How long to fix for??

Dinky_

Hi all,

Im bit new to this. Can anyone help?

EDF have just put my Gas & Elec monthly d/d up to £132!! :eek:
So I've done a comparison on MSE Cheap Energy Club but not sure which deal to go with. M&S will fix at £99 for a year, where as N-power will fix at £121 till March 2017. Does anyone have an opinion on how much prices could rise during the next few years?

Many thanks in advance

DragonQ

No-one knows for sure but the general consensus appears to be "the only way is up", so price fixing seems sensible. Of course, this Labour price-fix promise throws a bit of a spanner in the works, since they're very likely to be in power from 2015, yet it seems unenforceable.

matelodave

If we all had a crystal ball we wouldn't be using comparison websites. Fixing is a gamble that prices will go up more than your fix over the long term - they will certainly go up but I'm not sure if they'll be as much as some of the fixes

Have you done your comparisons using your existing DD figures or actual kw used. The results can be surprisingly different. Kw figures are much more accurate. Anyone can offer you a lower DD just make sure it covers your usage otherwise you could be in a for a nasty surprise if it's under estimated.

I've been looking at long term fixes and have decided that l'll take a chance on one year ones and try to get in before the prices jump - for me to fix for the long term would cost me another £200 or even more for one of the longer ones (£400 with Npower's 2017), so If I fix for a year now I'll be £200-£400 better off by the time the fix comes to an end. Even if the new fix is £200 more expensive I'll still have the first years £200 in my pocket.

You'll have to work out how much a long fix will cost over the fix period and then guess how much two or three shorter fixes might increase over the same period and see if you think it's worth a gamble.

However if Mr Millipede and his shower get into government it might totally screw up everything as I'm sure the energy suppliers will try and buffer themselves against his stupid pronouncements by cranking the prices up a bit more just in case - it's a risk

ps - I've just done the sums with the Npower 2017 deal and worked out that it would cost me more. Even if my electricity prices went up 15% year on year over the next 42 months I would be over £500 worse off, so I'm taking my chance and fixing till Dec 2014 and then looking again.

Here's my example based on my actual usage of 8500kw a year with the Scottish Power Dec 2014 fix starting 1st Oct 2013 (15 months to Dec 2014)

2014 - 15 months at £85 a month = £1275, Npower = £112 x 15 = £1680,
2015 increase is about 15% so hopefully I'll fix at about £98 a month = £1176 (Npower = £1344),
2016 another 15% = £112.7 a month = £1352 (Npower = £1344)
and another 15% increase for 2017 = £129.60 a month x 3 to March = £388.80 (Npower = £336)

Total over the 42 months assuming 15% year on year increases = about £4200, going with Npower will cost £4704 which is £504 more (another 9%)

You can play with the figures and work out what would be the break-even point but it's a gamble