lowest oil prices for 12 months!! why still the increase?

logie28

Still no mention of a price decrease, I must drive past 10 - 20 posters a day reminding me its in my best interest, for peace of mind to sign up to BG price fix 2012.. wonder if they are thinking about replacing them with a new advertising campaign on price cuts??

Would be a nice gesture for them to cancel all get out penalties on this ridiculous tariff. Cant see it happening.

According to some people on here the big 6 dont make much profit! why the talk of wind fall tax then??

BTW i dont agree(with some on here) that a windfall tax, would result in the customers paying more in the long run.

Regulators can make strict stipulations on this. After all they are hit with the tax because of excessive unfair profits.
It would be the shareholders who would loose out and IMO refocus their business outlook.

KimYeovil

logie28 wrote: »

Would be a nice gesture for them to cancel all get out penalties on this ridiculous tariff. Cant see it happening.

Why? They are miniscule. They are not an issue.

1carminestocky

KimYeovil wrote: »

Why? They are miniscule. They are not an issue.

Nonsense, KY! They are NOT miniscule. In fact, for someone like you with such very low usage they would represent a decent-sized %tage of your overall domestic fuel liability. You do puzzle me sometimes...

logie28

KimYeovil wrote: »

Why? They are miniscule. They are not an issue.

If that's the case, no problems. Get rid of them.
If say 200,000' LOYAL' customers signed up, then wanted out.

Well the 'minuscule' penalties add up to quite a lot dont they.

Why not add penalties to click energy? IMO it is because they know these customers are a bit more 'tariff savvy' people would not sign up to deals with tie-ins.

But the people who where scare mongered into a long term fixed price deal! well they have shown they are willing to pay a premium price for there energy . there for probably be worth screwing them on the way out!!

That's why i think they should waver the penalty.

logie28

BTW if you have such a low usage.. YOU should be the one shouting about the energy companies ripping people off.


The first rate for energy used on a two tier tariff is a lot higher!! Why ? for what reason does the price go down if you use more.


Low users are paying more of a premium by spending so much on the first tier.

People who use lots and lots of energy actually save by paying less on tier two..

If they really cared about energy use.. surely they would reverse this. Thus benefiting the good people who use less, obviously penalise people who use more?

Cardew

logie28 wrote: »

Still no mention of a price decrease, I must drive past 10 - 20 posters a day reminding me its in my best interest, for peace of mind to sign up to BG price fix 2012.. wonder if they are thinking about replacing them with a new advertising campaign on price cuts??

Would be a nice gesture for them to cancel all get out penalties on this ridiculous tariff. Cant see it happening.

According to some people on here the big 6 dont make much profit! why the talk of wind fall tax then??

BTW i dont agree(with some on here) that a windfall tax, would result in the customers paying more in the long run.

Regulators can make strict stipulations on this. After all they are hit with the tax because of excessive unfair profits.
It would be the shareholders who would loose out and IMO refocus their business outlook.

Something of a Lynch Mob mentality seems to have taken over on this Forum. From the frequency of his posts, it is no doubt led by The Troll – who happily is on my ignore list, so I don’t read any more of his rants.

Can we just take some of your points and please have some rational discussion:

Firstly why are the profits of the Utility Companies "unfair and excessive"?

1. Ofgem(a Government agency remember!) and the all party Parliamentary Committee on Energy have not said they are excessive or unfair, and that there is genuine competition with no cartel.

2. Their profit percentage is lower than many big companies in UK and can be measured in £tens per customer per year.

3. Ebico are a non-profit making company and yet their prices are no more competitive than the Big 6, and Ebico can buy their gas and electricity on the world market like any other company.

4. If the Utility companies are making ‘unfair and excessive’ profits, why don’t other companies start up and undercut them? Don’t forget there were dozens of companies in the energy market when it was privatised, and most of them got out because they couldn’t make it pay.


Secondly, whilst you may not agree that “a windfall tax would be paid for by consumers in the long run”, that was the view of the Government and they would be responsible for imposing that tax and presumably powerless to stop them passing it on to the customer.
Both the other parties agreed with that argument. So perhaps you should write to the Chancellor and tell him how the tax can be imposed and not passed on to the consumer.

Thirdly, it is pretty obvious that if wholesale prices for gas and electricity reduce and stay reduced, then retail prices will have to fall. The strength of the US$ will pay a factor in this equation.
However I am not aware of any other country that has reduced their prices yet, perhaps you have? Bear in mind that the Euro has fared rather better against the US$ than Sterling.

Lastly, fixed/capped tariffs. I think the opinion that BG’s fixed 2012 tariff was a poor deal was pretty unanimous on this forum, including from a very knowledgeable BG employee. However as stated above, if anyone did go on that tariff and now decided it was a bad gamble, would the small penalties deter them from baling out?

