E.ON Hikes Bills For 1 Million of Its’ Customers

• E.ON quietly increased it’s prices for up to 1 million customers
• Announcement came after freezing temperatures hit the UK
• Other energy providers expected to follow
• Didn’t announce to the press or to customers

One of the ‘Big Six’ of the UK’s power firms, E.ON, has announced that it will be dropping discounts on its tariffs, effectively increasing its prices.

Around one million households will face higher bills for gas and electricity as a result of this, and the announcement comes after the UK saw the coldest spring day on record.

The news will be devastating for families that are already struggling to pay bills, and needs the discounts to help pay bills.

E.ON also sneakily revealed its price changes through price comparison site Energyhelpline, instead of sharing the information with the press or public.

Although E.ON isn’t increasing the rate that it charges for units of gas or electricity, scrapping these discounts is effectively raising prices for hard-pressed households.

E.ON has blamed the raise in “rising costs, along with other factors in the market.”

The average annual increase will be £22, but one in four households on the standard variable tariff will have to pay an extra £50 a year.

The timing of the changes has been branded as a “stealth hike”, due to the way that the changes have been introduced.

They will take effect on the 19th April.

The discount that it is removing is the £30 worth of dual fuel and paperless discounts for customers on standard variable tariffs, meaning their bills will rise by 2.6%, taking their typical annual bills up to £1,153.

The backdoor approach appears to be done to avoid criticism, but it is just an example of one of the main energy suppliers attacking customers on standard variable tariffs.

The Government has recently introduced new legislation designed to help those being ripped-off on standard variable tariffs, which would see a price cap put in place.

E.ON has insisted that the changes are going to “make it simpler and easier for customers to understand our tariffs and compare them with other suppliers in the market.”

However, it has been criticised by price comparison Compare the Market, which said, “There is little justification for removing discounts, and certainly not in the name of making billing simpler.”

Another round of price increases from the big six energy firms -which are British Gas, EDF, npower, Scottish Power, SSE, and E.ON- is expected to follow this announcement.

Other bills, such as TV licences, Sky bills, and mobile phone contracts, will all rise in April, and similarly, last year all the big six energy firms raised their prices.

One smaller supplier, Bulb, increased its prices last week by £24 a year for its 300,000 customers, citing wholesale costs as the reason.

If you are going to be losing out on your discount, shopping around for a different supplier could save you over £250 a year.

Are you going to be hit by E.ON’s changes? Let us know in the comments.