With the comparison portals you can save a lot of money per year. Though this is not to necessarily to the customers advantage.

9.7 million Germans have already changed their electricity provider and a further 11.8 million will definitely or perhaps want to change. In most cases, the first port of call is check24 or Verivox, which will find the most favorable rate for the customer. At first sight the operators present themselves as if the consumer's interests were the focus of the portals.

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Many customers are not aware of how the portals really work. The comparison portals finance themselves through commission and advertising and the sale of user data. In addition, it is usually only worthwhile to offer your tariffs if you are among the first hits.

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As a provider, you have to price your own product extremely competitively in order to be high up in the search results, and you also have to pay a lot of commission every time you sign a contract.‍

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Providers attract customers with very high discounts in the first year, calling them instant bonuses, new customer bonuses, and other discounts on the electricity costs themselves. Only by reading the details it becomes clear that the discounts are valid only for the first year and thereafter the bonuses fall away and the customer is migrated into the more expensive tariff. Exemplarily for Berlin and a 2 person household is the first year with total savings of 378.30 € and the second year with only 82.21 € as the most favorable offer.

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The current structure leads to high losses for providers for each new customer and very high switching rates overall, which the providers oppose with unfavorable contract conditions for the customer and savings on customer service.

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Since the discounts only apply in the first year and often the minimum term of the contract is one year, many customers then switch again. Thus, people becoming a customers via the portals have very high switching rates overall. However, all customers then have to pay indirectly for the losses incurred in this way later. On the one hand, this leads to non-transparent and inflexible rates with long minimum terms or periods of notice, and on the other hand, it also means that providers only communicate the price increase to the customer in a hidden way or save on customer service.

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Therefore, Ostrom only offers a fair and (permanently) favorable tariff without cost traps, so that the true energy costs are reflected.

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For this reason, we have developed a tariff from which everyone benefits. At Ostrom, there is only one fair and transparent tariff without hidden costs. By choosing our tariff, you know that you will always have the cheapest tariff that reflects the true cost of energy. We only take a fixed fee per month and help you save energy by using our smart app. It serves our mission: "Together against climate change". Learn more about our tariff here.