TUR gas tariff: what it is, who can apply and who it suits

In gas there are two worlds: the free market (mercado libre), where each retailer sets its own price, and the TUR (Tarifa de Último Recurso, the tariff of last resort), whose price is set by the government and published in the official state gazette. The TUR is not a commercial offer: it is a regulated tariff you are entitled to if you meet the requirements, and for several years now it has been, for a great many households, the cheapest option without doing anything at all.

It is worth knowing how it works, because it is revised every three months and the next revision falls on 1 October.

What the TUR actually is

The TUR is the maximum price a supplier of last resort (comercializadora de último recurso, a small group of companies designated by the state) can charge you for gas. It has two components, just like your usual bill:

• Standing charge: euros per month for having the supply available, whatever you use.
• Unit rate: cents for every kWh of gas you consume.

Both are set by the ministry, not by the company. That means the TUR costs exactly the same whoever you take it with: no offers, no promotions, no small print. What varies between suppliers of last resort is the customer service, not the price.

The four bands: TUR 1, TUR 2, TUR 3 and communal

You don't choose your band: your annual consumption assigns it to you. This is the classification:

The standing charge goes up as you move up through the bands, and the unit rate comes down. That's why a home that only cooks with gas pays very little in standing charge, while one with shared central heating pays more standing charge but less for every kWh.

Watch out when you cross into another band. If your consumption goes past 5,000 kWh and you move from TUR 1 to TUR 2, the structure of your bill changes. Your supplier is obliged to reclassify you, and it does so by looking at your consumption over the last twelve months. If your home has changed — you've moved, you've installed gas heating, you've put in a heat pump — it's worth checking that you're in the band you should be.

Who can sign up for it

The requirements are objective and have nothing to do with your financial situation:

1. Being connected to the natural gas network at a pressure of no more than 4 bar. That covers practically any home.
2. Consuming less than 50,000 kWh a year, except for the communal arrangement, which has rules of its own.

The communal TUR (TUR vecinal) deserves a mention of its own: it can be applied for by residents' associations in residential buildings, groups of associations, and public buildings or those belonging to non-profit organisations with the same use. It requires the installation to have been brought into line with efficiency regulations — in other words, having individual meters or heat cost allocators. If your building has shared central heating and still splits the cost by ownership share, that's the first piece of paperwork to sort out.

There are no income requirements, no home-size requirements and no minimum number of occupants. The TUR is not a form of social assistance: that's the bono social térmico, which is a different thing and can be claimed on top.

When the price changes (and why the date matters)

The unit rate is updated every quarter: on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, and it only moves if the cost of the raw material has varied by more than 2% up or down. The standing charge is reviewed once a year.

This has two practical consequences:

• The TUR never catches you out mid-quarter. You know what you're going to pay for three months. Compared with a tariff indexed to the market, that's a real advantage if you'd rather not keep an eye on it.
• The rise or fall arrives all at once. On 1 October the winter quarter's price comes into force, which is precisely when gas use is at its highest. It's the moment of the year when it pays to look at your bill.

Is the TUR better for me than the free market?

The honest answer is: it depends on how much you use and on what you're being offered, and there's no rule that works for everyone. But the patterns are reasonably clear:

The TUR usually wins if you don't use much. On TUR 1 and at the lower end of TUR 2, the regulated standing charge is hard to beat. Plenty of free-market offers make up for a slightly cheaper kWh with a higher fixed monthly fee, and with low consumption that fee swallows the discount whole.

The free market can win if you use a lot. Above a certain volume, a few cents less per kWh multiplied by thousands of kWh really does outweigh the difference in standing charge. That's where a fixed-price offer makes sense.

The TUR is a floor, not a ceiling. Because it's a regulated maximum price, it works as a benchmark: if a free-market offer doesn't beat your TUR, it isn't a good offer. It's the most useful comparison you can make.

And there's one case where the TUR isn't an option at all: if you consume more than 50,000 kWh a year, you are required to be on the free market.

How to tell which band you're on right now

It's on your bill, though not always under that name. Look for:

• Your annual consumption, or the twelve-month history, usually shown as a bar chart.
• The word TUR followed by a number, or "tarifa de último recurso", in the contract details block.
• If TUR doesn't appear anywhere, you're on the free market: you'll have signed your tariff with an ordinary retailer.

If you can't find your annual consumption, add it up from the history. If your bill doesn't include a history, ask your retailer for it: they're obliged to provide it.

What a lot of people never look at

Two things that turn up on almost every gas bill and that aren't gas:

• Meter rental. A few cents a day, regulated, identical across all retailers. It isn't a lever for saving, but it's worth not mistaking it for an extra service.
• Boiler maintenance plans and insurance. These are optional and can be cancelled, and they add up to far more than people think. It's the same pattern we see with electricity, and we cover it in 5 signs you're paying too much for electricity.

The quick way to find out

You can run the numbers by hand: your annual consumption, your standing charge, your unit rate, and compare them against the published TUR and against whatever offers you have on the table. Or you can upload your bill and let us do it.

At luzgasia we analyse electricity and gas separately, each with its own tariff and its own tax treatment, because mixing them produces figures that don't mean anything. We tell you what you'd pay and why, in plain language.

It's free, with no strings attached and no sales calls: you see your analysis first and decide afterwards. Analyse your bill now and settle the question before the winter price kicks in.