The cheapest energy deals start to disappear

Out of the top six energy providers, three have withdrawn their cheapest deals on the market over the past few weeks and replaced them with tariffs that are an inflation busting average of 3.4 per cent more expensive. moneysupermarket.com urges customers to move quickly to take advantage of the best tariffs currently available, which still give dual fuel customers a saving of £259 a year compared to the average Standard tariff, before they too disappear.

According to moneysupermarket.com, npower, Scottish Power and SSE Atlantic have pulled their best deals - Sign Online 18, Online Energy Reward, Online Fixed Price respectively - have been removed from the market to new customers.  On average the tariffs that replace them are 3.4 per cent more expensive.

The changes mean that the cheapest remaining energy deals on the market are E.ON's Save Online v2 and First Utility iSave v3.

Scott Byrom, utilities manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: "While energy prices for existing customers haven't started to rise yet, the withdrawal of these deals for new customers is a sure sign that pressure is building for energy price rises.  With wholesale energy prices hitting a year-high last week we fully expect to see more of the best deals for new customers being pulled and, at some stage, prices for existing customers to creep up."

"Switching to a new dual fuel deal today will not only save quarterly cash or cheque customers around 22 per cent of their annual energy spend, but they will be ready to benefit as Autumn kicks in.