You are moving to a new home and packing your things. Do you take your energy supplier with you? Or do you opt for a new contract at your new location? Establishing a new contract can sometimes provide you with a lot of benefits, or cause unnecessary administration.
If you have a fixed energy contract, the agreed rate will in principle be carried over to the next house. If you don’t want that, you have to buy off the contract with a fine. To know when it makes sense to take your old energy supplier with you when you change your home, you first have to look at what you actually pay the supplier for and what the largest costs are.
An energy supplier provides you with two things: electricity and gas. “We use more in the winter months and less in the summer months,” says Gerard Spierenburg of the Consumers’ Association. Your supplier calculates an average of these monthly costs, your monthly costs. At the end of the year you will receive a statement of what you have actually used.”
With an agreement with an energy supplier, you can then choose between a fixed, variable or dynamic rate. With a variable rate, the costs can change twice a year, although last fall was an exception. Due to the energy crisis, some providers were forced to adjust their variable rate upwards before 1 January. With a dynamic rate, the price per hour is calculated against the current market price. With a fixed rate you agree on a fixed price for a number of years. If the gas price rises during that time, that is to your advantage.
It’s about gas
There are also homes that do not use gas, but instead have access to district heating or a heat pump. “Heat is almost always the main part of your energy bill, even with district heating. But with district heating, you are tied to the supplier that your municipality provides,” says Spierenburg. “If you no longer use gas in your new home, the choice is therefore only about electricity. That is the smallest part of your energy contract. You can then find out which supplier is the cheapest, but the difference is smaller. Keeping or renewing your current contract is really only relevant if you move from a home heated by gas to a new home with gas.”
If you go from gas to gas, I would like to keep my current rate as long as possible
If you are going from gas to gas, according to Spierenburg it is wise to take your current contract with you. “Gas prices have risen sharply. If you go from gas to gas, I would like to keep my current rate for as long as possible.” Please note that this involves extending your current contract under the same conditions – the new, more unfavorable market prices are used for a new contract.
In view of rising gas prices, you might expect people to have their rates fixed so that they do not rise further, but according to Niels Stet of Eneco, this is not visible: “The prices have only been rising for a year and that increase will continue. only since October. Since then, we have not seen an increase in fixed-term contracts compared to variable-term contracts.”
Waiting for more favorable times
If you move from a gas-fired home to a gas-free home, the advantage of switching to another supplier is often small, just like when you move from a gas-free home to another gas-free home. If you are not currently using gas and you are using it in your new home, a contract with variable rates is worth considering, according to Spierenburg: “The rates are high right now. If the gas price normalizes a bit more over time, hopefully you can close a more favorable contract by then. Are you moving from a home with gas to a new home with gas and do you have a contract with a fixed rate? Then it is best to take it with you to your new home.
The last thing to consider is the duration of your contract. Canceling a permanent contract before it ends can cost you a lot of extra costs. This can also be a reason to take your current energy supplier with you to your new home. You must of course notify the supplier of the move. A new advance is determined, usually based on the consumption of the previous occupant. An estimate is made for new construction.
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