suppliers, price trends, customer relations, how to choose an offer

Greener and above all cheaper energy, admit that it’s tempting at a time when electricity prices are soaring! Is it always worth changing suppliers?

Offers for cheaper and greener energy are multiplying on the market, and certain contracts offer prices below the regulated sales tariff, the famous EDF “blue tariff”, which we appreciated during the energy crisis of 2022. Enough to make some people want to change. Fanny Guibert, this month, in 60 Million consumersscrutinized around sixty contracts.

franceinfo: What should you pay attention to before changing supplier, are there any precautions to take?

Fanny Guibert: Yes, there are precautions to take, iThere are questions to ask and tools to use, we detail them in our file. You should clearly not subscribe with anyone, in a few clicks, as is often offered. Under penalty of very unpleasant surprises, because the contracts are far from all being the same.

Can we trust the comparators that we can find on the Internet?

We do not recommend using these private comparators. Selectra, which claims to be the first energy offer comparator, has just been sanctioned for misleading commercial practices.

It is important to understand that these comparators are in fact brokers, paid by the suppliers, for the contracts they sign. We recommend the official comparator, that of the national energy mediator, an independent public authority, available on the Energie Info website.

In general, should we be wary of an offer that is too tempting?

Yes. It can hide discounts which will only last for a short time, and which will be associated with unrecommendable contracts. Promises are also only valid if they can be kept over time, and we have seen, with the recent energy crisis, that certain suppliers did not hesitate to change the rules of the game, almost overnight.

There is one thing that also matters, and that is the reliability of the supplier, their reputation. Where can you find information before committing?

The crisis has shown the importance to be given to the choice of supplier. You need to find out about the company, its activity, its locations. There are very different profiles. Another important element: is this company the source of numerous disputes? It is possible to find out, thanks to the National Energy Ombudsman, an independent public authority. It now makes this information available directly on its comparator.

It is difficult to distinguish between fixed prices, market prices, or prices indexed to the regulated sales price. When we talk about fixed prices for example, does that only concern part of the price?

Yes. Only the price per kWh excluding tax is fixed for the duration indicated. But the overall bill remains likely to change depending on changes in taxes, as happened last February, or depending on distribution costs, as we will see next August. If these costs increase, this impacts all contracts, even those with fixed prices.

The price is important, but it is not the only criterion to take into account?

You should definitely not only look at the price. This is of course a determining criterion, and we rather look at the cheapest offers. But our file invites you to find out about the supplier, as we have said, about the mode of price evolution and, third important point, about customer service: is it a contract only online, or can we get someone on the line? Do we have a choice of payment method? What tools are available to monitor consumption? These are also points to consider.

What about green energy? Are the contracts offered really interesting?

There are many green contracts today. About as many as non-greens. And their prices are now competitive. Our tables show fairly similar annual costs between green and non-green offers.

In our opinion, there is a real debate to be reopened on these green offers. They are not alike, some are greener than others. The Agency for Ecological Transition, Ademe, has launched a label, VertVolt, which can help you make your choice. But we should go further.

What happens when you change contracts? The new supplier takes care of everything? Including the termination of the old contract?

Yes. The hardest part is choosing a new offer. Once the choice is made, it’s very simple, you just have to finalize the subscription with the new supplier, and they take care of everything. There will only be one closing invoice to pay to the old supplier.