BG 2011 was a better deal – No premium over the standard tariff. Those on the tariff have to gamble if the premium they now pay over, say, Click 6 will be recouped over the next 3 years. That depend if they feel the long term trend in prices will be up, static or downwards.

Over 3 years ago, with a couple of million others, I gambled on BG’s fixed to April 30 2010 tariff.(and never recommended that on this forum either). We now pay 50%-60% less than BG Click 6 rates(6p to 7p for tier 1 electricity and 2.113p tier 1 gas – including VAT and before discounts) There will have to be big cuts before prices go below ours; and if they do we will be absolutely delighted!

So lets have some rational discussion and not more rants please.

KimYeovil

I wasn't talking about low users. I had already mentioned it was not a problem only for medium or high users (but in a different thread.)

As to two tiers, the standing charge is the standing charge. The costs are mostly the same for low or high users. The only thing that is cheaper for the company is less peak time demand. So it could be said that low users profit from the two tier pricing. (I'm confusing myself here.) But they are excluded due to loyalty penalties.

As is illustrated by the £1300 savings thread, high users can save a lot.

I agree that low energy consumers could be rewarded more - but that results in screams of outrage from everyone. I don't see many consumers joining up with Ebico to put their money where their mouths are.

The most stark injustice is the obscenity of only allowing consumers who spend 10% of their income on to social tariffs. This bars the poorest people from social tariffs and forces them to subsidise richer people who do qualify.

logie28

I did not start this thread for a lynch mob mentality to take hold , i also dont think this has happened. People always get mad when the are not getting a fair deal!!

The reason i started it was because I'm sick of the energy companies jumping to the gun and announcing or threatening price increases as soon as market prices rise. Which is what has happened over the last 12-18 months. People mention price of £ falling to the $. When it was $2
to the £ at the height of the peak surely this would of taken a hit off the high prices at the time, apparently not!!

What i would like to see in these times of gloom and doom is, these companies at least offering hope of affordable energy at a fair market price, at the first opportunity.

Surely the consistent fall in the prices should offer enough confidence to at least predict a possible decrease.

Cardew

Mazio wrote: »

I think Tesco is run very efficiently if they make vast profits and I feel I get a good deal I dont have a problem.
This is the problem I have with the utilitiy companies:-

1) Very confusing Tarrifs (I believe on purpose).
2) No automatic moving of accounts to new better Tarrifs meaning they increase old Tarrifs and its tough on those who dont notice.
3) Re-investing in the UK infrastructure (not enough).
4) Scare tatics to get you on long term contracts only advertised when its in their favour (which is natural for a commercial company).

Also foriegn companies would not have bought up UK companies if they did not see a potentially good return on capital. I have no problem with companies making profit or shareholders getting a slice if I think Iam getting value for my money (its what makes the world go round).

The whole industry is not in my opinion regulated correctly by this I mean from source (out of the ground) to end user and should be over seen like they are now starting to do with the banks.

Mazio,
I would agree with much of the above.

However investing in the infrastructure will cost £billions which will increase prices. The cost of building huge gas storage facilities is enormous and just the protection from a terrorist attack will make running costs huge as well.

Utility Company profits whilst generating great emotion, are a very small percentage of the price we pay for energy. Even if the Government could prevent them making any profit, it will not affect us greatly.

In the long term Utility companies will always be an attractive investment for foreign companies as, selling essential commodities, they are always going to make some profit. I say 'long term' as BG's share price has fallen 50% in the past 5 months,

1carminestocky

Good old Cardew/Hugh Jeego. For someone who claims he ignores all my posts on here, he doesn't half talk about me a lot. I would be flattered.....if I had even a gram of respect for him, but alas...

I also note he's banging on about the 2010 fix again. This is the poster who claimed that he was 'in profit' within a year. Huh? A little gentle cajoling for more details revealed this was against BGs standard tariff, lol - the much cheaper Click products started in 2006, which were much less than Cardew had been paying for 12 months! His little ruse was soon exposed for the sham it was. He then started a thread mid-September suggesting the 2011 fixed BG deal was worth thinking about. He needs his crystal ball wiping down, methinks.

Be careful listening to self-appointed 'experts' on here. Judging by his last sentence he also seems to be attempting to masqerade as a mod. A busted flush if ever there was one...


PS And he's STILL banging on about Ebico being non-profit making and not competitive on price (he's starting to resemble a broken record). What he ALWAYS fails to state is that Ebico have to get their fuel from one of the Big 6 so effectively pay RETAIL PRICES less a bit of discount so that argument is wholly redundant. If I didn't know better (and I do now ) I'd think he was a politician.