Energy increases

patden

I have been with octopus for a few years and currently pay £98 pm on the Octopus 12m Fixed. This ends in December. They have emailed offering me another fixed deal for £243.14!!!! Or as a loyal member a fixed deal Loyal Fixed 12m £182.13. Or I can do nothing and revert to their standard variable flexible octopus for £119.13. The latter seems the obvious but I’m worried that when energy costs are reviewed they will be even higher and any further fixed deals will be even worse. I cannot afford those higher amounts. I am shocked at the increase. Views from anyone would be great, thank you 

MWT

For now I would just drop onto the variable tariff, this is also what Octopus advise:

flashg67

we're all paying more and possibly much more in 6 months time, but there's nothing to be done in the short term. Advice is to stay on standard variable tariff - at least you'll have your cheaper deal until December - many of us are on the 'price cap' rates already. Looking at where you might be able to save energy and making sure any benefits you are entitled to is your best hope sadly

spot1034

Wholesale prices are now falling. There is no guarantee that they won't rise again in the short term if the factors which pushed them up reassert themselves, and the weather over the winter is certainly one of those - however the signs are that this is a spike in prices which will be reversed in due course. Sit tight until next spring and it's quite possible that there will be some better offers to take advantage of by then. 

mumf

Sadly,I fear that even though prices ‘may’ sink back to more reasonable levels at some point,the overall trend will be upwards. Fossils are getting scarcer,the government wants to ban them,and force us towards ‘alternative’ heating etc. So as flashg67 said, looking at saving energy is where it’s at. 

The_Fat_Controller

If your current £98 is actually covering your usage (do check) then you'll have to resign yourself to paying at least £119.13

That is only a 20% increase so it looks pretty good compared to the actual increase in energy prices.

When my EDF fix ends I am currently looking an increase of 50% when I move to the SV tariff.

savers_united

Looking at the Octopus price tracker for today in my region, Electricity prices are below the Cap for the first time in a while @ 19.2p per KWh and Gas 6.5p per KWh so still around 50% above the cap. 
If this trend continues, even with a few more spikes here and there we could be looking at prices for both Gas & Elec being below the Current cap come April and the next review. That would mean both would be well below what is likely to a be a big increase in the cap.

So moving off the cap to a more palatable fix in April is a real possibility. 

QrizB

savers_united said:

Looking at the Octopus price tracker for today in my region, Electricity prices are below the Cap for the first time in a while @ 19.2p per KWh and Gas 6.5p per KWh so still around 50% above the cap. 
If this trend continues, even with a few more spikes here and there we could be looking at prices for both Gas & Elec being below the Current cap come April and the next review.

You may not have noticed but there's a gale blowing out there. For the last 12 hours over 50% of the UK's energy has come from the wind, less than 20% from gas.

Enjoy lower prices while you can, but (unless this gale keeps blowing until February) electricity prices will be going back up.

bristolleedsfan

savers_united said:

Looking at the Octopus price tracker for today in my region, Electricity prices are below the Cap for the first time in a while @ 19.2p per KWh and Gas 6.5p per KWh so still around 50% above the cap. 
If this trend continues, even with a few more spikes here and there we could be looking at prices for both Gas & Elec being below the Current cap come April and the next review. That would mean both would be well below what is likely to a be a big increase in the cap.

So moving off the cap to a more palatable fix in April is a real possibility. 

If you are referring to energy cap as opposed to cap Octopus have put on its tracker product, Wholesale E rate today is shown as 8.933p + vat,lowest I see since 8 August,  Wholesale gas price today is shown as 4.708p +vat,same rate two days running.  lowest I see since 9 September

https://energy.guylipman.com/sm/gastracker
https://energy.guylipman.com/sm/electracker

savers_united

Yes I know the turbines have had a couple of days of favourable weather, but one of the few reasons behind the high prices for electric have been the unusual low levels of winds the past few months, as we enter winter the weather does tend to get a little more unsettled and there will come a point where we get back to seasonal norms with the wind. Either way the more days like this we have (don't mean gale force just normal levels of wind) the better it will be come April and the cap is revised as it will be based on the previous 6 months wholesale costs.