Npower becomes third big six supplier to hike bills after Ofgem's price cap rise - MSE News 13 February 2019 at 10:28AM in Energy 8 replies 890 views

Former_MSE_Naomi

Npower has become the third big six supplier to increase its energy prices to the maximum allowed under the new cap on standard variable tariffs - hitting customers with an average 10.3% price rise from 1 April...

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'Npower becomes third big six supplier to hike bills after Ofgem's price cap rise'

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wakeupalarm

Energy cartel

sevenhills

MSE_Naomi wrote: »

Npower becomes third big six supplier to hike bills after Ofgem's price cap rise - MSE News ...

Is the 'price cap' a factor?


Are the energy companies making less profits since the price cap, therefore they need to increase prices.

[Deleted User]

They have increased the price of the Standard Variable Tariff to match its new cap.

That is always going to happen as the cap is designed only for the default or Standard Variable Tariff. If the cap goes up, then the default tariff will. Should it ever go down, then it will go down to the new cap level set.

The majority of the companies will ensure that they always match the cap price for their default tariff.

badmemory

And if the cap doesn't go up as much as their buy price does (as it has this time) then the "fixes" will have to go up that much more to keep their profit margins. Give it a couple of years and there will be no fixes other than keeping you on the capped price for a full year.

sevenhills

BBC .... "Ofgem's energy price cap, which came into effect from 1 January 2019, helped drive down inflation, the ONS said. However, that cap is being raised and this is likely to feed into future CPI figures"


Surely the cap is not that important, surely most people are on a fixed deal.

[Deleted User]

No, it is estimated that 70% of people are on standard variable tariffs or prepayment meters. (The cap covers both)
For example Bulb has 1 million accounts and only has 1 variable tariff. Although it is priced below the cap to be fair.

sevenhills

gsmlnx wrote: »

No, it is estimated that 70% of people are on standard variable tariffs or prepayment meters. (The cap covers both)
For example Bulb has 1 million accounts and only has 1 variable tariff. Although it is priced below the cap to be fair.

Ofgem figures show that as of September the majority of customers – around 57 per cent of those with the 10 largest suppliers – were still on poor-value SVTs, around 13 million customers.


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-households-energy-standard-variable-tariff-svts-know-gas-electricity-bills-cost-a8139916.html

[Deleted User]

So 13% on prepayment isn't a bad figure to add to the 57%.

Of course that article talks about SVT ignoring prepayment (or doesn't mention if it is in the figure) but quotes Bulb about how bad people are at understanding energy tariffs. That firm only has 1 tariff however. I wonder if the 57% counts Bulb customers who are on a default tariff although it isn't priced as high as other providers default tariffs?