The Next Round of Price Rises

Cardew

Many posts, including those from Martin, refer to “the next round of price increases”.
It doesn’t seem to me that you can define ‘The next round’ as there is pretty much a price rise by one of the major suppliers every month of the year. From an earlier thread it would appear that in the last 2 years there has been a price rise by one of the companies in every month except December(Festive Cheer!)

With the emphasis on switching I believe that some companies are cynical enough to delay the date of their increase in the hope that they will be seen as the ‘best buy’ on the comparison sites and attract a host of new customers. Then of course up go their prices.

Even worse are those companies who raise their prices a relatively small amount to persuade prospective customers that this is their increase for ‘the next round’. Customers switch and are then hit by a second rise a few months later.

masonic

What's to stop those customers switching again when those second rises are announced? Perhaps people just need to get used to hopping between suppliers more regularly?

nenya

There is absolutly nothing to stop a customer switching - you can switch at anytime for any reason.

Cardew

masonic wrote:

What's to stop those customers switching again when those second rises are announced? Perhaps people just need to get used to hopping between suppliers more regularly?

Agreed, of course you can and should.

The difficulty is it can take several weeks and, as many on the Board will testify, it is often a case of 'jumping from frying pan into the fire'.

My point was that you just do not know the right time to switch because when last round of rises has been completeted and the next round beginning cannot be determined; they just merge together.

Gal

nenya wrote:

There is absolutly nothing to stop a customer switching - you can switch at anytime for any reason.

Unless you owe the supplier a large amount of money then they can object.

nenya

well thats also true - but other than that there is no reason you can't just up and leave a supplier.

IvanOpinion

Cardew wrote:

With the emphasis on switching I believe that some companies are cynical enough to delay the date of their increase in the hope that they will be seen as the ‘best buy’ on the comparison sites and attract a host of new customers. Then of course up go their prices.

You better believe this ... that is whats known as working in a competitive market.

Ivan

Bullshine_2

Constantly switching supplier is not a good idea in my humble opinion.

I would recommend a 2 or 3 year capped or fixed price. BG where offering great deals for a while but their new fix and fall is not as competative!

By March 2007 all suppliers will be above £1000 for the average consumer! Grab a fixed/capped price now while they are available below this price!!

IvanOpinion

I reckon that in the next year to 18 months it is going to become harder and harder to switch supplier. The customer will have the choice but generally it is going to cost them to do so.

Ivan

masonic

Bullshine wrote:

I would recommend a 2 or 3 year capped or fixed price. BG where offering great deals for a while but their new fix and fall is not as competative!

Well the best capped deal available to me is priced 20% more expensive than the best uncapped prices for 2 years and 43% more expensive for 3 years. Do you really think prices will rise by more than 40% in the next 2 years and or by more than 85% in the next 3 years, especially with that fabled Norwegian gas pipeline is nearing completion?

Cardew

Bullshine wrote:

Constantly switching supplier is not a good idea in my humble opinion.

I would recommend a 2 or 3 year capped or fixed price. BG where offering great deals for a while but their new fix and fall is not as competative!

By March 2007 all suppliers will be above £1000 for the average consumer! Grab a fixed/capped price now while they are available below this price!!

Historically having a fixed/capped price tariff has paid off; as the rise in energy prices in the last couple of years has been unprecedented.

However I tend to agree with Masonic above that you should be wary of making such a firm recommendation as above in the current situation. It was, and is, simply a gamble - unless you know something different.