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Rising energy costs hitting businesses

The need to save money when times are tough takes on much greater importance, and now is one of those times. In the face of falling consumer confidence, rising unemployment and overheads becoming more expensive, saving a little money here and there on costs is vital, especially when making a profit is becoming almost impossible. However, there are some things that, no matter how much you try to economise, seem to become more expensive with each passing day, one of those being energy.

It’s no secret that gas and electricity are more expensive now than they were before. As a result, rising energy bills are hitting businesses who have done everything to cut down usage to the point that they only use the bare minimum needed for them to operate fully in the pocket. Those who use prepayment meters for their gas and electricity often find themselves in debt, with the average debt for gas customers standing at £371, while electricity customer debts average £357. Those with debts at those levels would be forced to stay with their current supplier, but intervention from regulator Ofgem has changed that.

Before now, energy customers with prepayment meters were unable to move from their current supplier to someone new if they had debts of over £200. However, Ofgem have made it easier by raising the debt limit to £500. For the 300,000-plus businesses and households who currently use prepayment meters, this is great news if they want to look for instant savings, something that money saving advisory firm Make It Cheaper are enthused about. They gave this statement on why switching suppliers may make sense:

"At Make it Cheaper we did some research amongst our business client base, and many of those who got back to us said that they were dissatisfied with their previous supplier because of poor customer service and irregularities surrounding their bills. By switching to a new energy company, they managed to avoid both those problems, which show that, ever since we first started up, we try to do one thing: get our customers a better deal."

By being able to switch supplier, even when energy prices are rocketing up, it’s possible to make savings. Where using less energy or using it at a different time of the day is not workable, moving to another energy supplier despite having a small amount of debt could be the ideal thing to do if in need of a little extra money when things become a little tight.