£350 coming from the government, is the fixing worthless now?

zagfles

Astria said:

Of course you're right the energy market is now screwed, because of govt interference, ie the cap. But it was working for about 30 years.

Yes, introduce cap, force companies to beg for bailout of tax payer cash, then increase the cap to stop other companies collapsing and attempt to repay the bailout funds.

Or we could have just paid more as the price increased instead of a 54% sudden hike.

Yup. Crackers idea. It what happens when politicians listen to hand-wringers

Andrea15

I've changed company pretty much every year for the last... I can't remember... 12 years or so and the same applies to broadband/phone. I have also changed insurer for way longer than that. And let's not forget the cash-back that can be HUGE. It would have been silly not to do that.
Now for energy the music has stopped. It was good for as long as it lasted (and I saved a tidy sum) and we'll have to reassess to see what the best way forward is, assuming there will be options. i am quite sure that even if prices don't drop significantly, once they have stabilised the circus will start again, just at different levels, but it will be even more imperative to find a good deal.

Shedman

One of the problems of getting good deals once wholesale prices drop and stabilise will be the lack of competition due to hugely decreased number of suppliers and given that Ofgem have now got a 9 month approval timescale for any new entrants (along with hopefully more stringent financial assessment regime)  it will be a long time before we get new incomers into the market who might be the ones to start offering attractive tariffs

Sncjw

So from what I understand is that we get this 200 quid off in October when price cap can go up again. So 200 quid off when the charges are high but they add e40 quid a year so what happens next year when the prices could still remain high people could struggle even more because of the high prices and having to pay back the loan so added costs on top of the high prices. 

Alexland

Sncjw said:

So from what I understand is that we get this 200 quid off in October when price cap can go up again. So 200 quid off when the charges are high but they add e40 quid a year so what happens next year when the prices could still remain high people could struggle even more because of the high prices and having to pay back the loan so added costs on top of the high prices.

If charges are still as as high when the repayment period begins the government wil be under political pressure to delay it further. Historically wholesale energy prices have been fairly volatile so it seems likely there will be a good period at some point to collect this money back again. Overall I don't feel this offer went anywhere near far enough and they will probably have to offer more later. As a higher band council tax payer all I am getting is the £200 interest free loan in return for all that extra VAT that I will be paying on the higher bills.

[Deleted User]

Sncjw said:

So from what I understand is that we get this 200 quid off in October when price cap can go up again. So 200 quid off when the charges are high but they add e40 quid a year so what happens next year when the prices could still remain high people could struggle even more because of the high prices and having to pay back the loan so added costs on top of the high prices. 

As has been suggested many times over in the past 24 hours, the Government is hoping that wholesale energy prices will fall in Spring 2023 so that the £40 can be absorbed into the savings that a fall in wholesale prices might have realised. Sadly, wholesale prices are not the only thing that goes into the Cap mix. We have still got to pay for all the recent supplier failures which will add £Bns to the total energy bill.