HUGE increase in monthly gas and electricity bill imminent

Markt2795

I am interested to know what other forum members have experienced when their energy fixed term period comes to an end. I have been paying £112 per month and am being offered to fix my monthly payments to £376 p/m until Jan 23 or £332 p/m until Jan 24! If I do nothing the standard variable I will go on to in March 22 is £176 p/m. Are these fixed term quotes normal? I expected my bill to go up but the most expensive quote is more than a 300% rise!

Your advice would be appreciated.

emmajones1976

Yes, all the energy companies are doing this, the standard rate is losing them money hand over fist.

[Deleted User]

Thinking in terms of monthly payments is a futile exercise. You need to work out your annual consumption in kWh/year and then apply that figure to each of the tariffs: that is, your old tariff and your new one. You will then get two annual costs which will provide you with a much more meaningful cost comparison.

JJ_Egan

Advice post in the energy forum .

This is Oil and LPG  section .

TheMilkmansDad

if the standard variable now is £176 p/m then expect that to increase to around £260 come 1st April. As Dolor says - think about usage rather than the DD figure to ensure they are quoting an accurate figure and not just making up a number now and increasing it tomorrow.

MSE_ForumTeam5

We've moved this to the main Energy board.

(If you spot a thread in the wrong place, feel free to use the 'report' button)

Ant555

TheMilkmansDad said:

if the standard variable now is £176 p/m then expect that to increase to around £260 come 1st April. 

This.   If you are using typical/average amount of energy then your £176/month WILL rise and could be £250/m from April 22 and there is also the possibility it could go up again just before Winter 22 - at that point in time, if prices continue to rise, a fixed £332 p/m you signed up for until until Jan 24 might sound quite attractive for fixed/peace of mind if you can afford it.
Over 12 months that fixed cost is a huge jump per month and you might not 'win' - over 24 months there is more of a chance you will 'win' in the long run but even then it could be marginal.

However, nobody really knows - apart from the fact prices are definitely heading upwards.

I think Martin said that if you are offered a fix <=40% above then its probably worth going for.   your figures are a 100% increase

Hope this helps a little.

Markt2795

[Deleted User] said:

Thinking in terms of monthly payments is a futile exercise. You need to work out your annual consumption in kWh/year and then apply that figure to each of the tariffs: that is, your old tariff and your new one. You will then get two annual costs which will provide you with a much more meaningful cost comparison.

Thank you Dolor. That makes sense. Unfortunately my smart meter hasn't been working since July and despite many attempts to get it resolved, the energy company fails to do so. As a result I have no idea how much electricity I'm using. I could probably do something with the gas though.

MattMattMattUK

Markt2795 said:

Dolor said:

Thinking in terms of monthly payments is a futile exercise. You need to work out your annual consumption in kWh/year and then apply that figure to each of the tariffs: that is, your old tariff and your new one. You will then get two annual costs which will provide you with a much more meaningful cost comparison.

Thank you Dolor. That makes sense. Unfortunately my smart meter hasn't been working since July and despite many attempts to get it resolved, the energy company fails to do so. As a result I have no idea how much electricity I'm using. I could probably do something with the gas though.

When you say not working, do you mean it doesn't report automatically, or do you mean it does not record energy usage at all? If you want to keep track of your usage and it still shows usage on the front then you can submit readings yourself, if it has stopped recording usage entirely them they can't charge you so I imagine they would fix that very quickly.

Markt2795

There is no figure on the front screen of the meter and they keep asking me for meter readings so I don't think they are getting readings at all. I agree, you think that they would want it resolved asap but they simply are not delivering despite me going through they complaints process which has now escalated to their CEO!

Flight3287462

Read your meter, then look back on each monthly bill and find out where you are,