Take back the power: how to beat the utility giants

Take back the power: how to beat the utility giants

Thousands of households across the country will be shocked to see their electricity bills increase after one supplier quietly put its prices up last week.

Despite huge falls in the cost to companies of buying both gas and electricity over the last year, Telecom Plus, which provides gas and electricity under the Utility Warehouse brand, increased its electricity prices in some regions by up to 7 per cent on Tuesday. The move went unnoticed because the previous day, the last of the 'big six' energy companies, Scottish Power and EDF Energy, had announced their long-awaited price cuts, which are to take effect on 15 June.

'While EDF Energy and, previously, npower have come in for much justified criticism for not cutting their electricity prices for their most loyal electricity customers, Telecom Plus has cynically taken advantage of the confusion over prices to actually increase its electricity prices for certain customers,' says Joe Malinowski of price comparison website Theenergyshop.com

'Overall we have reduced gas and electricity prices significantly across the country, but there are one or two regional exceptions to this where we hadn't put our prices up as much as others did previously,' says Charles Wigoder, chief executive of Telecom Plus.

EDF, meanwhile, said last week it would reduce the cost of gas for direct-debit customers by up to 10 per cent, while its electricity prices would remain unchanged. Scottish Power will cut gas prices.....continued below

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by up to 16.5 per cent for direct debit customers and electricity by 5.5 per cent. Scottish Power customers who pay quarterly or by cash, however, will not see any fall in their electricity bills and only a 5 per cent discount on gas.

Meanwhile, wholesale gas and electricity prices - the prices the suppliers themselves pay - have fallen by up to 60 per cent since last May.

'It is now more important than ever to compare energy prices because, with this round of price cuts, it's difficult to know how the individual customer has been affected,' says Malinowski. 'We expect another round of cuts towards the end of this year. However, if recent experience is anything to go by, it could be a while coming and may disappoint again.'

Mark Todd, head of energy at comparison website Energyhelpline.com says people should look carefully at all the tariffs available from a supplier before switching: 'It is the discounted and online tariffs now where the real price cuts have kicked in. People should switch to one of these if they want the maximum benefits of the drop in wholesale prices.'

Most companies now offer cheaper tariffs via their websites, and bills are, on average, £80 a year lower on these than on standard tariffs from the same company. British Gas's online Click Energy 2 tariff is still, on average, the cheapest deal in the market, although as of last week in certain regions it has been overtaken by new entrant Utilita.

Good value offline tariffs include EnergySaver from Utilita and npower's Sign On Line. The npower tariff requires you to sign up online, but you can then manage it offline in the traditional way.