Energy

Scottish Power has become the latest big six energy firm to hike prices, with its dual-fuel standard tariff to rise by an average of 7.8% from 31 March. But British Gas has announced it's freezing its standard tariff prices until 1 August.

Energy customers could be given more protection if proposals by regulator Ofgem to introduce additional stress-testing to reduce the chances of suppliers collapsing are acted on later this year.

The levels at which a temporary prepayment price cap that's expected to help four million households save about £80/year have been set by energy regulator Ofgem.

Npower has announced huge price rises for 1.4 million customers on its standard variable tariff from March, with a typical dual- fuel household's energy bill set to soar by about 10%.

Energy price hikes are coming. EDF has already announced it'll raise electricity prices by 8.4% in March. Many other big names have frozen prices till April, but it's highly likely we'll see rises when those promises come to an end.

Regulator Ofgem is pushing ahead with plans to encourage customers to find the best energy deals, with a series of trials taking place that will include forcing suppliers to reveal cheaper tariffs offered by rivals.

Energy customers are still being given incorrect info about the switching process by big six firms, six weeks after MoneySavingExpert.com revealed suppliers had been wrongly telling those coming to the end of a fixed-term contract they'll have to pay an exit fee to switch provider.

About two million E.on customers will stop earning reward points at the end of March after the energy supplier decided to pull the plug on its popular scheme. If you opted in to E.on Rewards, you'll have until 30 June 2017 to exchange your accumulated points for Tesco Clubcard points or Bonusbond vouchers.

Small energy supplier Green Energy has harnessed smart meter technology to launch the first 'time-of-day' tariff for domestic customers. But while the tariff offers good value if you're able to be flexible with your electricity use, others could find savings hard to come by.