British Gas: Gas up 35%, Electricity up 9%

I notice that BGas new tariffs published today have a new column for 'Advance Payment' which offers rates which are less than 'Direct Debit'.

What is 'Advance Payment' ? Is that for PrePayment meters?

I thought PrePay was more expensive than Direct Debit rates usually....


With regards to Click Energy 5 rates, BG normally increase the rates on Click Energy rates a few months later if past experience of rate changes is anything to go by.

Gambler wrote: »

They've not updated the clickenergy 5 prices online yet. Will these also go up by 35% and 9%?

And no clear mention of the rises on their homepage. Clearly, not something they want to shout about.

What is the deal on tariffs - surely they should have to update this information like the banks update interest rates?

Okay I'll do my best to answer these step by step.

CLICK 5
It is very likely that click 5 will also be hiked up after the other suppliers have finished hiking their prices up (which is going to happen any time soon, probably when the media coverage of BG's price rises is turning down a notch). Who knows by how much, but it'll probably be in line with the standard tariff, so it'll still be cheaper, but it'll be a 'short term' saving, as opposed to a 'long term' saving such as a fixed price protection plan.

ADVANCE PAYMENT
This is where your yearly consumption is estimated (based on the previous years consumption if you are with BG, might be different with other suppliers, for instance nPower base consumption on your streets consumption) and you pay the amount in question in advance, getting you a pretty hefty saving per unit. It can be quite hard to find the money at once, however.

PRICE PROTECTION 2011
In my opinion, this is a good deal. £100 may seem a lot as a 'get out' clause, but it is less than SWALEC/Scottish & Southerns last 'price protection' type tariff, where the get out clause was 2 months worth of direct debit payments, which could be around £120 PER FUEL. This caps your prices at the new 35% for gas/9% for electricity increase that was announced on the 30th. If the prices then go up again (very likely) you're saving money.

One advantage of them being capped til 2011 is that you carry on paying this new price regardless of how many increases there are.

One disadvantage, is that you're locked in if the prices do go down, but I feel that this is very unlikely due to the political and foreign policy turmoil in oil producing nations (eg Iraq, Saudi Arabia), and the fact that the cost of oil is directly related to the price of gas that we buy from Europe as we do not have the facilities to store it in this country.

Hope that helps!

Have been with British Gas for gas and electric for years.

Had never even heard of on-line tarriffs until OH noticed it in The Mirror today.

We signed up for it and also managed to get a look at our bills which are due any day after being read last week.

We are £15 in debit for electric and a couple of quid in credit for Gas but imagine our shock when we spotted they were intending to up our direct debit for gas from £57 to £106 per month :eek: :eek: :eek:

Now I know there has been substantial price increases but come onnnnn?

I rang them straight away and explained we had just changed onto their on line tarriff and that we had never been in debt with British Gas.

Bloke tried to fob me off saying about the increases etc etc blah blah blah.

I said that if the direct debit was not brought down we would be looking at changing suppliers.

He said he would look at our account and get back to me Monday.

About an hour later the phone rang and I was told my direct debit would be £58. Result!!

Was wondering how he managed to do this till I read this thread and realised the energy click 5 rates haven't gone up yet.

Ah well gives me a little while longer with a direct debit I can cope with and no doubt they will try to rise it again after the next billing.