Capital or people - the energy market

When you check the "savings" in detail promised by swapping energy companies they are not easy to decipher or as great as you think, unless you are on a standard tariff that is. I have spent many a happy hour trawling through different deals only to find for all my efforts, savings are in fact minimal. We are a low energy user (new house) and savings are always shown as "average usage", which can be misleading. Then you find that company with best deal has shocking customer ratings......

It is bonkers and iniquitous. I have changed energy company twice - from A to B and back to A again, who suddenly offered a much better deal. In fact the process of changing is a doddle - basically you don't really have to do very much at all. But so many people do not bother; and the only way to have the competition is to have overcharging on some accounts - which is unacceptable.

Most prepayment meters are installed because the householder has been unable to cope with monthly or quarterly bills and has built up arrears. It is actually to help them budget and payback arrears.

I used to work in the energy industry and we did research into who the families were who had prepayment meters because the company wished to phase them out if they could. We were gobsmacked to discover a significant number were well-off professional families, who were financially disorganised and preferred prepayment meters to monthly direct debits because the direct debits often bounced because they had exceeded their overdraft limit.

I would love to have a smart meter installed so that I had a better grip of what certain appliances cost me to run- this computer being top of the list!

Surely by now, heating and lighting should be a basic human right. It should not be something that we choose to have/use rather than say eating or clothing our children. It makes me sick that energy companies deliberately rip off the poorest in society by charging them an arm and a leg to have these god awful pre-pay meters where they have to be topped up (often at the worst times) and charging above and beyond the going rate for the privilege.

I would like to see the government crack down on the profits of energy companies and force them into giving all customers their best tariff.

My elderly mother is one of those lining the energy firms (shareholders) pockets. She won't let me change her supplier, too much hassle she says, and has her heating on even during the summer. I hope they sleep easy in their beds knowing that they are exploiting the elderly, poor and sick in order to be "competitive". I suppose this is how unfettered market economy works.

Tegan [sadly]

No, really, there's nothing to worry about Gisela Stewart assured us on this very forum that, if we left the EU we wouldn't have to pay as much for our energy .

Yes grace Apparently there are billions more paid to the energy companies than is necessary every year!!! This is definitely something that should be reconsidered for nationalisation. No chance with this government though.