Power firms are forced to help their own rivals:

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Power firms are forced to help their own rivals:

Postby chenrezig » 03 Mar 2016, 06:42

Power firms are forced to help their own rivals: Suppliers will open databases to other companies so they write to their customers to offer them better deals

Gas and electricity providers forced to come clean over what they charge
It is hoped the move will lead to the costs of household bills coming down
Also raises prospects of householders being bombarded with junk mail
Latest proposals would allow companies to offer deals to rivals' customers

Energy suppliers will have to open up their customer databases so rivals can write to them offering cheaper deals.

Under sweeping reforms to be unveiled by competition authorities next week, gas and electricity providers will be forced to come clean over how much they are charging householders.

It is hoped that the move – after an 18-month investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into whether families are being ripped off – will bring down bills.

But it also raises the prospect that households will be bombarded with unwanted junk mail as energy suppliers vie for their business.
Under sweeping reforms to be unveiled by competition authorities next week, gas and electricity providers will be forced to come clean over how much they are charging householders


Under sweeping reforms to be unveiled by competition authorities next week, gas and electricity providers will be forced to come clean over how much they are charging householders

The cost of gas and electricity bills has been a hot political topic for years, with former Labour leader Ed Miliband pledging to freeze prices for 20 months if he won the 2015 general election.

The CMA suggested a temporary cap in an interim report into the industry last summer. But it is thought that this proposal has been watered down.

A CMA report in July found that customers were overcharged by £1.7billion a year from 2009 to 2013 – although this is disputed by the industry.

The latest proposals to tackle the problem would allow companies to offer new deals to their rivals' customers.

But its success would rely on people being willing to switch between suppliers.

Seven in ten households are languishing on their energy supplier's standard tariff. Experts say the only way to beat rip-off deals is to switch to cheaper deals rather than waiting for energy firms to reduce their prices.

Mark Todd, director of price comparison website energyhelpline said: 'The big providers can pretty much count on a vast loyal customer base and not give any significant price cuts.'

Moves to open up customer databases are likely to be challenged by the industry.

One industry executive told the Financial Times: 'We would need to see how they intend to implement this — it could be a serious issue for the security of customers' private information.'

But smaller suppliers are likely to support the suggestion. Ben Jones, managing director of Extra Energy, told the FT: 'The big question at the moment is why more people are not switching. We think this would encourage that, and so push customers' bills down.'

A recent investigation by Money Mail found that energy switching hit an all-time high in 2008, when 5.4million gas and 4.2million electricity tariffs were changed.

The move to lower energy prices also raises the prospect that households will be bombarded with unwanted junk mail as energy suppliers vie for their business (stock photo)

Then, in 2011, a series of mis-selling scandals forced energy firms to stop flogging deals to customers through aggressive sales tactics, such as calling round to homeowners' properties out of the blue and flogging deals to consumers in supermarkets.

The result was that from 2012 onwards the number of people switching energy companies dropped sharply.

For the past three years, they have stayed static at around 5.5million gas and electricity switches a year, of which 2.3million were electricity tariffs and three million were gas.

Peter Atherton, a utilities analyst at Jefferies, said the bigger energy suppliers would be forced to accept the CMA recommendations in the end.

'Anything that gets the regulators off their back short of a price cap on all standard variable tariff customers is a price they are willing to pay,' he said.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... deals.html
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Re: Power firms are forced to help their own rivals:

Postby annie » 03 Mar 2016, 09:12

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Re: Power firms are forced to help their own rivals:

Postby maureenho » 03 Mar 2016, 16:18

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Re: Power firms are forced to help their own rivals:

Postby wendy » 12 Mar 2016, 17:53

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