Martin Lewis advisers customers to switch energy providers

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Martin Lewis appeared on This Morning today to discuss the current “energy bills crisis”. He urged customers to compare providers now or they could be hit by huge bills in winter.

Martin Lewis spoke on the ITV show about the “energy bills crisis” as he said prices are likely to rise within months.

“I have to be the bearer of bad news,” he told the presenters.

“The first thing to note is wholesale prices – those are the prices that gas and electricity firms pay for energy – are at a three year high and have gone up 30 percent since March alone.

“So they are absolutely spiking and that feeds through to everything else. All the very cheap fixed deals have been withdrawn from the market and we’ve started to see companies announce energy price hikes.”

He explained some providers, including Bulb and Octopus, which offered deals cheaper than the price cap have made big bill increases and they are now nearly equal to the big names.

Martin stated many Britons are unaware of the rises as the price cap has not changed yet.

However, this is set to be reviewed in October which could see many bills soar ahead of the winter months.

He stated: “Because we’re currently through the price cap assessment period, my guess is that come October we are going to see a hike in the price cap again of another £50 to £100 a year.”

Martin explained many billpayers will be coming off cheap contracts and should act fast if they want to avoid paying huge prices.

“While you haven’t heard there is a crisis in energy,” he continued, “what is happening now is going to hit your bills in winter.

“This is your last opportunity, or possibly your last opportunity, to be able to do something about it.”

What should you do?

When discussing how to save, Martin said: “You go on a comparison site and you do a comparison.

“At the moment all the very cheap tariffs are variable deals. That means they can go up.

“But if you look at the cheapest of those, they would have to announce price hikes of around 10 percent before they weren’t worth doing compared to the cheap fixes.”

The Money Saving Expert outlines two types of deals homeowners should look for.

“I would be getting on a comparison, if you want absolute certainty go and find yourself a fixed rate deal,” he added.

“But if you are prepared to take a bit of a gamble, go for the cheapest variable with decent service.

“Get that, accept that it’s probably going to announce a price hike within the next month or two of five to 10 percent and if it does you are still paying less than elsewhere.”

If prices continue to rise, Martin suggested homeowners can then switch again.

He concluded: “If it puts its prices up even more, then you’ll have to leave again, but none of the cheap variables have exit penalties.”

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