Juchhu, the energy bill for your household is getting lower: next week, VAT will also drop for petrol and diesel, for heating oil and natural gas. That will relieve us all. And that is nice. But there is much more in it.
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Let’s take a look at the three most important energy bills: fuel for the car, fuel for heating – and electricity for the rest. In all of these places, you can save a lot more than just the few cents and euros that all of us are relieved of with VAT become. If you do it right, all in all, the multiple savings can jump out. 400 euros for the household are included.
Refuel thoughtfully
Petrol or diesel, which they use to go to work, should become cheaper if the crude oil market plays along. Just by reducing the VAT, the fuel could be cheaper by around three cents per liter. If you drive 10,000 kilometers in the second half of the year and use 700 liters of fuel, you save 21 euros. Some also drive less because of a corona-related home office or short-time work. Such savings are added.
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But your potential is far from being exhausted: For example, if you fill the tank with 50 liters of fuel and use the cheapest petrol station in the area, it is probably around 10 cents cheaper than the most expensive. So brings about three times as much as the VAT reduction.
It’s easy with an app on your smartphone. Refueling at the right time of day, usually in the evening, will bring you a maximum of 10 cents. Altogether six to seven times as much as the VAT reduction alone. Or 10 euros per tank – and under the above assumptions up to 140 euros over the half year.
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And don’t break the savings again by refueling on the freeway. Because motorway filling stations near large cities are up to 30 cents per liter more expensive than the cheapest urban filling station nearby.
Order heating oil for the winter
Let us turn to the heating bill. Here, as the owner, you can actually save a lot on heating oil. The reduction in VAT should make up 1 to 1.5 cents per liter at the dealer. If you have your tanks filled with 3000 liters of heating oil in the second half of the year, you should save between 30 and 40 euros – measured at the current price.
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But it is also important to compare here. You can easily determine the difference between an inexpensive heating oil dealer and an expensive one near you on comparison portals such as Esyoil or Heizoel24. It is often up to 10 cents per liter – or 300 euros in our example. By the way, you can already order now: the delivery date counts for VAT.
The heating oil is currently as inexpensive as last at the beginning of 2016. And if you do not give the heating oil dealer an appointment, it will be easier for you to get a good price because, for example, he can cleverly bundle the costs of the trips to customers. Some heating oil dealers even give a discount if customers order together with neighbors and thus buy a larger order quantity.
One last tip for heating oil: It’s best to order by September. In autumn, the retailers expect a rush of customers – after all, the state will require a CO2 price for heating oil from January 1, 2021 – which should make up around eight cents per liter. You do not pay this surcharge if the fuel flows into your tank until New Year’s Eve. In order for this to work, you should order early.
Change the gas contract
You don’t get the tax relief so quickly with natural gas. Your installment payment does not automatically decrease for the second half of the year: the major suppliers prefer to show the lower VAT on the annual statement. So you may get a credit – with a typical consumption of a family of four of 7500 kilowatt hours per half year, the lower VAT means 10 to 14 euros less costs.
From January onwards, however, there will be a tax (in addition to the return of VAT to the old level): the natural gas supplier will also have to pay a CO2 tax. So if you want to be precise, read your meter on July 1 and December 31 and send the data to the supplier, otherwise the gas supplier estimates.
The same applies to gas: the VAT reduction is nice, but you have the chance to cut your costs considerably more. Because the suppliers tend to pass on their existing customers falling gas prices on the world market only with a greater delay. Nobody is pushing. It is different with the new customers – because to win them you have to undercut the competition.
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The result: gas prices for existing customers are still on average at the level of the previous year, while new customer tariffs have become around ten percent cheaper since the beginning of the year. In many cases it can be worthwhile to change suppliers. With the largest gas provider comparison, you can find consumer-friendly and cheap offers among thousands of tariffs. In the Rheda-Wiedenbrück in East Westphalia, currently shaken by Corona, for example, with such a change at 7500 kwh consumption, it can cost over 200 euros for the half-year.
Tenants first look into the tube when it comes to heating. Because your heating costs are determined by levy. And they cannot directly influence whether the property management uses a cheap supplier. If you are a tenant, try it anyway and speak to your property manager about potential savings and check your heating bill.
Electricity consumption at home increases, but not necessarily the costs
The lower VAT should also have an effect on electricity bills, at least on the annual bill. For a family with electricity costs of 1200 euros per year, savings of around 15 euros are possible in the second half of the year. There is also the issue of electricity consumption for all households: this will increase in many households this year. Simply because families are more at home than usual because of their home office or short-time work. There, more electricity is then consumed, less with the cell phones and laptops than with the kitchen stove, washing machine and refrigerator. Consumption in home office households often increases by 10 to 15 percent.
But you can also counter this. In the first step, by reducing the electricity consumption again: Efficient use of the stove and washing machine, the purchase of new economical refrigerators and ovens, if the old ones have broken down sustainably, can reduce the electricity consumption properly – without sacrificing comfort. Quite so far that there is no additional consumption. The Öko-Institut keeps lists of particularly efficient household appliances under the heading “Eco Top Ten”.
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And then of course there is also the opportunity to change providers. Around a third of the electricity customers are in an expensive basic supply contract. If you are such a customer, you should check the change of provider urgently. The price differences between different providers are considerable. A cheap tariff for a family of four in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, who now has to stay at home because of Corona, costs a whopping 270 euros less than the basic supply with consumption of 4000 kilowatt hours per year. If you go to the trouble of chasing offers that lure customers with a fat bonus, you can even save more than 400 euros in East Westphalia. Elsewhere, the savings potential is similar.
But be careful: once the bonus has been paid out, the total price of the new provider is often higher in the second year than before. You should therefore give notice in good time before the end of the first year – and change again immediately.
Bottom line: A good 100 euros can be saved on fuel, up to 300 euros on heating oil bills and a good 100 euros in half a year on electricity – this saves over 500 euros in the second half of the year. And you can certainly use the money well.
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