Locked into EDF until Dec

hubb

I am locked into EDF's fixed rate till this December. My average price for duel fuel for the year works out at £66 a month. Is it worth me sticking or would I be better getting out now and paying a penalty ? I don't really want the hassle of changing suppliers yet again as I have been happy with the service and have bad experience with N Power.

Airmike23

You would get the penalty. You would not want to start the switch until the first week of December, and I would say really leave it til about the 10th or after of Dec to ensure canx charges missed. Alternatively look at bill statement and credit, if in credit can this absorb the canx charge if switch now, so you are not having to pay the canx charge out of your own money.

macman

Use a comp site to see what you would save. If it's more than the ETC, then consider moving. However most of the cheap fixes are long gone now, so you've missed the boat really, so might be better to see what is on offer in December.

good_advice

My advice would be to wait till December now, as macman said... you should have changed to a new fixed in September.

hubb

I really hate the amount of time, stress and headache it takes to manuvare around all the confusion and smokescreens the fuel companies create. Once paying for electric and gas was simple. If I had switched in september I would have had to pay a bigger fee. Oh well, I will use less gas and use the coal fire more.

macman

5 minutes on a comp site once a year?

good_advice

hubb, I moved onto a fixed rate in September and my tariff had a few months to run. With Scottish Power. As I was staying with them I did not pay the exit fee.
I did pay something like £50 a year more but it was a gamble as my crystal ball was telling me the fuel prices were going to rise before winter. Turned out good for me, as to move today, it would cost me alot more. Looked this morning.

All we customers can do is try to use less fuel as the fuel prices go higher.
The coal fire will be usefull.

hubb

macman wrote: »

5 minutes on a comp site once a year?

So many hours I have spent on comparison sites and in the end the cheapest tariff wasn't the best. They are not always that accurate.

When I fixed about 3 years ago because of the price rise scares, they went down again and I was stuck with a higher rate.

macman

But that is hardly the fault of the comp sites? Those who fixed this Autumn have now saved a great deal of money for the next 2 winters.
The comp sites are acccurate if you feed the accurate data (kWh figures and not monthly DD spends).

hubb

If I would have fixed in September I would have had to pay a fee. It could go down again as it did a couple years ago after the scares.

macman

But what you would have saved by fixing then might have more than covered any ETC?
I wouldn''t bet on prices dropping, at least until the winter peak is passed.