What rates are you being offered by your provider at the moment?

pickapennyup

Mstty said:

I would love a strong government to come out and say, we will all have a rough time of it for a few years but we are going to invest in the future rather than dishing out free cash.

This will mean the UK is self sufficient for the generations to come.

Oh the dream. Like my nan says this is nothing like what we went through the war, this is just a gloomy cloud in the sky. Perhaps we could say we went through a tough few years so the energy crisis can never happen again. Wouldn't that be a nice legacy?

It's all me me me in the now now now for many.

We have slashed everything in preparation. No new phones for 4 years, sim only contracts. Cut the broadband down to smallest cost, no TV subscriptions (free view is pretty good when you remember channels 1-3 and wow....Channel 4 is coming! Haggled.on every insurance renewal or swapped through a cashback site.

We are now looking at switching bank accounts for some extra cash and the cashback debit card accounts.

We refuse to go over a fixed amount for shopping despite what we see as over 20% rise in some products. 

We downloaded the petrol prices app and get cheapest fuel when out and about on other journeys.

Reducing water use. 

We haven't just done this to pay for energy or boost savings for when our prices rocket. We have done this so we can still supplier local businesses(not as often) and still have a nice quality of life.

The list goes on and this is what everyone should be doing especially those that will receive £1200+ this year.

No more free cash, no buy now pay later schemes with commercial banks (I blame Klarna and the like) just a tough time and a legacy for generations to come.

Who's with me.........(tumbleweed lol) 

why should we do all that you are doing,many of us are cutting costs but i wont be doing everything you are 
your telling people what they should be doing and that is not your place 
im pretty sure many are making their own budgets an budget as much as they can
we are all differrent as are individual budgets

Mstty

Many people who come here don't even know what a kWh costs let alone what awaits this winter and how to budget and remove non essentials. So sometimes you can lay it out in full as to how bad this will hit them. Up to them if they listen or not. I and lots of others here have potentially saved people hundreds and thousands. I know my place👍

But yes carry on do what your budget allows it was just a list of what we had done and may spark some reflection for others and what they should be doing now in my opinion (free speech and all that)

Rheumatoid

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Hi, I would appreciate some advice please.

Our fixed deal with Scottish Power ended yesterday and we have been offered a new 1 or 2 year fixed deal. We haven't done anything about it yet and so from today are on the standard tariff. Our usage for the 12 months ending May 2022, according to Scottish Power, was 7989KWH. It is likely to be less in the coming year as we are now being more careful about our energy usage, but I can't see it being hugely less.

The one year deal they have offered (Green Flexi August 2023 M1) has a standing charge of 32.14p per day and a unit cost of 45.692p/KWH. The standard rate currently has the same standing charge but the unit rate is only 29.632p/KWH.   About a month ago they reminded us that our then fixed rate was due to end and we looked at what was on offer but obviously didn't switch then. The standard rate was the same then as it is today though. I would have to check but, from memory, on our previous deal we were paying something like 18 or 19p per unit, so this would represent an increase of about 150%, which seems excessive, from the figures I hear on the news. In the last 12 months we paid something like £1500 for our electricity and they are forecasting with the fixed deal around £3800! We don't have any gas appliances at the moment.

My question is, Should we move to the 1 year fixed (or the slightly more expensive two year fixed) tariff or stay with the standard tariff, as it is so much cheaper. I realise that it could, and probably will, go up, but is it likely to go above what is being offered on these fixed price deals? I just wonder if we're being encouraged to go onto something that will not be to our advantage or whether, in fact, the standard tariff will rocket soon, by which time these deals will have been replaced by something even more expensive and we will rue not taking what's on offer now.

I just checked what SP is offering us now as a fixed rate. They are only offering us two, and the cheapest of those is the Green Flexi August 2023 M2. The rates are 53.7 p/KWH and 32.14 SC. The SC is the same as what they offered 4 weeks ago but the unit rate has gone up by 8p, or 17.5%. We stayed on the variable rate of 29.6p/KWH and SC of 32.14p/day.  4 weeks ago, according to SP, our annual usage is 7989 KWH, today, and after submitting a reading on 1/7, it has gone down to 6899.

Surprisingly, over two weeks later, Scottish Power is still offering us the same rates on its Green Flexi August 2023 M2 tariff (53.7 p/KWH and 32.14 SC). Given that the latest prediction is for the cap to rise by 82% in October and a further nearly 15% in January this would, in October, take our SVT in up to what they are now offering us for the fixed deal, and in January we would be paying about 8p per KWH more on the SVT than this fix, and from April, still more. Even if the cap comes down a bit in July, it is still likely to be more than 53.7p on current predictions.

