So, Angela Ripon was on the BBC this morning making a point about utilities.

They state that the same company will offer different rates in different parts of the country – so, a provider will offer worse rates
in it’s natural territory, than others.

The reason is that in a company’s natural territory most people will use them regardless, they don’t need to be competitive to keep
customers. So, were I to do a price comparison for me, ‘Southern’ would never be the winner.

So, the obvious course of action is to shop around, but people just don’t. They often say things like ‘No, I’m happy with my gas, it never
goes wrong’. Well, yes, but for the same gas, or the same electricity, you could pay less.

So, why don’t people shop around?

Well, there is the thing where company’s will attract you with a good deal the after a while you won’t be on a cheap deal any more and
it was a waste of time. There are company’s with 30 tarrifs or more.

So, if you aren’t interested in shopping around every 6 months, the other strategy is to choose a company with just one tarriff for all
it’s customers, including the new ones. A tarrif that is pretty cheap – cheap enough to attract the new customers, although maybe not
the very cheapest at any one time.