Should I get a price capped or green energy tariff? Article Discussion Area

onlyroz

Motley Fool is currently recommending people go for a fixed price tariff. The best seem to be either Scottish Power, fixed until Aug 31st 2009, or British Gas, fixed until Dec 31st 2009 (both dual fuel tariffs). Any opinions about which is the best? And is it true that prices are likely to rise a lot further in the last year?

According to the site's estimates, I might end up worse off with the British Gas tariff, if the prices don't rise.

use-less

onlyroz wrote: »

Motley Fool is currently recommending people go for a fixed price tariff. The best seem to be either Scottish Power, fixed until Aug 31st 2009, or British Gas, fixed until Dec 31st 2009 (both dual fuel tariffs). Any opinions about which is the best? And is it true that prices are likely to rise a lot further in the last year?

According to the site's estimates, I might end up worse off with the British Gas tariff, if the prices don't rise.

I looked at the comparison sites (I was looking at gas only) and found that the cheapest variable rate was EbiCo. The British Gas fixed-to-Dec-2009 tariff was immediately 40% more than EbiCo's variable rate! Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me, if prices are expected to rise only 15-40% by Jan 2009.

DaveK

Call me cynical but we're constantly hearing about these pending price rises, just now I've heard on Channel 4 News that Gas prices could rise by as much as 70% and remain there. Everyone is recommending we move to capped rates but if we're going to see rises of 40 - 70% then these companies would be losing money big time with fixed rates they're currently offering. Surely the companies are betting against a rise of that magnitude otherwise the capped rates would be much higher ?

dixie_dean_2

Yeah, I think you could be right Dave. I was just coming on to ask what reasons there might be not to cap and I think you have hit the nail. It cant be that simple otherwise yes, surely everyone would cap and they'd lose out. Any thoughts anyone?

onlyroz

The same motley fool article said that most energy companies are already losing money on their capped deals.

dixie_dean_2

And yet they are still offering them?

Dee140157

Given the prospect of more price rises I just wnet online with my supplier scottish power and it had the option to fix rate until 2009 so I decided for once to take it. I know it costs a little more at current prices, but as soon as we get a price rise, I guess that more than compensates. So yes scottish power are still offering it.

Erikin_2

To fix or not to fix……..

I’m a middle of the road user of gas / electric on BG Click Energy5. To change to their 2009 fixed tariff would increase my current payments by over 28%.

If prices go up in stages, which they are likely to do, a 28+% rise on my fixed deal now could equate to more like a 40+% overall increase, and the deal runs out in December. So how high are prices going to go – it’s all crystal ball stuff at the moment over - it’s not certain the pro-fixers will be right in their predictions. Comes down to a personal decision.

Too much herd mentality these days – it got us into the credit crunch.

DaveK

Erikin wrote: »

Too much herd mentality these days – it got us into the credit crunch.

Yeah apparently the sky is falling......................... run for your lives.......................

Personally I think the gas companies know something that we don't otherwise they'd have massively increased their caps. There is definitely a media campaign to move us all over to fixed/capped price plans, maybe Rupert Murdoch gets commission for every new customer that signs up?

russpw

shilcor wrote: »

We are already with E-On on their Online Super Saver 5 plan but are probably going to switch to the V15 plan. The unit prices are about 7% more for Gas and around 5% more for electric (plus the current 18% discount we currently get will drop to 9%) but with predicted price increases from 15-40% this year alone, having our prices capped till near the end of next year would seem a sensible idea.

Also with E-On Online Super Saver V5 and thinking of switching to Price Protection V16 (economy 7)
The downside is you lose the entire 14% online discount associated with the Super Saver tariff (the direct debit discount remains the same at 6%) AND the prices for units go up by about 7% - So that means an overall increase of 21% to move to their Capped offering!!. WHat I heard was a 20% increase in electricity charges in September then another 20% in February - Can anyone vouch for this (seems borderline for me to change, given protection is only till Oct 2009)