Is anyone still wondering why most energy customers don’t switch suppliers?
For years regulators, ministers and consumer groups have challenged people with strident “Switch or Suffer” propaganda.
Meanwhile evidence is growing that, far from being the only sensible thing to do, switching can bring inconvenience and anxiety.
Last weekend two respected financial journalists went public on the problems they had personally experienced.
1) Claer Barrett, Financial Times personal finance editor, switched to Bulb, a small supplier. “After telling Scottish Power I was going to switch providers, my bank account was cleared out just before Christmas with a rogue £768 direct debit for my “final bill” – 10 times higher than the usual monthly payment”*. It was a mistake but took a huge amount of time to sort out. Ms Barrett’s old and new suppliers had signed up to the Energy Switch Guarantee.
2) Simon Duke, Sunday Times Business writer, switched to Extra Energy, a small supplier. “Some 17 months after cancelling our contract with Extra (following a house move) I received an email from Extra Energy asking for £438.03 to settle our account.” ** Mr Duke points out that the demand was “preposterous”. Yet in resisting the company he was threatened with legal action and had to complain to the ombudsman. He estimates he “has wasted the equivalent of three working days fending away Extra Energy’s outlandish demands.”
If the reluctance of 13m households to ‘engage with the market’ needed more explanation, these savvy consumers provide it.
Many switch without trouble. But in the current market competition alone will never ensure everyone pays a fair price for something no one can do without. The government is right to intervene with a cap on the prices people pay when they finish a fixed-term deal or stay loyal to their supplier.
* An ‘electric shock’ when my energy firm switch went horribly wrong, Financial Times Money Section, 10/03/18
** There was just no way we could have racked up such large charges, Sunday Times Business, 11/03/18