I'm a simple emigrant and I changed my electricity provider

After moving to Germany I lived in a studio-type apart-hotel: everything was included in the price, you simply pay one amount each month and don’t bother. Then when moving to a regular apartment you have to do everything yourself. In my case, it’s rent + utilities, which are deducted automatically. Separately, contracts for Internet, electricity, and contributions for TV and radio. I didn’t change the Internet contract; from paying TV and radio contributions it’s almost impossible to escape: they are mandatory even if you no longer know what radio is and you don’t have a TV. But I’ve been changing the electricity provider for the third time in two and a half years in the new apartment. All because many providers offer good discounts to new customers, and later the magic wears off and they surprise you with “normal” prices – higher by 30-40%. To understand how much you’ll need to pay, look at two figures in the tariff details. First, the base price (Grundpreis): the monthly minimum payment, second, the price per kilowatt-hour (Arbeitspreis). Only then can you check the advance payment, because it may seem attractive, especially if you understate your expected consumption. But don’t be fooled: at the end of the year there will be a settlement, and then they may demand a payment of hundreds of euros — that’s the main trick. This is especially important if you plan to choose the tariff once and for all. I always look at available tariffs on Check24.de. Moreover, it seemed to me that they’re sly there too, and if your current tariff is expensive, they offer worse terms. Next we calculate: approximate electricity consumption can be looked up from your last year, say 2000 kWh/year, then with Grundpreis: 10 € and Arbeitspreis of 35 Ct/kWh we get 820 € per year. So the advance payment is about 68 € per month. At the same time, an annual consumption of 2000 kWh is quite a lot for one or even two people, so in our example you are almost certainly going to get a nice refund at the end of the year! For the especially busy there are services like SwitchUp or Verivox that will switch tariffs between providers for you, but I didn’t use them; I prefer to do it by hand. #useful #money