Is a new wave of price hikes about to hit the energy market?

Pincher

Smodlet wrote: »

Pincher, what are your standing charges?

Scottish Power June 2017

20.549p per day , per fuel.

Scottish Power lets me tariff hop if it's cheaper, and do nothing if it's more.

When you are at the bottom, there is nowhere to go until the end of the fix. Unless there is some suicidal promotion elsewhere.

I do fancy going back to E.On, but they never have a decent offering.

Smodlet

Yes, I'm with you, there, Pincher. I think Eon's customer service and online services leave nPower's standing but their cheapest tariff would cost me £10 per month more. I'd rather put up with nPower.

Sacssquacco, I really envy you, being able to move back to your roots, good for you.

harz99

Smodlet wrote: »

Yes, I'm with you, there, Pincher. I think Eon's customer service and online services leave nPower's standing but their cheapest tariff would cost me £10 per month more. I'd rather put up with nPower.

Sacssquacco, I really envy you, being able to move back to your roots, good for you.

FWIW I've just started a dual fuel switch from the MSE Eon collective to NPower's August 2018 fix which will see my bills reducing slightly from present, so I'm happy for now.


Would've preferred to stay with Eon or move to EDF but the tariffs they have simply don't compete.

Sosumi

Pincher wrote: »

I do fancy going back to E.On, but they never have a decent offering.

Smodlet wrote: »

Yes, I'm with you, there, Pincher. I think Eon's customer service and online services leave nPower's standing but their cheapest tariff would cost me £10 per month more. I'd rather put up with nPower.

harz99 wrote: »

FWIW I've just started a dual fuel switch from the MSE Eon collective to NPower's August 2018 fix which will see my bills reducing slightly from present, so I'm happy for now.

Would've preferred to stay with Eon or move to EDF but the tariffs they have simply don't compete.

I feel you are all being a little unkind to E.ON. They do make it possible and economically viable to remain with them.

I’d be the first to concede that for E.ON’s normal tariffs I would expect my quarterly bill to be delivered four times a year by Maria Sharapova in a limousine and a micro skirt, armed with a magnum of vintage Krug, before whisking me off for a leisurely luncheon a deux at the Waterside Inn in Bray.

But if you surf E.ON’s frequent collective fixes when they are offered, its prices stay competitive with the rest of the market. They certainly have been for me.

For my region and energy consumption at least, harz99, your favoured nPower Online Price Fix August 2018 would be £84 a year more expensive than the 2-Year E.ON fix on to which I tariff-hopped last month using Energy Helpline’s last collective deal.

(And it would cost me an additional £60 in Early Exit Fees to switch my supplier from E.ON.)

With respect, you all need to stop fixating on MSE and its wretched “Cheap” Energy Club and, instead, broaden your perspective to take in what else is offered (not least with E.ON) if you are just prepared to remove your blinkers and look at what’s actually out there and available.

Smodlet

With respect, I feel, personally, imho only, of course, that you need to take your blinkers off and realise that what applies to you does not necessarily apply to everyone. I have just checked via your energy helpline and the cheapest Eon fix would cost me over £258 more per year. How come your preferred comparison site shows their collective fixes but MSE's does not? FYI, I do use other comparison sites occasionally but, since they always return the same results as MSE, I don't bother with them much.

Unless you choose to share your unit rates and standing charges, we will not know which of us has the best deal and even if we did, it does not mean it is available to all of us, whereas MSE's upcoming collective fix, one assumes, will be.

Sosumi

Smodlet wrote: »

With respect, I feel, personally, imho only, of course, that you need to take your blinkers off and realise that what applies to you does not necessarily apply to everyone. I have just checked via your energy helpline and the cheapest Eon fix would cost me over £258 more per year. How come your preferred comparison site shows their collective fixes but MSE's does not? FYI, I do use other comparison sites occasionally but, since they always return the same results as MSE, I don't bother with them much.

Unless you choose to share your unit rates and standing charges, we will not know which of us has the best deal and even if we did, it does not mean it is available to all of us, whereas MSE's upcoming collective fix, one assumes, will be.

Yes, but that’s because you (and EHL) are quoting the current official E.ON tariffs which (ought to) come with glamour puss, bubbly and lobster thermidor.

And that was my whole point. :wall:

There isn’t (so far as I’m aware) a collective fix on E.ON available anywhere at the moment; they happen about three or four times a year and you have to look out for them.

But even if you do that with the Hubble Telescope you’ll still never see them on MSE’s “Cheap” Energy Club comparison result charts because they’re only displayed on the charts of the comparison site that is offering the collective fix. That’s why you need to keep abreast of the world outside the womb of MSE.



You appear not to have noticed that I qualified my own posting with:

Sosumi wrote: »

For my region and energy consumption at least,

However, since you ask, for me the tariff on the “E.ON EHL Fixed 2 Collective June 2018 Paperless” is as follows:

Gas: 2.712 p per kWh - - - SC: 21.90 p per day.
Elx: 11.403 p per kWh - - - SC: 16.42 p per day

Predicted annual cost of Gas: £ 644
Predicted annual cost of Elx: £ 1,145


On the “nPower Online Price Fix August 2018” the tariff would be:

Gas: 2.956 p per kWh - - - SC: 17.40 p per day.
Elx: 11.466 p per kWh - - - SC: 19.68 p per day

Predicted annual cost of Gas: £ 695
Predicted annual cost of Elx: £ 1,178

Needless to say, both of these two-year fixes are more expensive than some (but not all, now) of the cheapest one-year fixes available currently but I, and, I imagine, harz99, am/are both expecting this to be outweighed by being on a substantially cheaper tariff come next summer than what will be available then on a one-year fix.

