Incredible Mag

Why It Makes Sense To Switch Your Gas And Electricity Supplier Now

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">If your fixed gas and electricity tariff has recently come to an end&comma; your supplier may have automatically switched your supply to a more expensive roll-over tariff&period; According to uSwitch&period;com&comma; sixteen popular fixed tariffs came to an end during the first week of October&comma; so now is the perfect time to switch to a better deal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">Last year’s winter price hikes saw the &OpenCurlyQuote;big six’ energy suppliers – British Gas&comma; npower&comma; Scottish Power&comma; SSE&comma; E&period;ON and EDF – increase electricity and gas prices by nearly 10&percnt;&period; A year on&comma; the wholesale price of gas has fallen by nearly a fifth and electricity rates are also down&period; Problematically&comma; the top suppliers are failing to pass these savings onto their customers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As a result some people could pay as much as £193 more&period; So now is the perfect time to switch and save money before the cold weather starts to bite&comma;” says Tom Lyon&comma; energy expert at uSwitch&period;com&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">First Utility&comma; the UK’s largest independent gas and electricity supplier&comma; last month announced it had become the first independent supplier to supply 1m customer accounts – the equivalent of 550&comma;000 customers&period; The news signals a wider switching trend which has seen customers abandoning top suppliers in favour of better deals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-675" alt&equals;"Why It Makes Sense To Switch Your Gas And Electricity Supplier Now" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;incrediblemag&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;Why-It-Makes-Sense-To-Switch-Your-Gas-And-Electricity-Supplier-Now&period;jpg" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"314" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">First Utility’s cheap gas and electricity tariffs are accountable for its phenomenal growth&period; It offered the cheapest gas and electricity prices out of all suppliers for 23 out of the 35 weeks of the year from January 2014&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">Despite some reported First Utility customer service issues&comma; the company has recently invested more than £10m in improving its customer service offering and has seen a ten-fold increase in its customer base in less than 3 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">Challenger suppliers like First Utility have attracted widespread media attention in recent months after the big six suppliers lost 2m customers to their smaller rivals&period; Independents now have a 7&period;6&percnt; share of the domestic energy market – an increase from just 0&period;2&percnt; five years ago&period; Britain’s big six have seen their market share slide from 99&period;8&percnt; five years ago to 92&period;4&percnt; currently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">Households have been switching away from the big six in their droves as constant price hikes&comma; battles for refunds and poor customer service has taken its toll&period; Seven in ten users of the price comparison websites Energyhelpline&comma; GoCompare and uSwitch are now moving to smaller energy firms&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">However&comma; since big six supplier SSE launched a new&comma; cheaper tariff&comma; the top companies have been clawing their way back up the league table to occupy five of the ten spots in the uSwitch energy guide&period; Sainsbury’s Energy&comma; which is powered by British Gas&comma; comes in sixth and npower’s Online Price Fix November 2015 tariff comes in fourth behind cheap utility tariffs from First Utility&comma; Extraenergy and Ovo&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">&&num;8216&semi;Small suppliers have been leading the charge with the cheapest deals&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s great news for consumers that the big six are fighting back with better tariffs&period; These include &&num;8216&semi;SSE Direct&&num;8217&semi;&comma; npower&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8216&semi;Intelligent Control&&num;8217&semi; plan – which comes with a free intelligent Nest thermostat – and the longest term fixed plan on the market from EDF&period;’ says Lyon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">&&num;8216&semi;Suppliers need to prove themselves both on price and service if they want to win customers so no company – big or small – can afford to rest on its laurels&period; Consumers are voting with their feet and are easily attracted by cheaper prices and the promise that their bills will be protected from future price rises&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify">Colin Urquart is a political commentator and energy blogger&period; He works with various agencies to support change in the energy sector&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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