Customers of energy company E.On will see a 9% increase in electricity prices and a 3% rise in gas prices from 4 February.
The change will mean the typical dual-fuel customer with E.On will see their annual bill rise by £62, according to comparison website Uswitch. Customers on E.On's social tariff will not see prices rise until April.
The announcement comes weeks after E.On said it would not raise prices before January. Which was always code for 'we'll raise our prices in January'. However, E.On defends the price hikes by saying ''we now have no option but to make this change due to increases in the prices we pay for gas and electricity, although our customers will not actually see the increases until next month."
Consumers are getting tired of these utility companies citing increases in gas prices etc. as a justification for hiking energy prices, yet bills never drop when there is a corresponding fall in wholsale gas prices. Only last month the industry watchdog Ofgem announced that it is launching an investigation into the latest round of energy price rises.
So which utility companies have recently raised their prices?
- E.On obviously.
- Npower raised their gas and electricity bills rise by 5.1% from 4 January.
- Scottish Power announced that its customers’ electricity bills will rise by an average 8.9% while gas bills will rise by 2%.
- British Gas is raising its prices by 7% this winter.
- EDF Energy has said it will not raise gas or electricity prices for winter, with standard tariffs fixed until at least March 2011.
- Scottish & Southern Energy increased household gas prices by 9.4 percent at the start of December.
But you can reject the price rise!
Thanks to a little known regulatory rule it is possible to reject your energy supplier’s price rises. For full details see my article Money tip #118 – The rule allowing you to reject energy price rises
How to reduce your energy bills
In any event, it pays to be vigilant when it comes to how much you pay for your energy bills and there are ways to cut your bills which don’t involve switching off the lights or turning down the thermostat. To find out how read my post Lunchtime Money Makeover – Top 6 ways to reduce your energy bills.
