Martin Lewis: DO NOTHING

DavidH57

I've been offered a Scottish Power tariff Fixed June 23B1 which is Elec 21.64 SC & 7.18KWH and Gas 21.64 SC 7.18 KWH although under the new price cap the electricity standing charge is less than half the new cap of 45.34 is this correct? 

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

DavidH57 said:

I've been offered a Scottish Power tariff Fixed June 23B1 which is Elec 21.64 SC & 7.18KWH and Gas 21.64 SC 7.18 KWH although under the new price cap the electricity standing charge is less than half the new cap of 45.34 is this correct? 

If they're offering you electricity for 7p/kWh, take it. However I suspect you've mis-typed.

You'll find a table at the link in my signature that shows the Ofgem capped rated for each region. If Scottish Power are offering you a fix that's lower than those rates, you should give it strong consideration.

pigpen

I was on a fixed rate until 2023.. my supplier was the first to go belly up, I was moved to Shell in October and they haven't even sorted out an account number or bill yet.. yes I know it is February!!! So as a very high usage family of 11 I am gtting a cripplingly high bill sprung on me and won't be able to switch.. though I have found a quote which is slightly cheaper, than Shell who I have issues with their ethics as a company and do not want my money in their filthy pockets.

They have asked formeter reads every 1-2 weeks since October but they are faffing about thinking they have all the time in the world and that their stupid bill will force me to have prepayment meters.. they are wrong!

Utility Warehouse has the cheapest tariff for us.. saves 2.3p per Kwh

Ah.. £1285 bill.. They sorted it overnight and I just refreshed

Optimistic_Gardener

Yep, I thought we'd made a shrewd move by fixing in September. It was still a hike from £155 p/m to £190, but I was happy at a 2 year fix.

Then they went bust, so now we're on British Gas at £230 a month and rising. We had £4.66 credit in our old account which BG assured us they would transfer. They contacted me this morning to say they've moved the £3.41 credit we had - so that's off to a good start.

Dressing gowns, coats and woolly hats over clothes for the foreseeable.

Grim times...

EssexHebridean

I've been looking at the Cheap energy Club pretty much weekly since October when we were SOLR'd to see if there was anything worth going for for our gas - there not only has been absolutely nothing, but everything there has been has been substantially more expensive. I switched the electricity in August and even then shifting to an SVR was by far the cheapest option for us there.  For a few lucky folk the advice might have been wrong - for the vast majority I suspect it was spot on. Martin's good - but I'd wager even HE isn't good enough to be able to deliver a blanket bit of advice that covers everyone who hears it! 

QrizB

pigpen said:

... So as a very high usage family of 11 I am gtting a cripplingly high bill sprung on me and won't be able to switch.. though I have found a quote which is slightly cheaper, (fixed for 12 months with no exit fees,) than Shell

@pigpen if you've found a fixed rate that's cheaper than the Shell "flexible 6" tariff could you tell us all who it's with, and what the rate is?

pigpen

QrizB said:

pigpen said:

... So as a very high usage family of 11 I am gtting a cripplingly high bill sprung on me and won't be able to switch.. though I have found a quote which is slightly cheaper, (fixed for 12 months with no exit fees,) than Shell

@pigpen if you've found a fixed rate that's cheaper than the Shell "flexible 6" tariff could you tell us all who it's with, and what the rate is?

it's through utility warehouse but they want to do bundles you have to remove everything other than utilities.. the fixed rate has been removed.. I just had to run it through again to get the actual pricings but it is the same price £289 a month rather than £310.. but ne of their selling points is they price lower than price cap. They will not let me change with this £1300 bill looming over us.

Chrysalis

At the time he made his advice, I couldnt find any fixed rate deals that made the advice bad.

Some people I know managed to get fixed rate for 2+ years, those were good deals if you could get them, and some managed to get fixed rates at or below the cap which were obviously good deals, but Icouldnt find any, his advice at the time was no a unconditional rely on the cap, it was a rely on the cap if you cannot find a competitive fixed rate deal.

The fixed rate deal that was offered to me was 30% above the cap in October, now lets do some maths.

6 months 30% below the cap, 30% in pocket.
Second 6 months cap increases by 50% so now 20% above fixed rate.
Over the 12 months I am slightly in profit vs having the fixed rate deal.