British Gas Home Energy Exclusive January 2024 - were we mad to buy into this?

jamei305

For perspective, EDF are currently offering me a January 2024 fix at 42.05p for electricity and 12.424p for gas with a £300 exit fee, a 300% and 600% rise respectively from my current tariff prices.

We all know prices will rise in April, but I'm just going to swallow whatever happens this summer as I move to standard variable, and look to fix again in the autumn.

wild666

IMO energy supplier will be recouping any money they've paid out as a SoLR, even if they can claim some of the money back from Ofgem, keeping the prices as high as possible hoping that some will change to high capped rates with equally high release clauses.
Personally I am taking the risk that prices will fall by the next capped energy period increase and prices won't go anywhere near the £2000 quoted by some.
  

QrizB

Simon_Daisy said:

Thanks Gerry1 for your thoughts. Yes, that's why I'm in such a quandary. It's a bit like which checkout to choose... which ever way you jump, you will probably regret it.     

No-one else seems to have mentioned this yet but are you an extremely high user of both gas and electricity?

From those estimates it looks as though BG are expecting you to use 49,000kWh of gas and between 10,000 and 18,000kWh of electricity, per year. That's roughly 4x the energy use of the average household!

Are those numbers correct, or have BG made a complete mess of estimating your annual use?

Mineral1

Yeah I'm thinking the same, those usage estimations are wild

Simon_Daisy

Hi. Thanks for the new posts.

I don't know if the estimates are right, especially since for the first time ever, we haven't put the heating on for more than a few hours a day, whereas previously we would have had it on all winter. But yes, we are probably exceptionally high users, for various reasons. Does our super-high usage, affect your advice? (And OrtizB, what's the interesting stuff in the little font at the bottom about?)

Not sure what to make of the EDF rates mentioned in a post above. They don't seem to compare at all. E.g. the gas seems much more expensive, and the electricity a little cheaper? And those exit fees!

Still unsure what's the right thing to do, but will phone BG today anyway to see what they say. It may be that my cooling off period ended last night anyway, so I'm probably too late to change my mind, even if I was clear that I've made the wrong choice (which I'm not).   

Thanks again to all who have answered. 

Simon_Daisy

British Gas closed for the extra bank holiday today so I couldn't speak to anyone. I hope they will extend my cooling off period by at least one day to compensate for bank hol. 

Movie_Star

Obviously trying to get the supply costs down by looking around is important but also using old fashioned tricks to curtail usage further. LED bulbs for lighting, buy timers to turn off things like phone chargers, internet routers, TVs on standby at night, that sort of thing. Turn off radiators in rooms not immediately being used, turn down the hot water thermostat. Buy a nest or hive thermostat ( without a subscription ). People might say this will cost a bomb, but all this stuff can last for 10 years or more. If the house is yours, then look to borrow to sort out triple glazing, cavity wall and loft insulation. If rented, make sure the thermostat can be removed when you leave. Leave anyway! At these prices and usage you are surely going to get your money back?

Gerry1

Simon_Daisy said:

British Gas closed for the extra bank holiday today so I couldn't speak to anyone. I hope they will extend my cooling off period by at least one day to compensate for bank hol. 

Don't bank on it, they may well stick to the time limit.  If you want to cancel, Chat is available right now.  Remember to get the transcript for future reference.

lisyloo

Their on line chat is open today.
can you not cancel by email?
what are the instructions for cancelling, pretty sure you can do it by email

Simon_Daisy

Thanks for that tip. I'm trying the chat option now. My only problem is that I am still not 100% if I should cancel, and advice on this site had been mixed.