When will EDF hike its prices?
British Gas has done it, Scottish Power has done it and as energy companies are like sheep, that means unless there’s a radical change to world markets, four more are likely to announce major price hikes soon…
The one that intrigues me though is EDF Energy. This is the second round of price hikes in 2011. In the earlier round EDF was the last to change prices and launched the clever marketing scheme: "a freeze to keep you warm, until 1 March 2011" (see my earlier When will EDF hike prices? blog).
It’s clever because, of course, when prices are rising there’s a buzz of people going onto price comparison sites on the back of it, and due to EDF’s freeze earlier this year, it was pushed much higher up on the list than those who had just upped their prices. I suspect it churned a good deal of customers that way. Although the irony is, as it can take a couple of months to switch over, the actual gain for those who moved to it was likely to be very limited.
In the end, the price freeze guarantee only lasted a nibble longer than it had to, with EDF raising prices on the 2 March (see the EDF price hike news story).
So, the question is, will EDF Energy (or another company) do the same again with a "price freeze until October" promise? Answers on a postcard please…
