Are Gas Prices Going To Fall More ?

molerat

My current supplier is showing as having the cheapest tariff for me, £75 lower than my current price. My fix ends in May and I have queried if I can change without the £30 penalty and they have said no. So if prices are likely to fall again in the near future it might be worth me holding out a little longer rather than risk taking 2 £30 hits.

Thoughts please

matelodave

Will it rain on 17th September, same sort of question.


Who knows. Just look at the many and varied post on this subject.


Just go for a tariff that has no or low exit fees to keep your options open.


To be honest it's not the sort of daft question I'd have anticipated from you, I would have thought you'd know better

CashStrapped

Are you with ExtraEnergy? I know this is one company tht does not allow internal switches without a penalty. Most other companies do.

Ensure when you compare you are selecting the option to compare with your tariff as it is now. As your tariff ends in may, the comparison sites often compensate by assuming you will switch to a standard tariff after this time. This can give a distorted saving result.

energyhelpline.com has an option on the results page at the top in red, which allows you to show savings based only on your tariff.

My advice is to switch to a company that allows you to switch and/or leave without any penalty. Whether you do this now or wait till may depends on the savings.

Personally, at the moment I would not switch to a company that applies a penatly for switching, especially an internal switch.

For example, I considered switching to extra energy last may to their Sep 2015 fix v2 as it was the cheapest deal by £50. They were very new at the time, so went with a slightly more expensive but flexible scottish power tariff.

I have since been able to internally switch four times to a cheaper tariff.

The tariff I am currently on is more than £170 cheaper than the original ExtraEnergy deal I considered switching to. As I said, that ExtraEnergy deal would not have allowed either external nor internal switches without appling a penalty.

I am pretty sure cheaper tariffs will come out in the near future and I shall internally switch again at that time.

molerat

My gas is with Zog. Moving to a no penalty supplier would cost more so there is no benefit there. It just niggles me seeing all those green entries on EHL SP can not beat what I am currently paying.

System

This is what the Dept for Energy CC thought in September 2014:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/360598/DECC_2014_fossil_fuel_price_projections.pdf

If forecasting was that easy then economists would have all retired at 30 to an island in the sun.

worried_jim

Hengus wrote: »

This is what the Dept for Energy CC thought in September 2014:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/360598/DECC_2014_fossil_fuel_price_projections.pdf

If forecasting was that easy then economists would have all retired at 30 to an island in the sun.

An economist is someone who knows how to have sex 69 different ways, but doesn't know any women.

Consumerist

molerat wrote: »

. . . So if prices are likely to fall again in the near future it might be worth me holding out a little longer rather than risk taking 2 £30 hits.

All I can say is that if it was me, I'd wait till I got the end-of-contract-notice for my current contract - bearing in mind that a switch is going to take 4 - 6 weeks to complete and by then consumption is likely to be lower anyway.

CashStrapped

molerat wrote: »

My gas is with Zog. Moving to a no penalty supplier would cost more so there is no benefit there. It just niggles me seeing all those green entries on EHL SP can not beat what I am currently paying.

Thats the point I was trying to make though.

Say I switched to Zog now, and they are (if I go by my lower estimated readings) £50ish cheper than my current scottish power tariff...great!

However, I would be locked into that tariff for 12 months unless I payed a £30 penalty to switch both internally and externally to another company.

In that same 12 month period, another company without switching penalties will likley release cheaper tariffs which I can switch to without penalty. I will then end up on a cheaper tariff than the original Zog tariff I would have been tied to.

This is what happened when I considered switching to Extra Energy. It was a better deal at the time, but now it is a much worse tariff and it is only 6 months from when I switched.

Yes, it could always backfire, but I do not see Gas prices going up any time soon.

Nada666

CashStrapped wrote: »

Thats the point I was trying to make though.

Say I switched to Zog now, and they are (if I go by my lower estimated readings) £50ish cheper than my current scottish power tariff...great!

However, I would be locked into that tariff for 12 months unless I payed a £30 penalty to switch both internally and externally to another company.

In that same 12 month period, another company without switching penalties will likley release cheaper tariffs which I can switch to without penalty. I will then end up on a cheaper tariff than the original Zog tariff I would have been tied to.

This is what happened when I considered switching to Extra Energy. It was a better deal at the time, but now it is a much worse tariff and it is only 6 months from when I switched.

Yes, it could always backfire, but I do not see Gas prices going up any time soon.

With the current shenanigans in Ukraine I would worry about relying on a supplier inspired by an Albanian monarch who was routed by fascists.

johnbhoy10

I've nudged my EDF tariffs on a couple of months and taken their May 2016 deal which still has no tie-ins.

Looks like the cheapest for me without fees etc is Npower Price Fix May 2016 for gas and Co-op V2 April 2016 for Leccy. Saves me approx £85 on my usage according to EHL.

This is only a couple of quid dearer than the cheapest overall combined deal on Sainsburys fixed price February 2016 which also has cancellation fees i believe.

Anyone else taken the separate Npower and Co-op tariffs??

It's the thought,as touched on here, of going into the switch process and then having to do it again should prices continue downwards??

Can see it getting in a right old mess (especially with npower involved). Love them really!!!!:lovethoug

molerat

Just done some spreadsheet calculations and there would be no gain inside the contracted period, any gain would be after the end of term so will just hold out for another 3 months and see what happens. Forecasters (Ian Wood seems to have his finger on the pulse - the reason why the Scottish government did not ask his opinion on their budget forecasts !) - don't see any upwards movement in the run up to summer (unless the OPEC States declare all out war on the Russian Federation of course ) so will wait until May.