Why I’m turned off by all this switching

EVERY now and again I cave in to the repeated advice from financial experts, who urge us all to switch suppliers for our energy, broadband, mobile phones, and so on. And every time I do, without fail, I end up regretting it.

I wish it hadn’t taken quite so much trial and error, but I think I’ve now come to the conclusion that you absolutely do get what you pay for in life.

Energy suppliers are the favourite target of these experts, who bombard you with promises that you can save hundreds of pounds every year if you switch your supplier over.

And, actually, they’re right. There really are handsome savings to be made. But what they don’t tell you is that your new supplier is almost certainly going to be so woefully incompetent that you’ll die of stress and anger trying to sort out the mess they’ve landed you in.

I won’t say which energy supplier I’ve switched to, as I’m in the middle of a bitter dispute with them, but I used to be with a large firm which I won’t name, whose brand is made up of the following jumbled letters – Gritish Bas.

“Gritish Bas”, as I will henceforth refer to them, were an excellent company to deal with. They had a great app, an excellent call centre which was easy to get through to, generous rewards, they never got a bill wrong, and we never had a single problem with their supply. But, my goodness, they were expensive.

By switching suppliers, we’re going to save about £400 per year. And that sounds great, but I’ve already spent far too many hours on the phone to the new company, sorting out the various messes they’ve created in the short time they’ve had the account open. It’s been an absolute farce.

The same thing happened about 10 years ago when I first tried a switch of energy suppliers in pursuit of saving a few quid. The company, whose name I will also refer to with an anagram, “PowerN”, made so many foul-ups I ended up terminating the contract early and going back to Gritish Bas with my tail between my legs.

And the same thing has happened with our telephone and broadband suppliers, too. After years of troublefree service from a large company I shall (following my anagram theme) refer to as “TB”, I got sucked into a cheaper deal with a newcomer called, er... “EE”.

It was a nightmare from start to finish and, in hindsight, I’d have joyfully paid back the £4 per month I’d saved to have gone back to “TB”. But “EE” wouldn’t let me leave.

This has also happened with car insurance, home insurance, banks, and boiler-protection policies. I’ve come to accept it’s a given that, if you leave a large company, you will save a bit of money going with a smaller outfit – but it honestly isn’t worth the savings.

And it’s a real shame, because I’m the sort of person that likes to support smaller businesses. I use our local butcher and greengrocer over supermarkets whenever possible, and I’ll always go to our lovely little greetings-card shop over the Card Factory outlet. And, in nearly all cases, I’ll save money by avoiding the big chains.

I accidentally found myself in Pets at Home the other day and I was shocked at the difference in prices. Some items were double the cost of my little local pet shop. Needless to say, I walked out empty-handed.

But sadly this ethos doesn’t seem to work when it comes to firms that I pay my monthly bills to. And, even more tragically, everything we sign up to these days takes us two years to get out of.

I’m not a money-saving expert, but I would offer you this piece of advice: yes, you can save money switching suppliers, but it really isn’t worth the almost inevitable hassle that will ensue.

Look instead to save money in your local shops. Get to know your butcher, baker, florist, greengrocer, pet shop, whatever. Not only will you almost certainly save money, but you’ll be propping up a local family’s livelihood.