What's your Next Moves on Gas and Electricity Bills?

bery_451

Hello,

My fixed dual energy Tariff coming to a end soon that is the end of June which will be the end of this 18 month fixed tariff. Can my supplier now make this existing tariff more expensive because the current rising costs of energy or they have to stick to the price units we agreed on this fixed tariff contract 18 months ago?

From there is it a good idea to switch now or wait for the price cap in April and switch then?

Its only a good idea to switch to the biggest main suppliers instead of the smaller ones because smaller energy companies can go bust right?

In times of high inflationary energy costs is it a good idea to stick to monthly direct debit as lets say for example overnight your energy supplier decides to raise energy costs by 1000% meaning the next direct debit wipes out your bank account or gets your bank account overdrawn. Is it safe to stick to paper statements in these times to avoid trouble with your bank too?

Will there be another price cap increase this October? I think this will be the most scary on as the April one will be shrugged off by a potential hot spring/summer.

How is everybody preparing for these rising energy costs instead of hoping on a potential hot sunny British summer this year to bring energy usage to a minimum?

Ultrasonic

The costs on your current tariff won't change if it is fixed as you say. When it ends you will be transferred to the standard variable rate that will be at April's price cap, unless you choose to agree to a new fix. There will almost certainly be another cap increase in October but right now it's basically impossible to have any real confidence how much.

In your position I'd probably do nothing now and reassess at the start of June. There are no obviously 'good' fixes now really, although no harm in you looking just to give you an idea. 

pochase

As Ultrasonic already said, don't do anything at the moment, you can only be worse off.

There is no possibility of a sudden 1000% increase, either you are on a fixed tariff and the price cannot be increased until the end of the contract, or you are on a capped tariff and increases are limited by the cap and are announced several weeks ahead.

Yes, most likely there will be another increase of the cap in October, but nobody knows by how much, and predictions change every week.

There is not much you can do now to prepare. I myself am reducing my energy consumption where possible.

Luckily I have after a lot of considerations taken out a fixed tariff in February at "only" around 15% over April cap, and at the moment it looks like an excellent choice, but who knows what happens in the near future.

I have also bought shares for the Rippleenergy Kirk Hill wind farm, which is supposed to go online short before my fix runs out, and hopefully will reduce my electricity cost over the next 20 to 25 years.

Ultrasonic

bery_451 said:

In times of high inflationary energy costs is it a good idea to stick to monthly direct debit as lets say for example overnight your energy supplier decides to raise energy costs by 1000% meaning the next direct debit wipes out your bank account or gets your bank account overdrawn.

Just thought I'd add that Direct Debits don't work like that. You'd need to be notified of the amount to be taken in advance and if not you could phone your bank and get the payment immediately reversed. There is no need to switch away from DDs. 

jimjames

pochase said:

As Ultrasonic already said, don't do anything at the moment, you can only be worse off.

There is no possibility of a sudden 1000% increase, either you are on a fixed tariff and the price cannot be increased until the end of the contract, or you are on a capped tariff and increases are limited by the cap and are announced several weeks ahead.

That's not actually completely correct. The tariff rate is fixed, that doesn't mean you can use all you want so if you use more than estimated your bill will increase and the DD will go up. It could be a very big increase if your use is much much more than estimated.

the_jkl

I am very confused by the energy price increases and I wonder if anyone can offer me advice?

I pay Scottish Power £65/month via DD but my fixed deal with them finishes at the end of April. When I am logged into their website they are now offering me 1yr or 2yr fixed deals but paying £225/month. 

The website also tells me my estimated annual cost is just over £1300 (despite my £65/month payments being far less than that?) and the fixed rate they are offering will cost just over £2700.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

wild666

the_jkl said:

I am very confused by the energy price increases and I wonder if anyone can offer me advice?

I pay Scottish Power £65/month via DD but my fixed deal with them finishes at the end of April. When I am logged into their website they are now offering me 1yr or 2yr fixed deals but paying £225/month. 

The website also tells me my estimated annual cost is just over £1300 (despite my £65/month payments being far less than that?) and the fixed rate they are offering will cost just over £2700.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Use the new rates against your last 12 months figures plus the SC which will be around £300 before you use any electric or gas, then divide the total by 12 to give you how much your monthly DD should be up until October then do the same around the end of September.

MWT

the_jkl said:

The website also tells me my estimated annual cost is just over £1300 (despite my £65/month payments being far less than that?) and the fixed rate they are offering will cost just over £2700.

Can you check your most recent bill to see if your £65 DD has been keeping up with your use or if you have built up a debt?

As I'm sure you realise, it is only your tariff rates that are fixed, not the DD payment so it is important to make sure that you don't owe anything for the last year at this point...

the_jkl

MWT said:

the_jkl said:

The website also tells me my estimated annual cost is just over £1300 (despite my £65/month payments being far less than that?) and the fixed rate they are offering will cost just over £2700.

Can you check your most recent bill to see if your £65 DD has been keeping up with your use or if you have built up a debt?

As I'm sure you realise, it is only your tariff rates that are fixed, not the DD payment so it is important to make sure that you don't owe anything for the last year at this point...

Many thanks. My balance at the end of the Jan-Mar period was -£34 but I see now it's currently -£2.33.  So I assume that's okay.

I think what confuses me most is that the fixed deal offer I have been given is as follows:

Monthly Direct Debit

£225

For the year

£2700

(However my recent direct debits have only been in the £58-65 range).  So I am not sure whether to take this offer or ignore it?

QrizB

the_jkl said:

I am very confused by the energy price increases and I wonder if anyone can offer me advice?
I pay Scottish Power £65/month via DD but my fixed deal with them finishes at the end of April. When I am logged into their website they are now offering me 1yr or 2yr fixed deals but paying £225/month. 
The website also tells me my estimated annual cost is just over £1300 (despite my £65/month payments being far less than that?) and the fixed rate they are offering will cost just over £2700.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are two separate things going on here:

• Your current fixed rate is almost certaily a lot cheaper than the current variable rate
• Scottish Power's fixed rates are a lot higher than the current variable rate.
  

It is not at all surprising for you to be coming off a fixed rate at £65/month and then find that the current variable rate will cost £110/month (£1300/yr), alsmost double your current fix.

It's also not surprising that SP's fixed rates are double that again.

I think if you look at the details of the tariffs, you'll see how this all works out.

wild666

the_jkl said:

MWT said:

the_jkl said:

The website also tells me my estimated annual cost is just over £1300 (despite my £65/month payments being far less than that?) and the fixed rate they are offering will cost just over £2700.

Can you check your most recent bill to see if your £65 DD has been keeping up with your use or if you have built up a debt?

As I'm sure you realise, it is only your tariff rates that are fixed, not the DD payment so it is important to make sure that you don't owe anything for the last year at this point...

Many thanks. My balance at the end of the Jan-Mar period was -£34 but I see now it's currently -£2.33.  So I assume that's okay.

I think what confuses me most is that the fixed deal offer I have been given is as follows:

Monthly Direct Debit

£225

For the year

£2700

(However my recent direct debits have only been in the £58-65 range).  So I am not sure whether to take this offer or ignore it?

As I said in my earlier post use the monthly DD for their fixed rates verses the SVR. I'm sure that the SVR will work out cheaper per month than any fixed term rates they're offering. You can then do more calculations come Sept/Oct against the rates from October.