Change electricity provider: Warentest criticizes comparison portals and recommends alternative exchange services

Verivox, Check24 and Co.
Change electricity provider: Warentest does not find any comparison portal good – and recommends other services

by Daniel Bakir
November 7th, 2021, 6:29 pm

Electricity and gas prices are rising, and switching providers can save a lot of money. The difference between an expensive contract such as the basic service and a cheap tariff can easily be several hundred euros a year for a household. Comparison portals have established themselves as practical switching helpers: They give an overview of the offers and guide you through the switching process online.

In a current comparison, however, Stiftung Warentest is not very enthusiastic about the portals’ service. Of the eight comparison portals for electricity and gas tariffs that were examined, none came out above the test rating of “satisfactory”. Five providers were sufficient, one insufficient, and the market leaders Verivox and Check24 performed best. The portals are a good point of contact for regular customers, but there is a lack of tariff information and transparency, so the conclusion of the product testers.

For convenient customers who do not want to take care of the change themselves on a regular basis, Stiftung Warentest recommends automatic change helpers instead, who look after their customers on a permanent basis. These tariff watchdogs delivered positive results in a long-term comparison (see below).

Comparison portals with pitfalls

With the classic comparison portals such as Verivox and Check24, the auditors criticize, among other things, that the monthly discount price is not shown or only hidden. Instead, the list of results is sorted according to a monthly average price, which also includes new customer bonuses. In addition, the testers discovered that the cheapest tariff is not at the top, but often an advertising space for a more expensive provider. Which filters are set in the search is usually not recognizable at a glance, and important filters are also missing on some portals. After all: Check24 and Verivox certify the product testers “consumer-friendly default settings”.

A fundamental problem is that the comparison calculators are not neutral because they work on a commission basis. Most portals therefore prefer to show tariffs where they can collect a commission, although there may be cheaper providers on the market. The simple solution is to use two different comparison calculators. But watch out: if the results are completely identical, they are likely based on the same price comparison. The industry giants Check24 and Verivox have installed their computers on numerous partner sites.

Automatic tariff watchdogs convince

In addition to the classic comparison portals, automatic exchange services have also been established for a number of years, some of which are advertised as tariff watchdogs. The difference: These services not only help once when switching, but also keep an eye on the tariff and take action on their own in good time before the contract term expires: They either propose new tariffs to their customers or automatically initiate the change immediately if the customer does not contradicts within a period.

Warentest has tested such switching assistants for almost two years – and they are impressed: “All the exchange services tested offered favorable tariff proposals, organized the switch and, in the second year, initiated a change of provider again well before the period of notice had expired.” It only got stuck in individual cases. The change did not work on time for a customer because he had given his exchange service an old meter number.

The service from Wechselpilot.com was most convincing, but the other six tested providers are also recommended according to the product test. Wechselpilot keeps 20 percent of the savings as commission, with others it’s 30 percent, Switchup and Remind.me are free.

You can find the complete test of the comparison portals for a fee here, the test on the automatic exchange services here