(Finance) – Il 68% of those who looked for a new electricity and gas supplier paid higher than average energy rates before the changewith an annual increase of 415 euros for electricity bills and even 490 euros for methane bills. The data comes from the analysis of Facile.it made on a sample of over 28,000 consumer users who requested a change of supply between September 2023 and August 2024.
More specifically, analyzing the electricity supplyit emerges that 76% of contract holders paid a higher rate than the average of the offers available; bills in hand means that, with the same consumption, they have spent around 1,380 euros in a year, compared to an average of 965 euros.
If you look at fgas supply, instead, the percentage of those who spent more than necessary was 40%; for these consumers the the annual bill reached almost 2,100 euros, compared to an average expense of just under 1,600 euros.
“There are hundreds of operators on the free market; finding your way around the offers is not easy and choosing badly can mean wasting hundreds of euros every year”, explain the experts at Facile.it. “This is why it is essential to learn to read bills, constantly monitor your tariff and compare it with that of other operators, so as to identify the solution best suited to your needs”.
Again according to the analysis of Facile.it, however, there are many users who, by correctly choosing the supplier to rely on, they saved compared to the average; always with the same consumption, up to 180 euros per year on the electricity bill and up to almost 400 euros per year on the gas bill.
How do we understand if we are paying more than we should or could? First of all – continues Facile.it – you need to look inside the bill the elements to use to evaluate your supply. The first to identify is the ‘energy expenditure’ – a parameter found in the box of the bill dedicated to consumption – which must be divided by the quantity of energy consumed (expressed in kWh for electricity and Smc for gas). The value thus obtained represents the price of the energy material and is a good initial parameter to use to understand if what we pay is in line with the market or if our bill is too expensive.
For electricity, the best fixed price proposals available on the market today have an energy cost of around 0.18 euros/kWh for the supply of electricity and 0.61 euros/Smc for that of gas. If the value that emerges from the analysis of your bill is higher than these parameters, it means that you are spending more than you should and that there are more convenient offers on the market.
Once we’ve established that we’re paying too much, it’s time to evaluate offers on the market. To do this it is necessary to start from your supply, reading the “detail bill”, a document which contains, as the name itself suggests, all the details of our offer; if you do not receive it, request it from your supplier.
In this document, under the heading “energy expenditure”, two components will appear; a fixed feei.e. the amount that you will pay every month regardless of consumption, and a share linked to consumption, whose weight will therefore depend on how much electricity or gas will be used. These are the values to consider when comparing your supply with that offered by other companies, taking care to request the cost of the fixed fee and the cost linked to consumption during the offer phase.
At this point it will be enough to identify the solution best suited to your needs and to this end it will be essential to consider how much energy you consume and what your usage habits are. For example, for large families which consume a lot of energy, the advice is to pay particular attention to the cost of the share linked to consumption and prefer offers that have a lower price for this element; if, however, energy consumption is limited, for example in the case of a single person or a second home inhabited for limited periods, it is important to pay attention to the price of the fixed quota, which could have a significant impact on the total cost.
“There is no absolute best supplier, the choice must be calibrated based on your needs”, explain the experts at Facile.it. “The mistake to avoid is do not compare your rate with offers from other companies; for those who are not familiar with the subject, there is the possibility of contacting independent consultants who can help consumers navigate the offers by identifying the most suitable one”.