Switching utilities in the Netherlands could save you hundreds a year
When you first arrive in the Netherlands, setting up utilities feels like a crash course in providers, plans and welcome discounts. Then a year or two goes by, the discount quietly expires and nobody sends you a reminder.
For most internationals, that is where the story ends. Switching feels like a hassle, the paperwork is in Dutch and the difference on each bill looks too small to bother with: a few euros on mobile, 10 euros on internet, some more on energy. Add it all up, though, and staying loyal turns out to be one of the most expensive habits in your household budget.
"It really doesn't make sense to stay with one provider," says Jesse Kegel, managing director of Utility Direct. "The switching is so easy. It's just one press of a button."
Loyalty doesn't pay with Dutch utility providers
When your energy contract ends, your provider will usually try to keep you with a retention discount. It sounds generous, until you see which part of your bill it covers.
Only around half of your bill is the tariff the provider actually sets, and most of the rest is taxes. "They give you around a 25 percent discount on this," Kegel explains. "But then you don't get a welcome discount." The catch: that discount applies to the bare tariff, and providers often raise that tariff at the same time. In practice, that reward for staying is worth around 10 to 20 euros a year.
New customers, on the other hand, get the red carpet. On a one-year energy contract, the welcome discount is usually around 100 euros per connection: 100 euros for electricity and 100 to 150 euros for gas. Sign up for three years and it can reach 600 or 700 euros. "Why wouldn't you do this?" Kegel asks. "You'll often get two, three hundred euros basically for free and in this economy, that's not an insignificant amount!"
Switching internet is easier than it looks
Internet providers play the same game, often giving new customers six months at half price. It is also the switch most people dread, but it is less of a leap than it seems.
Most providers keep your old connection running for up to two weeks after the new modem arrives, as long as you stay at the same address. Sending the old modem back is free, too. The provider posts you a box with a prepaid label, you put the modem in and you are set.
Combined, switching both energy and internet every year often saves 200 to 400 euros, according to Kegel.
Check the exit clause before you switch providers in the Netherlands
The exit clause in your contract decides when switching providers actually pays off.
Internet
With internet, many providers charge 50 percent of what is left on your contract. With three months to go at 50 euros a month, for example, that comes to a 75-euro fine.
Set that against six months at half price with a new provider, and it can make sense to "swallow a small fine", as Kegel puts it. With four months or more left, though, the maths usually tips the other way.
Energy
Energy works differently. Since June 2023, the fee for leaving a fixed contract early can be no more than the provider's actual loss, according to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).
In Kegel's example, an average household uses around 1.500 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year. If you leave your contract a month early, you might have around 150 kWh left. If prices have dropped by two cents per kWh, the fine comes to just 3 euros.
The real cost is the welcome discount you lose by leaving early, which is often around 100 euros. "I would say that 95 percent of the time, it's better to get the welcome discount and then switch over to a new provider again," he says.
Mobile & internet
Mobile contracts are less forgiving: you usually pay the full remaining amount.
If you are moving house within the Netherlands, take your own energy contract with you, but never take over the previous tenant's internet deal, because you would pay full price for their remaining months and miss out on a new customer discount. "We always say: never ever do it," Kegel says.
Fixed, dynamic energy contracts & the solar panel exception
Dynamic energy contracts, where prices follow the market hour by hour, can look tempting on paper. Kegel estimates they might save 10 to 20 percent, but in a cold winter with low gas reserves, he says, "your prices will easily double, maybe triple". "The risk versus reward is very off here," he adds. For most households, his advice is a fixed contract of one, two or three years.
The exception is homes with a lot of solar panels. Net metering (salderingsregeling), which lets you offset the electricity you feed back to the grid against what you use, ends on January 1, 2027, according to the Dutch government.
Many providers already charge solar panel owners extra on fixed contracts, through feed-in costs or higher fixed fees. In that case, Kegel says a dynamic contract, ideally paired with a home battery, "might save you a significant amount of money".
One reassuring detail about fixed contracts: there is no penalty for using more or less energy than estimated, and the difference is simply settled at the rate you locked in.
Bundle internet & mobile, but not energy in the Netherlands
In many countries, one company supplies your electricity, gas and broadband on a single bill, but in the Netherlands, that rarely saves you anything. "Energy and internet providers don't offer combined discounts," Kegel explains.
Internet and mobile combos are a different story. The "big players", such as KPN, Odido and Ziggo (which bundles with Vodafone), all offer combined deals, from double data to 7,50 to 10 euros a month off your phone plan.
Budget brands like Lebara and Ben, which Kegel calls the "price fighters", can still come out cheaper, but they may not match the bigger networks on speed. If you are on your phone a lot, his advice is to bundle it with your internet provider.
The catch comes when you switch. If you move your internet but leave your mobile plan behind, you can lose that bundle discount. "Let's say you get 150 euros of discount on your internet by switching over, but you pay 10 euros more per month on your phone. Then it's not that beneficial for you," Kegel says. Matching a two-year phone contract with a two-year internet deal keeps the savings intact.
Switching utilities for free with Utility Direct
Knowing the rules is one thing; keeping track of every contract date, discount and seasonal deal, often in Dutch, is another. That is where Utility Direct comes in. Its advice and setup service is free as the company receives the same commission from every provider, so it has no reason to steer you towards one over another.
The team checks which providers are available at your address, works out your current exit fees and tells you whether to switch now or wait. That might mean holding off until spring or summer, when rates tend to be lower, or until Black Friday on November 27, which has historically brought the year's biggest discounts.
Utility Direct also takes your preferences into account, from solar panels to green energy, which can cost less than you would expect. Before each contract ends, it sends a reminder so the yearly switch never slips your mind.
On top of the usual welcome discounts, internationals can often get an extra, such as an additional month of discount or a 20-euro dinner coupon.
"A call with us realistically takes 10 to 15 minutes," Kegel says. "That's often 200 to 400 euros saved with a 15-minute call, which is more than a doctor makes."