Our guide to avoiding a giant British Gas bill

British Gas announce an eye-watering price rise of up to 12.5% on their most expensive electricity tariffs from September.

Even worse, this rise affects their most loyal customers – leaving a lot of people unsure whether they can switch or not.

So, here's the lowdown:

• If you're renting and you pay the energy bills, it's your right to choose your supplier, even if your landlord has a ‘preferred supplier’. You may have to switch back to the original supplier at the end of your tenancy
  
  
• If you're in debt to your current supplier, there's a few things to know:

1. If you've been in debt for less than 28 days, you're free to switch. Your supplier will add your outstanding charges to your final bill.
2. If you're with British Gas and they're raising your prices, you have 30 days to pay off your debt before they can stop your switch
3. You can't be stopped from switching if it's your supplier's fault that you're in debt - for example because they've estimated your bill wrong
   
   

• If you're in a fixed-term contract, you may face exit fees if you leave, so it's only worth switching if you'll save more than the cost of your exit fees
  
  

To find out more about your rights as an energy consumer, visit the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

You may have suspected you're paying too much. You may have planned to swap suppliers – or check you're not being ripped off – but just not got around to it.

If so, now is the time to switch, before this price rise hits your bills.

Introducing Octopus Energy

We're a British born energy supplier, and you may not have heard of us. Here's what makes us different.

• Everything we do is designed to make our customers' lives better, while being as kind as possible to the planet.
  
• We've been investing in renewable energy for a while now, in fact, we're the UK's largest investor in solar generation.
  
• We're backed by Octopus Investments, the UK based investment firm with over £6 billion in funds under management. Octopus has a strong history of backing successful UK businesses including Graze.com, Secret Escapes, SwiftKey, and Zoopla Property Group.
• We give fair, transparent pricing that reflects the wholesale cost of energy. We pass on savings to you and only ever increase prices when we really have to.
  
• We have no exit fees or tie-ins, so you're free to leave at any time. Just choose the tariff that's right for you, and if you want to leave or change it, you can.
  
• We give fantastic customer service that's fast and flexible – message us on Facebook, drop us an email, or simply give us a call. No giant call centres, just people who love their jobs and are eager to help.