The Big Switch from Which?: Join the mass fightback against rising energy bills

by Robert Powell on 20 February 2012  |  1 comment
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More than 100,000 people have already signed up to fight back against expensive gas and electricity tariffs as part of consumer group Which's Big Switch campaign.

The fight back against extortionate energy bills starts here. Over 100,000 people have already joined The Big Switch, a campaign run by consumer group Which? and 38 Degrees. The aim is to use collective bargaining power to get households a better deal on their gas and electricity bills.

The Big Switch

Consumers have until 31 March to sign up to the campaign through The Big Switch website. From here, Which? will negotiate with energy companies directly in a ‘reverse auction’ to obtain the cheapest gas and electricity deal. This will then be made available to everyone that joined the campaign, although no one will be under any obligation to switch.

Which? will handle the switching process, making it as hassle free as possible.

However if you are on a fixed tariff, changing suppliers could be more tricky.

Fixed tariffs

Fixed tariffs are generally the cheapest deals offered by energy companies. As the name suggests, they fix your energy price for a set period – usually one or two years. This protects you against future price rises.

The downside is if you wish to get out of the deal early, you almost always will have to pay an exit fee.

But that doesn’t mean you should always stick with a fixed tariff, as you could still make savings. Mark Todd, co-founder of energyhelpline.com said: “On short fixes, the exit fee is normal only around £50. So if you can save £100 [on your bill] then I’d say just do it and pay the exit fee.”

Price rises

Which’s campaign comes amid growing public frustration with the rising cost of energy bills. It’s now estimated that a fifth of households are in fuel poverty, defined as spending 10% or more of their total income on heating.

However there was some respite for households earlier this year, as every major energy supplier dropped prices by around 5%. But these lower rates may not last.

Mr Todd says that while prices are still very high compared to wholesale costs, we shouldn’t rule out further increases. “My bet would be for more small price rises from the summer onwards,” he said.

So whatever the result of Which’s Big Switch negotiations, it’s vital that consumers get on the cheapest possible tariff before providers starting hiking rates.

Here are the current best buy tariffs – all available through the lovemoney.com energy centre.

Source: energyhelpline.com

* All calculations are for an average usage duel fuel household paying by monthly direct debit. Average usage as defined by OFGEM is 16,500 kWh pa of gas and 3,300 kWh pa of electricity.

** Against a typical bill of £1,345 per year (source: Ofgem).

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