constantly checking the prices, but Atlantic suits me at the moment, particularly as I get a months money back as a 'loyalty' bonus each year.

I like knowing exactly what we're paying each month, which is why it suits me to have a fixed tariff.

I also like knowing that my heating is always going to be available and not having to worry about making sure I've bought it.

When we eventually move to Dave's mum's place in Pagham the first thing that will happen is that the gas will be put on!

Swapping utilities is of course an option, but can be a bit of a faff and can also go wrong, as I have discovered personally in the past.
I do know what I am spending each month. The same amount is put to one side each month, I watch the oil prices and snap it up when it is cheap. It is simply making an allowance go further, not a case of not knowing what you are spending.
It helps that we have a very warm house. It is nearly 200 years old wih huge solid brick walls and retains heat really well. We also have a real open fire and can burn the wood and coal we get free off freecycle to heat the living room and be exra cosy or knock the central heating off. The chimney breast runs up the centre of the house and warms the bedrooms too. Really snug and cosy.

I know exactly what I pay each month - my payments have not altered since I started with Atlantic about three years ago, and I have always been in credit.

We're quite warm as well as we have cavity wall and loft insulation(all fitted free of charge) and it has made such a difference.

Unfortunately our house is a cold house - we are end of terrace with solid brick walls so we can't have cavity wall insulation. We also have a patio doors and a large window on the side wall in the living room and you can feel the cold coming off them.

We could also do with a new front door, but having looked at the prices it's a no no - we can't get a grant as we both work, and we can't afford it so we'll have to leave it.

We were able to get ours done as hubby is on benefits.

We have double glazing anyway, so that helps.

We are usually toasty warm!

We've got double glazing but it still seems cold.

It makes me laugh the way that we are always told to use less energy and yet we can't get any help. I've given up worrying about energy saving now and the heating keeps blasting out!