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

longjohnjohnson

bery_451 said:

Alnat1 said:

A huge part of the high inflation is caused by rising fuel costs and affects everyone.

How would you solve that worldwide issue if you were PM/Chancellor?

Inflation means Inflating the Money Supply. In Basic economics 101 when there is more of something it is worth less. When the bank of England prints a lot of money from their money printers it 'inflates' the money supply, more cash chasing goods and services thus increasing prices resulting in inflation.

Heck if if I tried to print money or counterfeit myself I be thrown in jail yet the bank of england has the license to print free nilly of it as much as they please at the expensive of affecting the poor, who's wages do not go up with inflation. The rich can afford at whatever inflated prices. A 4% nhs pay rise by the govt. is a insult to NHS Heroes when the inflation rate is much higher than that.

If you think most private sector workers will be getting that you're delusional.

Many people in the private sector are on close to minimum wage which barely tracks inflation.

Also, nobody working for the NHS is a hero, you just did your job, and were compensated for it.

Ultrasonic

longjohnjohnson said:

Many people in the private sector are on close to minimum wage which barely tracks inflation.

Some are but the vast majority are not so I don't really see the relevance. There are also some NHS workers on what most would consider very low pay.

Pay is an especially tricky problem right now due to rising inflation, with many across all sectors pushing for high pay rises to attempt to compensate for inflation, but this in itself would likely exacerbate the inflation problem. Generalised pay restraint would seem wise but hard to achieve. Were NHS pay to end up lagging further behind the private sector then it would exacerbate issues with staff recruitment and retention.

QrizB

longjohnjohnson said:

Many people in the private sector are on close to minimum wage which barely tracks inflation.

National Minimum Wage has significantly outperformed CPI since introduction.

In 1999, it was £3.60ph. If it had increased with CPI, it would have been £5.57ph in 2021 (per BoE calculator) but instead it was £8.91ph.

bery_451

QrizB said:

longjohnjohnson said:

Many people in the private sector are on close to minimum wage which barely tracks inflation.

National Minimum Wage has significantly outperformed CPI since introduction.

In 1999, it was £3.60ph. If it had increased with CPI, it would have been £5.57ph in 2021 (per BoE calculator) but instead it was £8.91ph.

You sure about that? According to the BoE Bank of England Calculator of course they will say that. Compare minimum wages to the REAL economic inflation figure not the bank of england watered down inflation figures which are a joke.

bery_451

Coming back here this question maybe asked a 1000 timers already:

You can only switch to a fixed tariff from a new energy supplier not a SVR standard variable tariffs which are only for existing customers only?

pochase

bery_451 said:

Coming back here this question maybe asked a 1000 timers already:

You can only switch to a fixed tariff from a new energy supplier not a SVR standard variable tariffs which are only for existing customers only?

EDF and Octopus are taking on new customers on SVT if you call them. Seems Octopus is getting hesitant to do so as you might need to call several times until you find an agent who will let you do this.

There are no reports that any of the other suppliers will accept new customers on SVT.

brewerdave

pochase said:

bery_451 said:

Coming back here this question maybe asked a 1000 timers already:

You can only switch to a fixed tariff from a new energy supplier not a SVR standard variable tariffs which are only for existing customers only?

EDF and Octopus are taking on new customers on SVT if you call them. Seems Octopus is getting hesitant to do so as you might need to call several times until you find an agent who will let you do this.

There are no reports that any of the other suppliers will accept new customers on SVT.

Tried 3 times last month (when I got thru'!!) but no dice, so gave it up as a bad job.  

pochase

Thanks for reporting your experience @brewerdave

Did anybody manage to get onto Octopus SVT recently?

double_dutchy

EDF and Octopus are taking on new customers on SVT if you call them. Seems Octopus is getting hesitant to do so as you might need to call several times until you find an agent who will let you do this.

I'm on SVT with Octopus but they don't seem to offer any competitive fixed rates. I'm considering switching to EDF on SVT and then subsequently trying to get a fixed deal with EDF as an existing customer, if they offer anything decent.

What's the flaw in my plan?

Alnat1

Double, have a look a Octopus Tracker v3. It's not exactly a fix but there are limit caps on the amount they can charge of 40p/kWh electric and 11p/kWh gas. The price changes daily depending on the wholesale prices so it's quite different to what we're used to.

It might not be for you but could be one of the cheapest options over the coming winter.