Energy bills are a growing concern for consumers. Many questions arise today with cascading increases: can we ask to adjust our monthly installment bill? Do we have the right to impose it on us? And is it still worth changing supplier? Here are the answers to your questions.
The regularization invoice sometimes brings unpleasant surprises. With rising energy prices, it’s best to be cautious to avoid unexpected expenses. It is possible to estimate its consumption: “More and more suppliers allow consumers to enter their index in their customer area to get an idea of actual consumption and then adapt the amount of the installments they must pay”notes Julie Frère, spokesperson for Test-Achats.
To avoid a significant supplement at the end of the year, it is therefore possible to adjust your monthly bill. How to go regarding it ? “It is very important to try to have the deposit which is the fairest in relation to your consumption. Many suppliers will proactively offer you this increased deposit. You can accept it, you can adapt it and you can also refuse it. But be careful, if you refuse it, you still risk having bad surprises at the end of the year”, continues the spokesperson for Test-Achats. Be careful not to pay too high deposits, as it might be complicated to recover them in the event of the supplier’s bankruptcy.
And finally, the grass is sometimes greener elsewhere: many households do not benefit from the optimal formula for their energy expenditure. In Brussels alone, 2% of households benefit from the best offer for gas. So how do you know if your contract is still the most suitable for your situation? “If you have a fixed contract that was concluded before the price increase, you obviously have to stay with that supplier and not change the formula. In other cases, it is interesting to use comparison tools to see if there are other interesting offers elsewhere”insists Julie Frère.
Here are some tips to limit the damage at the end of the year. The safest way is obviously to adopt the right reflexes to limit your consumption.
