Buying first home mid-gas crisis...

Tim11111000111

When you first move in, take a meter reading and find out who the current supplier is. You will need to set up an account with them, and initially you will be placed on the standard variable rate, which is subject to Ofgem's cap.

You will then have a decision to make: stick with the SVR and see what happens, or go for a fix. As far as I know, all fixes being offered at the moment (certainly by the Big Six) are more expensive than the capped SVR. But the benefit is they are fixes. The ofgem cap will be reviewed again in April and it might well go up. Getting on a fix guarantees you will be paying more between now and April, but then might pay for itself if the cap rises (as you will be protected from that rise).

One option would be to look for a fix that doesn't charge exit fees - that way you are protected from rises, but have the option to switch to something cheaper if cheaper offers do become available. 

HeroftheWords

Tim11111000111 said:

When you first move in, take a meter reading and find out who the current supplier is. You will need to set up an account with them, and initially you will be placed on the standard variable rate, which is subject to Ofgem's cap.

You will then have a decision to make: stick with the SVR and see what happens, or go for a fix. As far as I know, all fixes being offered at the moment (certainly by the Big Six) are more expensive than the capped SVR. But the benefit is they are fixes. The ofgem cap will be reviewed again in April and it might well go up. Getting on a fix guarantees you will be paying more between now and April, but then might pay for itself if the cap rises (as you will be protected from that rise).

One option would be to look for a fix that doesn't charge exit fees - that way you are protected from rises, but have the option to switch to something cheaper if cheaper offers do become available. 

Thanks for this great advice Tim!

QrizB

HeroftheWords said:

Hi savers - current home uses oil for heating and hot water only, new home will be for heating and the gas cooker. I must say we haven't noticed anything like a 50% price rise for what we're paying. Bought 500 litres of oil yesterday and that was the same as what we paid for our last lot back in January. That's by the by though as we're moving out haha.

A litre of heating oil is about 10kWh, so if you paid 50p/litre (and I don't know what you paid) that's around 5p/kWh.
Gas on the Ofgem-capped variable tariff will be around 4p/kWh. What I don't know (and you might not either) is how efficient the oil boiler is vs. the gas boiler, and hoe well insulated the old house is vs the new house.