Switch and Save Cash on your Gas
It is easy to see how much money you could save on your gas and electricity bills. All you need do is compare gas and electricity prices across all major suppliers to discover that potentially you could save hundreds of pounds a year by just switching to a cheaper supplier and tariff.
According to government statistics, approaching 4 million households in the UK are in fuel poverty, which means that they spend at least 10% of their household income on electricity and gas, and as many as one in four households worry about how they are going to be able to afford the next gas or electricity bill, so it is difficult to understand why many more people don't switch.
Although people have been able to switch since 1999, to date only a third of households have and it is very difficult to understand why people are unwilling to invest ten or fifteen minutes and something that could save them hundreds of pounds a year.
According to some experts it is all down to psychology. We all have what is known as choice aversion and suffer from what is called the endowment effect which means that we prefer to stick with what we are used to.
This was tested in a famous experiment that is now known as the Jam Experiment. A number of supermarket shoppers were offered a free taste of jam and given the chance to buy a pot of it. When there were just six pots to choose from around a third of people bought one, but when there were twenty four pots to choose from this number fell to 3%.
When there is a lot of choice people become a little bewildered as was demonstrated in another study. A number of people were studied as they searched for a cheaper energy deal and surprisingly many of them did not make the optimum choices. Over 50% of the people failed to save even half as much as was possible, and 25% ended up worse off they before they switched.
Of course that was before comparison websites. Nowadays you can see the best deals in order of how much they will save you, so choosing the best one is easy. All you need to do is enter how much you currently spend on your gas and electricity, along with your current supplier and tariff and hit go - job done.
According to government statistics, approaching 4 million households in the UK are in fuel poverty, which means that they spend at least 10% of their household income on electricity and gas, and as many as one in four households worry about how they are going to be able to afford the next gas or electricity bill, so it is difficult to understand why many more people don't switch.
Although people have been able to switch since 1999, to date only a third of households have and it is very difficult to understand why people are unwilling to invest ten or fifteen minutes and something that could save them hundreds of pounds a year.
According to some experts it is all down to psychology. We all have what is known as choice aversion and suffer from what is called the endowment effect which means that we prefer to stick with what we are used to.
This was tested in a famous experiment that is now known as the Jam Experiment. A number of supermarket shoppers were offered a free taste of jam and given the chance to buy a pot of it. When there were just six pots to choose from around a third of people bought one, but when there were twenty four pots to choose from this number fell to 3%.
When there is a lot of choice people become a little bewildered as was demonstrated in another study. A number of people were studied as they searched for a cheaper energy deal and surprisingly many of them did not make the optimum choices. Over 50% of the people failed to save even half as much as was possible, and 25% ended up worse off they before they switched.
Of course that was before comparison websites. Nowadays you can see the best deals in order of how much they will save you, so choosing the best one is easy. All you need to do is enter how much you currently spend on your gas and electricity, along with your current supplier and tariff and hit go - job done.
