Energy

Energy costs are rising at their fastest pace in almost four years, despite the cost of other household bills and expenses growing at a steady rate, this month's MSE Bills Tracker reveals.

Some 1,600 British Gas customers have been told their account number, name and email address may have been involved in a "breach of security" last month, after a "third party" got the login details from another website the affected customers use.

Over half of households are still on pricey standard variable energy tariffs, including as many as 71% of SSE customers and an increasing proportion of those with some firms outside the big six.

Green gas and electricity supplier Good Energy is to increase its prices by an average of 7% next month, with bills for a typical household set to rise by £81/year.

Toto Energy customers have reacted furiously to the supplier's decision to bring in a 'seasonal direct debit' which will see some households' bills jump by 50% over the winter, hot on the heels of an eye-watering price hike which was revealed last week.

Npower and E.on have apologised and paid out for misleading customers after a MoneySavingExpert.com investigation revealed many customers with fixed tariffs ending were wrongly told they'd have to pay to switch provider.

Toto Energy customers face steep bill hikes over the next few weeks – with some to soar by an eye-watering 22%. But you may be able to leave penalty-free if hit.

Spark Energy customers have been contacted by a debt collector telling them they were in arrears – days in advance of when payments were due.

Energy firm E is to pay a £260,000 penalty for misleading sales practices and failing to perform proper staff background checks.

The energy regulator has announced it's investigating SSE over the 'cheapest tariff' information it provides to prepayment customers – on the same day the firm agreed to pay almost £10,000 to hundreds of customers who should not have been moved to prepay meters.