British Gas

330d

My contract with British Gas comes to and end next week. Over the past year i have used;

Gas - 33200kwh
Electric - 5000kwh

It has cost me £145 a month for the past year.

The variable tariff based on my usage that British gas has offered is £210 a month.

And this is the fixed deal they have offered which works out £360 a month.



Even with the expected price hikes, I assume I should stay on the variable and not go for the fixed?

Gerry1

Nobody really knows, it's a gamble whatever you do.

At the moment those rates look like they're taking the mickey, but in a year's time they may look like the good old days.

May be better to pencil in some possible deals now and then wait until 7 February when the new cap is announced and then be prepared to move very quickly before the they get pulled.

QrizB

330d said:

My contract with British Gas comes to and end next week. Over the past year i have used;
Gas - 33200kwh
Electric - 5000kwh

That's quite a large amount of energy. I hope you realise this.

330d said:

The variable tariff based on my usage that British gas has offered is £210 a month.
And this is the fixed deal they have offered which works out £360 a month.
Even with the expected price hikes, I assume I should stay on the variable and not go for the fixed?

BG SVT works out as aboout £2600/yr so £210/month is about right.

That fixed-rate deal is about £4600/yr, more like £380/month.

Note that BG's SVT is likely to change in April and will be closer to the fixed tariff you've been offered.

330d

Gerry1 said:

Nobody really knows, it's a gamble whatever you do.

At the moment those rates look like they're taking the mickey, but in a year's time they may look like the good old days.

May be better to pencil in some possible deals now and then wait until 7 February when the new cap is announced and then be prepared to move very quickly before the they get pulled.

Yes agree the rates offered are not great. I've seen other posts where other energy providoors have offered much better prices.

330d

QrizB said:

330d said:

My contract with British Gas comes to and end next week. Over the past year i have used;
Gas - 33200kwh
Electric - 5000kwh

That's quite a large amount of energy. I hope you realise this.

330d said:

The variable tariff based on my usage that British gas has offered is £210 a month.
And this is the fixed deal they have offered which works out £360 a month.
Even with the expected price hikes, I assume I should stay on the variable and not go for the fixed?

BG SVT works out as aboout £2600/yr so £210/month is about right.

That fixed-rate deal is about £4600/yr, more like £380/month.

Note that BG's SVT is likely to change in April and will be closer to the fixed tariff you've been offered.

Yes I believe it's a lot of energy. 

So your recommending to take the fixed deal? Even if the SVT deal does increase massively, I can then go on a fixed as long as they have not increased massively.

Genuinely don't know what to do.

QrizB

330d said:

So your recommending to take the fixed deal? Even if the SVT deal does increase massively, I can then go on a fixed as long as they have not increased massively.
Genuinely don't know what to do.

I'm not specifically recommending the fixed deal, just pointing out that even if you take the SVT you're going to be paying something like the fixed rate prices from April.

If you want the certainty of a fix it's going to cost you quite a bit extra in Feb and Mar but might not be any more expensive thereafter.

I can understand why you don't know what to do, I wouldn't either!

Gerry1

I suspect that most remaining energy providers are being ultra cautious right now, not surprisingly.  They are being forced to sell their product at a loss because of Ofgem's price cap, so they'll want to claw this back.  If they miscalculate and on 7 February Ofgem sets a cap lower than they expected then they'll keep making losses, possibly quite significant ones.  Therefore, their current fixed tariffs often tend to be set at 'Go Away' prices that they don't expect many people to accept.  If they get a few punters, well so much the better.

You can occasionally see this on hotel booking sites, a plain 3* motel will sometimes show a price of £2k or £3k for one night.  It probably just means they're full, but if someone foolishly accepts it then they'd no doubt cancel an existing booking and transfer a guest to a sister hotel or book them a room with a competitor.

330d

Any other views on this? What would others do?

MWT

There is no right answer here, risks on both sides.

From the choices you have described, if this was me I'd probably avoid the fix and drop onto the variable tariff, mainly because of your extremely high gas use and the fact that you've probably got your heaviest gas use still to come this winter.

... but the risk comes next winter and we have no idea where the prices will be by then...

QrizB

330d said:

Any other views on this? What would others do?

Do you feel lucky?

A number of posters have said they've managed to contact BG CS and get switched to closed fixed tariffs from last year. Gerry1 is on "Zero Fixed Oct 22" (thread here) but tg99 managed to get "Exclusive Fixed Oct 22 v2".

This is definitely a long shot (and could need repeated calls to CS and resort to the complaint system) but as you're already with BG you might want to give it a go if you've got time?

MWT

Certainly worth trying for one of the old tariffs, if you do, then use the online chat system and keep copies of the chat logs once you get someone to agree to the change. You'll need those later for the complaint when it gets denied further in the process.