In February 2024, a further increase in electricity prices is planned in France. However, you can limit its impact and even save up to 20% on your bills by changing energy supplier.
This is very bad news which is about to be announced by the Government. While wholesale electricity prices have been falling for several months, your energy bill could nevertheless increase from 1er February 2024. The reason? The Ministry of the Economy has planned the return of the domestic final consumption tax on electricity. As a reminder, this tax was suspended with the tariff shield, put in place almost two years ago to compensate for the meteoric increase in energy prices for households. With this system, the State had in fact taken responsibility for part of the energy bill for French households. But since this period of energy crisis, electricity production in France is doing better. However, this improvement in the market will not benefit consumers, but the State. “The price of electricity is falling in our country, which allows us to gradually remit taxes,” had warned Thomas Cazenave, the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts.
Fortunately, you can limit the impact of this increase and even significantly reduce your electricity bill by changing supplier. Indeed, the energy market has been open to competition since 2007, and while some operators align with EDF’s regulated tariffs, others practice free prices. And some have taken advantage of the recent drop in wholesale prices per megawatt hour to put in place very advantageous formulas. Certain offers with commitment even guarantee prices locked in for one or two years, therefore protected from potential future increases in regulated prices. It is therefore the right time to change, especially since it is now very simple to subscribe to an online offer and the change of supplier is carried out smoothly, without interruption or even intervention at home.
No need to shop around for suppliers to find an offer suited to your needs: simply use online comparators. There are several, but we recommend the one of UFC-What to choosethe famous consumer association which offers a very well designed tool, accessible free of charge to all – no need to be a member of the association or subscribe to the magazine – totally independent of any commercial partnership, which is not always the case case of other comparators.
Its use is very simple. Once on the web page, simply complete an anonymous form, no personal information is requested, indicating your type of energy (electricity, gas or both), your pricing (basic or peak/off-peak hours), your annual consumption, your postal code and the power of your meter (in kVA) then click on the I compare button.
From then on, you can compare the different contracts offered by energy suppliers accessible in your region. You will find many more or less well-known ones such as Ohm Energie, TotalEnergies, Mint Energie, Sowee, Enercoop, Vattenfall or even Ekwateur which offer reductions ranging from 5 to 20%, which corresponds to several hundred euros per year depending on your consumption. All you have to do is go to the sites of the most interesting operators, taking note of the name of the offer because some offer several, with different conditions. Be careful though, some offers are linked to a long-term commitment, while others are likely to increase again. “The prices presented are updated at the beginning of the month, as soon as the suppliers put their new prices online, and on the basis of the elements they communicate”, indicates the UFC-Que Choisir website.