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

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

As a nation, many of us stay loyal to our Energy suppliers without a good explanation. We comment on how much last quarter's bill was or how much the direct debits has just gone up yet our attitudes towards switching plays right into the hands of those suppliers who simply aren't giving us the best deals.

The moment we hear anything to do with cheaper energy suppliers and switching our gas and electricity, we hear alarm bells ringing which drowns out the sound of the good information which might be coming to us. Are we too lazy to switch or just plain ignorant to the benefits?

None of us are too lazy to stretch a few more miles out of the fuel tank as we drive around looking for a cheaper service station, of course we've probably just wasted fuel in getting there and caused minor damage to our cars by pulling debris from the bottom of the tank through the engine. Why is it that we would go through such efforts to save money and still do nothing about our energy bills?

Due to our laziness and, in many cases, ignorance, the big guys who supply our gas and electricity are getting richer and richer. We've all shopped around for various insurance, better deals on our Mortgages, lower mobile phone contracts and many of us will even switch banks to get the best interest rates. If we are a nation of strong consumers, then why do we continue to burn our money by sticking with expensive energy suppliers?

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.

This gave us all a perfect excuse to do nothing, We could be blissfully happy knowing that we could do nothing and not feel guilty about it. Of course now we haven't got that excuse, Energywatch keeps a close eye on things for our piece of mind and still millions UK households waste £millions every year by not switching to cheaper suppliers. One comparsion I can note from recent times was a gentleman who had never switched before, he saved £330 a year. If that was our insurance quote or mobile phone bill, we'd be patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. According to price comparison sites such as Money Angels, many of these cheaper suppliers actually offer a better level of customer service too.

So, can we win from the Gas and Electricity price wars? Of course we can, we just have to do something about it ourselves and stop waiting for a miraculous price decrease that may never happen. My advice is switch now and if another company offers a better deal, switch again and again, and again. We are only ever have to give our suppliers 28 days notice so take back control and be a more assertive consumer.

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

Lewis Taylor offers a free service to switch suppliers and also provides a free price comparison featuring all energy suppliers in the UK.
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