New Home – Find an Electricity Provider! Finally you found your perfect new home! But now what’s next? You need to contract a electricity provider! Find out more about how to get a provider for energy in the times of crisis.
New Home – Water, heating and electricity
Moving in Germany is quite a hustle and can be overwhelming. After moving your furniture and belongings to your new home, you should be aware of some topics. You need to find out how are you provided with water (warm and cold), heating and electricity. The best is to ask your land lord in advance! Don’t wait to long or miss this step.
Today I would like to share my personal experience and knowledge about finding an electricity provider. When you move into your new apartment you have to ask about the provider of water, heating and electricity. In my case so called Warmmiete or Nebenkosten includes water and heating. Nebenkosten is an additional cost. They add the Nebenkosten to your monthly rent which is the “Kaltmiete” or cold rent. Kaltmiete and Nebenkosten are the Warmmiete.
In the begging you don’t have to take further action what concerns water and heating if they are included, as you pay water and heating in advance. Once a year you get the so called Jahresabschlussrechnung. Here they will compare your actual consumption of water and heating with the average you paid monthly in advance. If you consumed more, you need to pay the difference or if you consumed less, they will pay you back the difference.
Is Electricity included in your rent?
In these costs depending on your rental contract electricity is not always provided – like in my case. That means you have to look for your own electricity provider. In these times of world wide “Energiekrise” – crisis of energy – a challenge! Prices for gas and electricity are rising up through the roof. So you should choose wisely, if you don’t want to pay too much.
How to find an Electricity Provider?
I first looked up in search machines like Check24 for an overview of the prices of the different electricity price. Google it – you will find a lot of search machines called “Strompreisrechner”. Put your postal code or address and your average consumption of your household ( eg. 2.500 kWh annual for two persons). Then you can choose of different types of energy eg. green power or mixed. In a next step they show you the different prices.
For me it was at first a shock, because the prices were extremely high because of the crisis. Afterwards I found out, if you move into a new apartment you will get by default into something that is called “Grundversorgung”. This is a local provider that has to take all the clients without contract. This price was more then 3 times cheaper then all the other ones. So I recommend you to investigate if “Grundversorgung” is an option for you! Really important is inform yourself about the prices and conditions very well, because prices of energy are outrageous.
How to contract an Electricity Provider?
Finally you decided with which provider for electricity you go, then you need the serial number of the “Stromzähler” ( a device that counts your electricity) and the actual state of your Stromzähler – the consumption. Here is a photo that can help you. Within 3 to 4 weeks you can to contact the new provider and give them these two numbers and your personal data like name, address and bank account. Don’t make the same mistake like me and wait until they contact you, they won’t. Call them as soon as possible, this saves you from extra trouble with your land lord, as the electricity provider can’t date back the initial contract for more than one month.
After agreeing to the contract they will discount automatically each month the agreed amount from your bank account. You can communicate yourself after the first 3 months and check on your consumption and adjust it, if you pay too much or too less. A wise step in these time of outrageous prices of energy. Once a year your provider checks the total consumption and will ask you to pay the difference or pay you back, normally this comes with an adjustment of your monthly rate.
I hope my experience help you to orientate yourself in the first time on Germany. Please leave me comment with your own experience and if you like my content please, subscribe yourself to my blog.
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