Berlin.
Cheap prices for electricity and gas are tempting at first glance – but there are risks. This is how consumers recognize dubious offers.
Word got around: Strom and gas are again significantly cheaper from many providers after the last year of crisis. Many people have the in the first quarter provider changed. However, the risk of being taken in by an unreliable low-cost supplier who does not comply with applicable energy law is still there. But it can easily be minimized.
Like the money guide financial tip reported, energy discounters have been luring with predatory prices since the stock exchange prices for electricity and gas fell at the end of 2022. Brands such as Spar-Fuxx and Grüner Funke (both Fuxx-Die Sparenergie GmbH), Idealenergie and Immergrün (both Rhenish Electricity and Gas Supply Company) often come out on top in price comparisons. The Grünwelt Energie brand (Grünwelt Wärmestrom GmbH), which has become known through its integration with Stromio, is again offering tariffs at attractive prices.
High energy prices have brought low-cost suppliers to their knees
In order to be able to offer the tariffs so cheaply, the low-cost providers often rely on a risky strategy: buying energy at short notice and as cheaply as possible. During the crisis, such providers had largely disappeared from the scene because you business model no longer worked in the high-price phase. At the end of 2021, Stromio, Gas.de and Grünwelt even went so far as to spontaneously terminate their customers’ contracts and stop deliveries from one day to the next. It cost hundreds of thousands of consumers a lot of money because they went into the expensive Basic or replacement care had to. The consumer advice center Hesse brought a model declaratory action against Stromio. Victims can still register in the register of complaints.
Today that can no longer be repeated so easily. Since mid-2022, im Energy Industry Actthat provider one delivery stop must be notified at least three months in advance. Until then, they are obliged to continue to supply their customers. This does not apply only in the event of insolvency – but Stromio & Co. have never filed for insolvency anyway.
additional Problem: Energy discounters can sell electricity and gas so cheaply in the first year of the contract that it doesn’t even pay off for them at first. Your calculus: appear at the top of comparison portals with the low price – and then increase the prices sharply after the first year of the contract. Customers easily overlook the fact that they are actually could quit.
In the past, the providers lured tariff changer also with large bonuses, making the deal a loss for the utility in the first year. However, the bonus conceals the fact that energy prices are high right from the start. If the customer does not terminate his contract, the provider can cash in from the second year.
There are in courting around new customers so several baits. Finanztip offers comparison calculator for electricity tariffs and Gastarife that are particularly consumer-friendly and minimize the risk of being taken in by dubious contractual partners. One will do this black list conducted, on which providers land who have attracted negative attention in the past.
In addition to the suppliers already mentioned, there are also the brands of Primastrom and Voxenergie, against which the Association of Consumer Centers Model Declaratory Actions due to unauthorized price increases. ExtraEnergie, whose unilateral price increases were judged illegal by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, is also on the exclusion list (Az. I-20 U 318/22). Unlike some other comparison portals, the Finanztip comparison calculators do not show any tariffs from these providers.
To consumers also before later price increases To provide the best possible protection, Finanztip randomly checks every month whether there are tariffs on the market that not cost-covering are. To do this, the prices offered are compared with the actual costs incurred for purchasing electricity based on the average exchange prices, transport via the grids, the fee for the electricity meter, as well as taxes, levies and levies. Tariffs that undercut the necessary minimum price are sorted out for the long-term price comparison.
Finanztip also advises consumers to Changing electricity or gas supplier to make sure that the new Rates contains at least one limited price guarantee. Price increases are then only possible if something changes in the generally applicable allocations, duties or taxes. The price component, which the provider determines himself, is unchangeable. The price guarantee should last at least as long as the first contract term.
This article appears in cooperation with finanztip.de. The money guide for consumers is part of the Finanztip Foundation.
More articles from this category can be found here: Life
