Who else feels they're being stitched up!?

scatz

I'm at that time of year where I need to switch but I can't get my head round the massive increase in prices I'm being confronted with?

Now I know prices are rising but based on what I've used in the last 12 months and what I've been paying (always ending in credit), even the cheapest deal offered by the same supplier is a massive 53% hike in price!! This can't be right can it??

In a nut shell, over the last 12 months I've paid £834.27 and ended the year with a little over £40 in credit. Based on that very same usage, the cheapest deal I am being offered is £1280. That works out with a new direct debit of £106pcm which is a 42% increase in the highest amount I paid pcm last year which was through the winter months.

Even switching to another supplier with the cheapest deal would be a 24% increase??

Talk about well and truly stitched up eh

EDIT: I've just revisited past usage and new quote and I find the following;

Unit rate for Gas has increased by 26%
Unit rate for Electricity has increased by 33%
Standing charge rate has increased by, wait for it...........229% :eek:

Now, the standing charge actually only equates to an extra £66p.a. so I can only assume I have been on the best of deals for the last year or so but even so, I cannot fathom how a 53% hike in price can be legal, it's daylight robbery!

System

You were obviously on a very good deal. In future, it is worth looking at new deals at the start of Spring (ie; after you have turned your heating off) as you will have already used a high percentage of your annual usage. An early switch can make sense if you look carefully at the offers versus costs.

The above is no help to you now. The reason why prices have risen so much is down to a massive increase in Social and Economic costs. The wholesale price of the energy that you consume now equates to less than 40p in every £. My advice is have a look at separate suppliers.

scatz

Thank you for your reply.

The issue therein lies and that is that I was locked into a fixed deal so looking at other suppliers at the beginning of spring would have meant paying financial penalties.

I read that many household were expected to see price increases of up to 28% which would have been bad enough but 53%, that's just ridiculous don't you think?

It's all gravy really as I understand that there's no way forward to find a better deal. This is more of a rant than anything else I suppose.

I've just spent the last 3-4 hours of my life trawling every which way possible to find deals and have not got any further forward lol.

I still, however, feel that the prices and pcm payments are not reflective of the energy we use. I say this based on many years of energy companies telling me I should be paying x,y and z (when meter readings are given) to which I have always manually lowered my monthly payments and still managed to stay in credit! None of it makes any real sense.

Anyway, seeing as I've now sat down with a glass of wine, I shall waste another 3-4 hours tomorrow going through the same rigmarole as I'l, have, no doubt, forgotten everything by then :rotfl:

anna42hmr

Yep I know how you are feeling. I’m on the Scottish power help cancer tarrif ends on 31 January, so have being looking around in case good deals elsewhere in interim and each time I’ve checked on the energy site here, uswitch and compare the market the costs increase significantly. I’m going to sit tight for now and hope for a better deal in January as no point in me jumping now when across the board the kwh for night, day and standing charge have all leaped up

JJ_Egan

OP what is the difference in your current unit rates and standing charges .

Jonesya

JJ_Egan wrote: »

OP what is the difference in your current unit rates and standing charges .

Yes, this! because it isn't possible to tell much from a persons annual costs and % increases.

Personally I'd say there still very good deals around for long-term fixes, particularly on gas - a few years back gas was approaching 4p/kWh from many suppliers, you can still get 2 year fixes around 3p/kWh, shorter deals well under 3p/kWh. It's come up a bit from it's lows but still pretty reasonable.

It's electricity which seems to have gone up the most.

C_Mababejive

When i renewed my dual fuel contract a couple of months ago, i didnt see much increase in core energy prices i.e per Kw gas/elec. What i DID see were seemingly unjustifiable and iniquitous rises in standing charges.

molerat

scatz wrote: »

................
The issue therein lies and that is that I was locked into a fixed deal so looking at other suppliers at the beginning of spring would have meant paying financial penalties.
..........................

Just over a year ago I bought my way out and recovered the penalty after just 3 months on the new tariff so it is worth looking.

anna42hmr

C_Mababejive wrote: »

When i renewed my dual fuel contract a couple of months ago, i didnt see much increase in core energy prices i.e per Kw gas/elec. What i DID see were seemingly unjustifiable and iniquitous rises in standing charges.

This is definatly the case with Scottish power for me. For example on current tarrif i am paying standing charge of 19.57 p per day the equivalent fix to this tarrif now has a standing charge of 39.45 per day

The kWh rates then are from 11.493 to 13.725 (day) and from 4.828 to 7.268 (night). I’m in all electric property so have a two rate tarrif.

C_Mababejive

All in all though and compared to the energy bills in other European countries, we are doing fine in the UK.

System

Suppliers vary their standing charges and unit prices to attract certain categories of energy consumers. Tariffs with low or no standing charges tend to suit low volume energy users; conversely, high standing charges/low unit prices attract high volume users.

I use more gas than electricity so when I do a comparison, I use my average kWhs/year and then look to see how the deal changes if I use 10 -15% more/less energy.