Fixing Energy Tarriff will cost a fortune!

oxters

I think I read somewhere that some Utility Companies are withdrawing fixed tarriffs? That would mean that they themselves think consumers would be better off on a fixed rate hence they remove the opportunity. Mortgage lenders do the same when interest rates are on the way up.
If the world is running out of resources - especially the carbon based ones, I can only see utility bills going north over the next 5 years. Question is: - by more than 22% over the v7 rate? - which will go up in March anyway - possibly by 7/10% if the increases elsewhere indicate anything.
Has Einstein finished that calculation yet?

oxters

penrhyn wrote: »

Never fixed myself, I review my costs every couple of years and try to choose the cheapest, unless its n-power.

I was with n-power for a year up till the end of last year and I had no problems - indeed I found their customer service excellent - maybe I was just lucky.

Pincher

You fix when you see a good deal.

deshepherd

Pincher wrote: »

You fix when you see a good deal.

And hope there's no unexpected major change to the relevant econmic parameters during the period of the fix ... my 5.5% 3-year fixed rate mortgage looked quite a good deal in June 2008 :mad:

deshepherd

oxters wrote: »

I was with n-power for a year up till the end of last year and I had no problems - indeed I found their customer service excellent - maybe I was just lucky.

Sort of me too ... but I left them when they switched to 6-monthly DD reviews and decided to increase my DD by 30-40% last autumn even though the existing DD almost exactly matched my previous years usage. And when I phoned to complain they asked me for meter readings and said they'd send me a revised figure ... which was even higher!

At least this was sufficient of a nudge to get me to use a comparison website to discover I could reduce my DD by 20% by switcing to another supplier (probably could have done the same with a different Npower tariff but by then they'd lost me as a customer).

Eventually after the switch was completed Npower had to send me a cheque for £200-300 to cover the dual fuel discount payment and the credit I was now in after a couple of the new higher DD payments!

Pincher

deshepherd wrote: »

And hope there's no unexpected major change to the relevant econmic parameters during the period of the fix ... my 5.5% 3-year fixed rate mortgage looked quite a good deal in June 2008 :mad:

Actually, my 4.99% five year fix finished on 30th September 2008, three months difference to yours. The Credit Crunch had started in November 2007, the only way was down, so no fix would be a "good deal" at that time, as far as I was concerned. I'm still on the follow-on rate. It was a good deal in 2003, a better deal than fixes in 2008, and it's still a good deal at BOE+1.75% now.

After crying out for a decent five year fix for gas and electric around January to April this year, and not finding a good deal, I settled for E.On FixOnline 8 in May, a "good deal" in my book,
but it's only fixed till July 2011. So more hunting next spring.

I can't create a good deal, so I just snap them up when I come across them. What else can anyone do?

oxters

Well I did switch to the fix till 2015 - that was at the end of last year. I think I made the right move seeing what is happening to prices meantime - but I don't think EDF have jumped yet.