Consumers in Germany are paying over five billion euros more than necessary for electricity this year because they are too comfortable changing their tariff.
According to an analysis by the comparison portal Verivox, which was available to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Sunday), almost a quarter of households in Germany receive electricity via the local supplier’s basic supply tariff. According to Verivox, however, this is “by far the most expensive tariff group”.
Because these approximately ten million households do not care about switching electricity providers or getting a cheaper tariff from their previous provider, they are paying almost 5.5 billion euros too much extrapolated to this year, as the comparison portal determined. As an intermediary, Verivox usually receives commission from the providers when contracts are concluded.
All households that do not look for a cheaper offer when building a house or moving in will receive the basic supply tariff from their local electricity supplier. It has the advantage that it can be canceled at any time. The disadvantage is that the basic service tariff is comparatively expensive.