Utility Warehouse

Energy firm Utility Warehouse is to pay out £450,000 in refunds and compensation, after it overcharged potentially vulnerable customers last year.

British Gas, Ovo Energy and Utility Warehouse forcibly installed many more prepayment meters than their competitors, the energy regulator has found - and all suppliers have been warned this tactic must be a last resort to recover debt.

The Utility Warehouse has become the latest energy supplier to hike its standard variable tariff - with a 4.4% increase set to hit on Sunday 1 July, adding as much as £50 a year to household bills.

Utility Warehouse is being investigated by Ofgem over the way it manages its customers that get into debt - particularly on whether it puts in place appropriate repayment options.

Co-operative Energy has blamed ongoing problems with its new IT system as the reason why it was the most complained about energy provider in the third quarter of the year.

Hundreds of Utility Warehouse mobile customers will have their unlimited data allowance cut when the perk is scrapped for Gold customers in January.

SSE has cut switching times to 17 days from today, while First Utility has confirmed it will introduce faster energy switching from 10 November ahead of the New Year's Eve deadline given by Ofgem.

Hundreds of thousands of Npower customers will find themselves moved to a new energy supplier next year after it agreed to sell their accounts to Utility Warehouse.

Orange and TalkTalk have been shamed as the most complained-about telecoms providers.

Millions are being walloped by energy price hikes this winter, but it's not just the big headline-making firms upping bills. Hundreds of thousands of households are also being hit by smaller companies increasing costs as well.