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Can we win the Gas and Electricity price wars by switching suppliers?

By: Lewis Taylor

In short, yes but it is a difficult situation that faces us, with the price wars going on, who will win?

Why do we find ourselves thinking 'why should I put up with being treated this way by my energy suppliers?' The simple truth which is hard to swallow is that we bring this on ourselves and the big guys are just exploiting a weekness in our attitudes towards energy switching in the UK.

Our most common reaction to energy switching is to switch off and pretend we didn't hear anything! We are either too scared to switch suppliers now in case for some reason their own supplier becomes cheaper in time or simply can't be bothered.

Tomorrow we will probably hunt around before filling up the fuel tank in our cars just to save a couple of pounds, probably wasting that same amount in fuel and time looking for the cheaper option, or causing long term damage to our engines by running the fuel too low forcing debris through the engine yet the thought of switching suppliers - No chance!

The big suppliers who we give our loyalty to are simply making money from our laziness and ignorance. We think nothing of spending hours ringing around insurance companies or surfing the net for better deals for our mobile phones, we'll even consider switching bank accounts for a better deal or £100 cashback. With our ability to find the best deals why is it that we seem to always overlook one of the most simplest ways of saving money.

It would be easy to blame suppliers for higher prices but with such a high volume of loyal customers, it's our fault that we are not getting the best deals because we are not voting with our feet. There are loads of better priced suppliers out there and they have great customer service too, but it's so much easier to just moan about the prices and do nothing.

What seems to be stuck in our minds is that when the market was deregulated, armies of door knockers were mobilized and sent out in their hundreds to catch us just as we sat down for our dinner. By switching our suppliers with them we might have a brand new Bentley on our drives go off for a 3 month cruise around the Carribean! Ok maybe not but you get the idea. People were writing into TV's Watchdog in their masses complaining about how they haven't saved any money or they haven't received a statement for 9 months and just got hit with a huge bill. Nowadays, there are very tight regulations that energy companies must adhere to in order to satisfy it's customers.

With this in mind we should now feel quite happy about energy switching and yet we still do nothing about it. Before we had a good excuse to do nothing, now we do not have that luxury as energy companies have great levels of customer service and they offer excellent deals saving many households around £330 a year. If we could save this much on fuel for our cars, the queue would be a mile long. You can even use companies such as Money Angels to switch compare energy prices as they also show levels of customer service too.

So then, can we win the price war? Yes, but we have to stop complaining and do something about it. There are great deals out there and we only have to give 28 days notice to any particular supplier. This means we can switch as many times as we like. Those switched on people out there probably switch their suppliers twice a year to get the best deal. If we think we are wise consumers then we must start to act accordingly.

Article Source: http://www.financemanual.com

For those who want to save money and Switch Suppliers it is free to do so and Lewis Taylor's site will do all of the paperwork for you.
This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.





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