When it comes to the switching hour, the time is now

One of the few weapons consumers have in the face of rising prices is the ability to take their business elsewhere.

Like the some class of money-saving hipster, Pricewatch has been banging on about switching since way before it was cool. “Switch this and save hundreds,” we’d say. Or “Lads, if you’d only switch that you could save thousands of euro and go on a lovely holiday instead”.

Over and over again, on this very page and on any other platform given to us, we highlighted how moving from company A to company B could save people truckloads of cash and then we’d marvel at how few people actually listened to us and how so many more seemed willing, if not exactly happy, to simply waste money by sticking with providers who were effectively gouging them.

Truth be told, sometimes we didn’t even listen to ourselves as life got in the way of making those calls.

But with the cost of living crisis deepening as 2022 races towards the finish line, there has been a pretty significant shift in consumer behaviour and more people than ever have started switching – although to borrow from election manifestos of times past, while there’s a lot done there’s more to do.

Last week we took to Twitter with a question. Has 2022 made you more likely to shop around for service providers and to actively switch if there is money to be saved?

More than 400 people voted in our poll and while the results are entirely unscientific they do offer a glimpse into how our world has changed. All told, 71 per cent of people said that the cost of living crisis had made them more likely to switch providers in search of better value while 14 per cent said the crisis wouldn’t make them any more likely to seek out better value. A similar percentage said they had got a little bit better when it came to switching.

In response to our poll, Karen Duffy told us she has been an active switcher for years but said “the narrowing of price difference between suppliers, and the reduced number of suppliers in the energy market is making it much less worthwhile”.

“Anyone who isn’t moving utilities and TV/broadband once a year is losing the cost of a holiday annually,” added Ivor Pabast with pleasing snappiness.

Last weekend, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) reported that a record 45,518 electricity customers switched supplier in June, 72 per cent up on the same month in 2021. The CRU outlined how more than 36,000 electricity customers a month, on average, changed supplier in the first half of this year as homes and businesses actively went in search of better deals in the face of rising prices. In 2021, the comparable figure was 26,318.

Those who made the switch between January and June were among the lucky ones, or at least the ones who made the biggest possible savings on electricity and gas and many of those who have made the switch recent weeks might be forgiven for asking what that Pricewatch lad was on about after the savings we have talked about failed to materialise at the level we said they would.