Be careful, customer! – The C’T Podcast: Expensive electricity after changing provider

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If you stay with the same electricity provider for too long, you often end up paying exorbitant prices. That’s why experts recommend changing your electricity supplier from time to time. It’s a shame if something goes wrong, because then you automatically end up with a significantly more expensive tariff. In the podcast we discuss what to do in such a case and, above all, what the customer is entitled to.

Its basis is Axel K. This is the case of a power supplier who wants to change energy supplier when his current contract expires. The new provider gives him a substantial switching bonus, and K. For kilowatt hour electricity becomes cheaper than before. Theoretically anyway, because the provider messed up the correct registration, that’s why Excel’s. End with the so-called basic provider. There are no bonuses and electricity is quite expensive.

In the podcast, Ulrike Kuhlmann and Urs Mannesmann of the C’T editorial team discuss with a lawyer niklas muhlisWhat you should consider when changing providers, how to find good offers and who has what tasks when changing providers.

Lawyer Muhlis explains that the role of the original supplier is to ensure energy supply even to customers who do not have a contract. These are defaulting customers who have been locked out of their old contract. Or if something goes wrong while the contract is being changed.

All energy consumers in Germany without a contract automatically fall into this – significantly more expensive – basic supply. The basic supplier in an area is always the energy supply company that supplies the most domestic customers. So, it can be said that it is the biggest fish in the pond.

Is it worth it to change providers

According to Urs Mannesmann, there are really no cheap old contracts for electricity because electricity providers always pass on the rising costs to their existing customers. Therefore it is advisable to change it from time to time. When looking for a better tariff, he recommends comparison portals.

In the podcast we explain whether an electricity provider can reject a switching request when the contract expires and why comparison portals are worthwhile, even if they are not a neutral authority. If the contractual partner has not fulfilled its obligations, those affected are entitled to compensation, as is the case with Axel K – even if companies prefer to describe this legal obligation as a special courtesy.

You can read the article on the controversy discussed in the current podcast here:

Blackout: Munich municipal utilities scrambling to change electricity providers

All episodes of our consumer protection podcast and the cases discussed in them can be found at ct.de/Vorsicht-Kunde. We C’T Podcast “Beware, Customer!” Suggestions, praise and criticism are welcome. In the comments. Have you ever had a bad experience on Black Friday?

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