Energy Prices Down
Amid all the financial gloom, there are definitely some glimmers of sunshine breaking through the clouds.
If you’ve been struggling to pay your gas and electricity bills, prices are on the way down.
On Friday Npower became the fourth company in three days to cut prices, after EDF Energy, SSE, and Centica-owned British Gas, putting pressure on Eon and Scottish Power. Companies that were chastised last year for raising prices seemed to be falling over each other to cut them – providing a rare piece of good news for hard-pressed households.
British Gas has cut electricity bills for more than five million people with an average five per cent drop in its standard energy tariff. The price cut will take effect immediately, and will snip around £24 from the average bill. The company is not reducing gas prices.
SSE, the owner of Southern Electric and Swalec, has cut the price of household gas by 4.5 per cent from 26 March, shaving £28 off the average gas bill for up to 3.5m households. It has also said its commitment to cap household gas and electricity prices will be extended by two months to October 2012, and pledged to look at more cuts if possible. Customers of M&S Energy, which is supplied by SSE, will also benefit from the reductions.
Meanwhile, average savings rates have crept up over the last year, and some impressive deals launched in the first few days of the new year are giving savers hope of a positive trend.
There are opportunities for some borrowers to make savings on their mortgage, and the start of 2012 has also been marked by intense competition in the current account market, with a range of switching deals on offer.
This week, comparison website MoneySupermarket.com looked at the financial deals on offer and compared them with those available in January 2011. It says average savings rates are up, and average mortgage rates are down, while there are lower interest rates on loans, and the average promotional period offered on a credit card is at a record high.
