Switch energy supplier and cut your bills
Complaints about rising gas and electricity prices are never short of coming forward – although gas prices go down 0.7% on April 1 – but, despite constant urging to change suppliers, fewer than one in eight people do so.
The Médiateur National de l’Energie says last year only 52% were aware they had a right to switch away from the regulated tariffs of historic suppliers EDF and GDF, now Engie, but even those who knew did little about it.
Freedom to choose an energy supplier has been the law since 2007 but too few people realise how easy it is or how much they can save – €175 a year for a family of four in a gas-heated home, as an example, and the average saving is €124 for all energies.
Anyone wanting to change away from EDF/Engie just needs to have a look at options from other suppliers – after checking their usage over the past year as this is the starting point for new contracts – and then fill in an online form on their chosen supplier’s website.
A contract will be sent and after completing the formalities and filling in bank details if necessary, the switch to the new supplier will happen, for free, without any cut in supply.
Electricity prices are based on three things: commercial supply costs, delivery costs and taxes. Of these, the delivery costs and taxes are the same for all suppliers – but while EDF has still to offer the regulated tariff alongside any other tariffs, alternative suppliers are free to set their own commercial supply costs à prix de marché at market price.
But it is the customer who, ultimately, sets the price through a willingness to change supplier.
Various websites have set up to make the switch easy. Hello Watt has been recognised by the environment ministry as part of its plans to cut energy costs for households while Energie-info is the information site for the Médiateur National de l’Energie. Both say switching online is simple.
Hello Watt co-founder Sylvain Le Falher says it can take just three minutes with the new supplier taking over usually within a week.
“We receive a commission from the new supplier but the prices we show are those available to all and we can often also have special cheaper tariff deals. For your readers, I can also add that our customer services speaks English.”
While Energie.info also compares suppliers’ prices it does not carry out the switch and users have to contact their preferred supplier to do so. It also offers less information than Hello Watt, which gives useful detail on such items as the type of customer service available, such as whether contact is possible by phone.
