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PoorGeorgie

cammumof3 wrote: »

Well, I have just joined in with the fixed prices until 2011 with BG, I am a customer any way and just signed up for the fixed prices, 2008 prices, but stupidly enough I dont know if that fixed price is for before or after the rise.
Does any one know???

So if you a customer you can get fixed prices.
Caz

I looked afterwards at the actual BG site and the fixed till 2011 is with rates effective 30th July so if they did indeed increase yesterday then the cap is with the 30% higher charges. But I'm wondering whether the benefit will be that over the 3 years if fuel continues to rise this may ultimately work out cheaper.
The alternative I've considered is ditching the BG 2011 cap and moving to the Eon till 2009 with no fees and seeing what happens in the January. Given I live in a tiny flat with pretty economical heating I don't think the difference will be as great to me as someone with a large home.
Its all a gamble and so confusing!!

tonyhamm

Newsnight 30/07/08
Yellow is the price of european gas. White is the price of UK gas. We can import gas from Europe whenever UK gas is more expensive. This used to act as a CEILING on UK gas prices. Now its acting as a FLOOR (the Uk Gas price is never lower than European gas). This means the market is broken.


ADAM SCORER - Energywatch
"It is this crazy linking mechanism to the oil price - oil indexing is sending gas prices so high.Its absurd" ..."We estimate gas costs (at most) 20P PER THERM, but thanks to indexing to oil its now at 100p per therm!"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7533389.stm
"The price of gas has risen in recent months as it is linked to the cost of oil, although oil prices have started to fall again in recent weeks. Energywatch described the link as "absurd".

"Only 6 big players in the energy market means they form a cartel even if they don't collude directly (to drive up prices)." - Newnight on recent report into the market.

rorymac_1

i'm a student moving into a new house in manchester for the first time. There are 7 of us living there and obviously I have no idea on our energy usage, but I would think it to be pretty high. I am not really sure what deal to switch to as we would only be interested in a yearly cap at most, as we may not remain at the house for more than 12months.

Is it cheaper for us to cap (Bearing in mind most price rises have been announced already)?

Or shall we just take the cheapest variable rate offered by the energyhelpline website, which I believe to be BG click energy 5 at £1638 compared to the best capped option of EON saver 4 at £2193?

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Paulee

Thanks Tony for this depressing piece of information. IMHO the UK is definately in the grip of an energy cartel, be it gas, electricity or oil, but we seem to be stuffed daily for everything we buy in the UK these days!

I feel very sad that NO ONE, least of all the government, seems to be able or willing to help us, even when it's obvious from the huge profits announced regularly by these companies. It's nothing but legal robbery!!!:mad:

irrelevant

We switched to scottish power fixed last week, but just realised that the email from energyhelpline only had electricity mentioned in it, not both fuels as I had wanted. Not sure where the fault in that lies, but I phoned SP and got it sorted, phew. But it took nearly 45 mins on the phone, mostly on hold, and that was after nine engaged tones on their 0800 numbers! The advisor in Sales I ended up speaking to said they had over 70 calls queued up at that time! I guess they are a bit popular today, after BG's anouncements..

Monks_habit

I live in a village where there is no gas supply. We have electric storage heaters, which we hardly use as we have open fires and log burners, and an emersion heater for the hot water which come on for an hour in the morning and 2 1/2 hours in the evening.

I'm with british gas, not sure which tariff, its a 3 ded cottage with 2 people living in it.

My question is with all the fuel rises who and what tariff is the best to go with. Are there any deals that benefit someone who is only on electric.

tonyhamm

In my view prices should come down under immense political and economic pressure by 2009 to sort out anything that is not working in the market..
The BOE finally seems seroius about real world inflation and is paving the way for more interest rate rises.

The 30/07/08 newsnight program http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00cshbf/
"The market is broken" - Paul Mason Newsnight Economics Editor sums up how disfunctional the UK energy market is - with prices higher than the price of gas in Europe since 2003. The market is not working.

Looking at my mergre use - 3188 kWh Gas and 2200 kWh electricity per year,
Gas - Ebico its 2.86p/kWh currently = £91
Electricity - Ebico - 11.2p/kWh = £264
=======
£355p.a.

If prices rise immediately by 22% in Gas and 17% in electricity to match EDF/B.G. I get
Gas - Ebico @ 3.86

---

£111
Electricty - Ebico @12.2

---

£288
========
£400p.a

and the same collosal rises again in Jan 2009 mean a total of £437 for Q3 2008 to Q2 2009.

I calculated my useage Q3 2008 to Q2 2009 on Price Protection 2009 V17 Dual Fuel from E.on it works out at £491 pa - i.e. More expensive than using a cheap provider and factoring in the price hikes - and the price hikes are not certain to last!

On this basis there is little margin in capping - remember I have factored in 2 sets of price hikes now and in Jan 2009 and the uncapped is still cheaper.

I would wait and see if the price hikes actually last, because fundementally as newsnights Paul Mason says, the UK energy market is broken.

We are not that short of gas (used for electricity) and we should not be paying hugely more for it than in Europe!.

PoorGeorgie

Well I have decided that taking everything into account I am going to cancel my switch and hold tight. I still stand to save by switching away from what I have now, as I've never switched, so I think Tonyhamm makes a valid point.

Snapelover

Snapelover wrote: »

Think we'll stay where we are - it's easier - and we reckon that when one company puts up their prices all the rest follow sooner or later.

I was soooooooooooo right:j . British Gas raise their prices!!!

British Gas Click 5 was one oSo pleased I went with my gut reaction.f the best options for us according to one of the price comparison sites too!!

IM(humble)O I think the ONLY way we are going to save money on our utility bills is to
a) stop wasting electricity by spending hour after hour searching for cheaper gas and electric on the PC (unless of course you are using a PC for free at a local library/during worktime, etc.) and stick with the supplieer you already have

b) do what the boss of Centrica says and wear two sweaters

Demus

Snapelover wrote: »

I was soooooooooooo right:j . British Gas raise their prices!!!

British Gas Click 5 was one oSo pleased I went with my gut reaction.f the best options for us according to one of the price comparison sites too!!

IM(humble)O I think the ONLY way we are going to save money on our utility bills is to
a) stop wasting electricity by spending hour after hour searching for cheaper gas and electric on the PC (unless of course you are using a PC for free at a local library/during worktime, etc.) and stick with the supplieer you already have

b) do what the boss of Centrica says and wear two sweaters

They will all rise, but some rise by more than others. Some will be cheaper than others, so once the dust settles you can save money by picking the cheapest option. Capped deals ATM, or until 2 days ago, were an ideal way of saving money.