moneysupermarket.com makes a stand for gas and electricity customers

In an attempt to spur reluctant consumers into making sure they ditch greedy power companies and get the cheapest utilities supply, price comparison website moneysupermarket.com today announces it is offering £30 cash-back to all customers switching to a dual fuel tariff through its service.

Those not going for a dual fuel tariff but making a single switch will benefit from a single £17.50 payment.

Paul Schofield, head of utilities at moneysupermarket.com, said: “As consumers ourselves, we are fed up with the charges being levied by the utilities companies on the public for using these essential services. The amount of profit made by providers is huge – on average, energy prices have risen by 39.9 per cent for gas and 26.6 per cent for electricity during the last year, set against a backdrop of falling wholesale prices. There is now no reason why these wholesale cost savings cannot be passed straight on to the public in the form of price cuts – there is simply no excuse for profit mongering at people’s expense. In the absence of action from the providers, moneysupermarket.com is leading the way.

“Around 40 per cent of some utilities companies’ customers have never moved provider. Bearing in mind each has a range of new tariffs to attract new customers, the majority of these long-standing customers will be on expensive rates, paying well over the odds. For example someone on a standard British Gas tariff costing £1,055.77 on average per year could save £177.57 on average a year by switching to npower’s online deal – the net benefit rises to £207.57 if you take our new offer into consideration.

“Our new offer aims to highlight the savings and help break down some of the apathy.”

And providers have still not stopped the rot – this week British Gas lifted the ‘price freeze’ on its Click Energy online tariff, making it the most expensive online tariff on the market. With an increase of £103.57 on average per year this is a not so consumer-friendly move from an energy giant that hit consumers with some of the biggest price hikes in 2006.

Last year (2006) saw an unprecedented number of price increases from the “big six” energy providers, and in a sly move to try and stave off criticism, suppliers broke with the norm by announcing some of these price hikes in the summer.

Paul Schofield, added: “With forecasters predicting cold snaps for February and March, it looks like some people will bear a double brunt financially as the cost of keeping a house warm increases into the New Year. Our advice would be to shop around and our offer highlights the savings and the simplicity of switching providers which should take just a few minutes.”