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

Doc_N

englandsrose said:

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!

I do agree with you. Unfortunately it’s the sort of basic but essential information, along with financial and home running information generally, that isn’t taught in schools. 

It’s actually the most valuable life skill you can have, but you’re expected to acquire it for yourself.

Altior

Many people are lazy, especially when it comes to financial matters that seem tedious to them, simple as that. If you're keen to find out how your domestic energy bill is calculated, it's not difficult find out. In fact, the detailed breakdown is provided on the bill. 

Plus, parents shouldn't defer everything to schools.

Mstty

There is a generation or two or three than the formula on bills confused them from the very first bill and they didn't have Google. So the amount became their point of reference.

Doc_N

Altior said:

Many people are lazy, especially when it comes to financial matters that seem tedious to them, simple as that. If you're keen to find out how your domestic energy bill is calculated, it's not difficult find out. In fact, the detailed breakdown is provided on the bill. 

Plus, parents shouldn't defer everything to schools.

Sadly, some parents - probably the majority - simply don't possess the skills required.  They have little option but to leave it to the schools.

I don't blame the schools, though, or the teachers - but I do blame the politicians responsible for an education system which fails completely to provide critically important life skills.

Keith_F

Doc_N 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.

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.

Freeze on the price cap makes no sense, it would be financially supporting millions of people who do not actually need that support. This reduces the amount of help that could be given to those who really need it.

MToon

I’ve took an EON fix but it has no penalty for withdrawing so if the Government does end up doing something which effects the price caps I can just cancel and go back to the variable. I’m honestly not sure though whether the Government will do anything as drastic as cancelling the price cap increase in October as Labour suggest. Main reason being highlighted by Labours plan, that they’ve only planned on scrapping it for 6 months, after that are we just going to get a huge rise which people will be even more unprepared for?  Doesn’t seem like we are getting out of this anytime soon with some estimates saying prices will stay high for the next 1/2 years!

Doc_N

Keith_F said:

Doc_N 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.

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.

Freeze on the price cap makes no sense, it would be financially supporting millions of people who do not actually need that support. This reduces the amount of help that could be given to those who really need it.

It does have two big advantages though:

1 It would reduce the inflation rate, which would reduce damaging and expensive wage demands and government payments linked to inflation.

2 Simplicity of operation and clarity.

brewerdave

Doc_N said:

Keith_F said:

Doc_N 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.

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.

Freeze on the price cap makes no sense, it would be financially supporting millions of people who do not actually need that support. This reduces the amount of help that could be given to those who really need it.

It does have two big advantages though:

1 It would reduce the inflation rate, which would reduce damaging and expensive wage demands and government payments linked to inflation.

2 Simplicity of operation and clarity.

The wage demands are already built in for virtually every Unionised group - can't see the Unions settling for less because the energy cap gets frozen !!

nrmsmith

littleteapot said:

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.

78p for day time rate per kw/h is obscene

QrizB

nrmsmith said:

littleteapot said:

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

78p for day time rate per kw/h is obscene

26.46p for night time, however, is looking quite good. The poster uses 80% night rate, so that's a weighted average of 36.8p/kWh.