07.05.08 6.8 million in debt to energy suppliers
6.8 million families are already in debt to their gas and electricity suppliers, with the average debt working out at £114, according to research carried out by uSwitch.com. This could be set to rise substantially since not many of us have bothered to adjust our direct debits to take account of the recent price increases.
Providers have written to customers advising them of the fact that prices have increased and explaining that they are unable to increase the amount of the direct debits on customers' behalf, but so far only around 1 in 7 of us have asked the suppliers to make changes to the amount we pay.
This may not all be down to apathy on our part, however, since only 29% of households have received concrete information on just how much the increases amount to – about £136 since the start of the year, taking the average annual bill to over the £1000 mark.
Of those who have already asked their provider to increase the amount they pay, the average request is £14 a month. 40% of those, however, (i.e. about 5 in 100) have only increased the amount by £10 which is bound to leave a shortfall.
Apart from the obvious problems associated with running up debt, householders will be unable to switch provider if they are more than £100 in the red, which at a time of swiftly rising prices is bad news for those who want to keep their outlay on energy to a minimum.
The founder of TheEnergyShop.com predicts that record oil prices will mean further increases, with the picture for consumers getting “gloomier by the day”.
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