I think perhaps we should take this in case it disappears on Monday; we will have the two week cooling off period if we change our minds.The only thing is that it is a flexi deal and so the whole rate isn't fixed, about 85% is but the rest, which are variable costs, 'linked to external industry costs such as network, social and environmental obligation costs that may increase or decrease throughout the tariff term'. Currently these amount to 8p per KWH for our area. It says on the SP website that they are linked to the price cap and are reviewed quarterly at the same time as the cap so if they went up 82% too, that would add about 6p to the unit rate, making it about 60p in total, going up to about 62p in January, meaning the fix isn't so great after all.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

I'm tempted but with the political pressure to do something and a chance of the cap being frozen or scaled back, however slim, I think its a risk that I might be locked in to something more expensive than SVT.

pochase

All this rumours and suggestions are not doing any good for people who are thinking of fixing.

They might now miss out on saving at least a bit of money by securing a fixed tariff, and will lose out if there is no capped cap in October.

We will have two unhappy groups of people, those who were aware of the coming potential prices and fixed with some paying already for months higher rates than the current SVT to save later. Even if there is no exit fee they will have lost money for being responsible and prepared.

Or those who now are not taking a fixed tariff, hoping that somehow the price will not go up.

Mstty

pochase said:

All this rumours and suggestions are not doing any good for people who are thinking of fixing.

They might now miss out on saving at least a bit of money by securing a fixed tariff, and will lose out if there is no capped cap in October.

We will have two unhappy groups of people, those who were aware of the coming potential prices and fixed with some paying already for months higher rates than the current SVT to save later. Even if there is no exit fee they will have lost money for being responsible and prepared.

Or those who now are not taking a fixed tariff, hoping that somehow the price will not go up.

I agree the leader of the opposition could end up costing people hundreds of pounds if they don't fix.

The news was full of it this morning.

Doc_N

pochase said:

All this rumours and suggestions are not doing any good for people who are thinking of fixing.

They might now miss out on saving at least a bit of money by securing a fixed tariff, and will lose out if there is no capped cap in October.

We will have two unhappy groups of people, those who were aware of the coming potential prices and fixed with some paying already for months higher rates than the current SVT to save later. Even if there is no exit fee they will have lost money for being responsible and prepared.

Or those who now are not taking a fixed tariff, hoping that somehow the price will not go up.

Anyone listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 just now will have heard Keir Starmer explaining why a freeze on the cap makes better financial sense than subsidies. 3 out of 4 Conservative voters apparently agree with him!

It’s a real possibility, and while I agree that it may put people off fixes, me included, those fixes may equally well prove to be a big financial mistake.

Truth is, nobody knows yet. You need to make your own decisions. A fix with no penalty, however, might be the best option, but even that depends on the price.

I’m guessing, as I’ve said on previous occasions, that the government will be forced politically into freezing the capped rates - but it is just a personal view of course.

Doc_N

Mstty said:

pochase said:

All this rumours and suggestions are not doing any good for people who are thinking of fixing.

They might now miss out on saving at least a bit of money by securing a fixed tariff, and will lose out if there is no capped cap in October.

We will have two unhappy groups of people, those who were aware of the coming potential prices and fixed with some paying already for months higher rates than the current SVT to save later. Even if there is no exit fee they will have lost money for being responsible and prepared.

Or those who now are not taking a fixed tariff, hoping that somehow the price will not go up.

I agree the leader of the opposition could end up costing people hundreds of pounds if they don't fix.

The news was full of it this morning.

Or, put another way, he could embarrass the government into waking up from its deep sleep and actually doing something to help people. His proposals may well be accepted by the government, which is paralysed by the leadership contest between two entirely unsuitable people.

brewerdave

Mstty said:

pochase said:

All this rumours and suggestions are not doing any good for people who are thinking of fixing.

They might now miss out on saving at least a bit of money by securing a fixed tariff, and will lose out if there is no capped cap in October.

We will have two unhappy groups of people, those who were aware of the coming potential prices and fixed with some paying already for months higher rates than the current SVT to save later. Even if there is no exit fee they will have lost money for being responsible and prepared.

Or those who now are not taking a fixed tariff, hoping that somehow the price will not go up.

I agree the leader of the opposition could end up costing people hundreds of pounds if they don't fix.

The news was full of it this morning.

Just watched him performing on BBC Breakfast/GMTV - I just wish someone had said "what you think/plan is irrelevant - you won't be in power before 2024 at the earliest" . At least Rob Rinder summed him up perfectly after a Q about picket lines - "so that's a yes, no, maybe " and then cut him off to go to the Weather !!!

littleteapot

Even though I fixed in April I do occasionally check current rates just out of curiosity. EDF's fixed offer today is as follows (Eastern Region, E7 electricity only):

Day rate: 78.17p
Night rate: 26.46p

Daily standing charge 38.00p

Based on calculation from our actual consumption over the last 12 months, this would be a 75% increase over the current price-cap unit rates, so should come in better than the october cap rates. Note that we use about 80% night rate, hence the high differential between day and night rate is favourable for us.

englandsrose

What baffles me is the amount of people that just look at the direct debit increase instead of the KWH prices. 
If I had time I'd sit at my local library and offer a free service for people to help them see what they are using and paying etc. 
Drives me insane!