There is little doubt that hundreds of thousands of homeowners could easily save more than £300 a year on energy bills - particularly if they are among 10m gas customers who stayed loyal to BG. BG's average bill at £707 for gas is up 91% since 2003, and electricity at £428 is up 81% in the same period. "One of BG's rivals might move first to shame BG into action," says Tim Wolfenden, at uSwitch.com. "For example, Scottish Power has been bought by the Spanish giant Iberdrola, and with only 4-5m UK customers, the new owners might cut prices to boost market share." EDF, Powergen and npower have European owners too - French, German and German respectively. Energy regulator Ofgem suggests the anti-competitive nature of suppliers' business practices in the EU might have cost UK consumers an estimated £1bn in the past year alone. Although 150,000 consumers are reckoned to switch suppliers each week, many people still pay more than necessary - largely because of laziness and inertia. They probably think all suppliers raise prices more or less in line - making any escape from higher bills so short-lived it is barely worth the paperwork. Says Tim Wolfenden: "The important thing is to set a date in the year - January is an obvious moment, and all the companies are in line after the latest round of increases - to review energy bills. We do it, almost without thinking, on car or household insurance. "Loyalty is clearly no longer part of the game, whatever a supplier has done for you in the past. The saving which households can make partly depends on how recently they last changed supplier. "Those who have never switched before - and particularly those with BG - are likely to save the most. "Others who switched in the past few months should probably sit back and see what happens next in the market place. Clearly capped deals are losing attraction with prices set to fall." At Simply Switch.com, Karen Darby says: "It is getting increasingly painful for most people to pay energy bills, and we have to realise we are moving into a market where new customers get all the best deals. "It is part of the British mentality to say `Wait and see'. In fact, you must be actively switching to find value in this market". Ms Darby says the first step is to ask an existing supplier for a cheaper tariff - and to compare these with quotes from elsewhere. She says many consumers use comparison services to find the lowest prices - and fix their own move to a new supplier. It won't cost them any more if they allow the comparison service to handle the switch - and collect the fee paid by the new supplier. About a dozen switching/comparison services have been approved by the watchdog Energywatch.
MORE information from uSwitch.com (0800 093 0607); SimplySwitch.com (0800 781 1212)
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