Had the lemmings not jumped off a cliff, taking the £ with them, in the EU Referendum last June, I would probably have remained on E.ON's own, extremely cheap, v19 one-year fix until it expired at the end of March 2017.

But they did, and it changed the dynamics of switching.

Smodlet

Had your previous post been clear, I would not have needed to query it... so, you are saying that Eon's collective fixes are only ever visible on EHL and, effectively, one needs to check it every day in order to catch it? I may consider it but your tariff looks somewhat more expensive than mine.

Thank you for the information.

footyguy

Smodlet wrote: »

... your tariff looks somewhat more expensive than mine..

I can fully understand what you mean.
Presumably the eon 2 year June 2018 deal was available in June.

At that time, depending on region, one could get a 2 year gas deal from Zog for SC: 13p/day-17p/day and unit prices were 2.281p/kWh - 2.5639p/kWh
(To clarify, the highest unit cost was not associated with the highest SC)

But since Zog have been in the business, I don't think anyone has ever benefitted from being on their 2 year deal; their 1 year deal is much more advantageous even if they do increase the price after 12 months)

Smodlet

For me, atm, nPower's July one year fix is the cheapest... it did not hang around for long and I am glad I jumped on it when I did. It is cheaper than both the August one which replaced it and the September one now available. As you say, footyguy, no-one yet knows what prices will be like in a year's time but the money I will save in that time will be appreciable compared to opting for a two year fix now.

Sosumi

Smodlet wrote: »

Had your previous post been clear, I would not have needed to query it... so, you are saying that Eon's collective fixes are only ever visible on EHL and, effectively, one needs to check it every day in order to catch it? I may consider it but your tariff looks somewhat more expensive than mine.

Thank you for the information.

No, Smodlet, I didn't state that "Eon's collective fixes are only ever visible on EHL." My postings are perfectly clear; you just aren't bothering to read them carefully.

The E.ON collective fixes on EHL are only visible on the EHL comparison site.

The E.ON collective fixes on MSM are only visible on the MSM comparison site.

The E.ON collective fixes on U-Switch are only visible on the u-Switch comparison site.

The E.ON collective fixes on iChoosr are only visible on the iChooser comparison site.

And so on.

Even then, they are now only displayed and available to you if you have pre-registered with the respective comparison sites before they go on offer. It's a new OFGEM rule. The comparison sites then email you when they have a collective fix to offer you.

The object of my postings above has been only to dispel the allegations here that it isn't possible to obtain competitively priced fixes on E.ON.

One can; I've been doing it for quite a while. It just takes a very small amount of organisation, diligence and work.

I wasn't attempting to suggest that my Two-Year E.ON EHL Fixed 2 Collective June 2016 Paperless fix is cheaper than an nPower one-year fix. That's not comparing like with like. I was pointing out that, for me, it's £84 a year cheaper than nPower's (current) two-year fix of similar duration.

(Partly because it's £443 a year cheaper than the two-year fix I am still quoted and offered if I go directly to the E.ON website. :rotfl: )

footyguy wrote: »

I can fully understand what you mean.

Presumably the eon 2 year June 2018 deal was available in June.

At that time, depending on region, one could get a 2 year gas deal from Zog for SC: 13p/day-17p/day and unit prices were 2.281p/kWh - 2.5639p/kWh
(To clarify, the highest unit cost was not associated with the highest SC)

But since Zog have been in the business, I don't think anyone has ever benefitted from being on their 2 year deal; their 1 year deal is much more advantageous even if they do increase the price after 12 months)

The Two-Year E.ON EHL Fixed 2 Collective June 2016 Paperless fix was offered on 20 June for 28 days. It began four days before the EU Referendum.

I was, at that time, contentedly on E.ON's own, extremely competitive, v19 one-year fix, due to expire, for me, the last week in March 2017.

I would probably have remained on it, at least for a while if not until it did expire.

But the vote to leave the EU changed the whole market and I elected to jump on to the E.ON two-year fix while it was still available. For me, it is now due to end in the second week of July 2018.

Surrendering the remaining eight months of my one-year fix meant that I was committing to pay an expected £120 more (in total) for my energy over the eight months until the end of March 2017, in order to be on a fix, at the end of March 2017, that would then run for another 16 months.

In effect, I bought, for £120, an option to remain for 16 months from the end of March 2017, on a fix that stands a good chance of being £90 a year cheaper than the fixes that are likely to be available at the end of March 2017 - which would recoup my £120.

I can easily afford to lose a £120 bet. It's less than I spend taking my wife to dinner at a good restaurant. And whether I win or lose my bet, I have the luxury of knowing that my energy bills for the next two winters are fixed at a rate that's easily affordable too. Which is a comforting thought.


I realise that if I was minded to split suppliers I would save a little money. But not enough to make it, for me, worth losing the convenience, the efficiency, the excellent Customer Service and the extremely useful online management tools that I have with my E.ON dual-fuel account. And then, there's E.ON's two guardian angels :A Malc :A and :A Helena :A. Others may have different priorities: that is their right and their decision. But my own preference is to stay dual-fuel with E.ON for as long as it's acceptably economic to do so.: that's my right and my decision. (And my money.)

Interestingly, despite what you have written, Zog Energy's Mercury 24 month fix would, for me, be £14 a year cheaper than its Mercury 12 month fix!

But you're on shaky ground with the assertion, "I don't think anyone has ever benefitted from being on their 2 year deal; their 1 year deal is much more advantageous even if they do increase the price after 12 months". Because nobody knows by just how much Zog's prices may rise in one year's time...

We live in uncertain times, now. And i'm expecting to win my own £120 bet.