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

Keith_F

Depending on how the plan is structured, energy suppliers may have latitude in how they implement it into existing contracts.
I for one will wait a couple of days to see what Octopus intend to do. 

goldygash

CRISPIANNE3 said:

I fixed my rate back in June. I went on the BG fix until July 2023.  Looks like I made a bad call fixing my rate at 37p for electric and gas 11.19 per kw if the government freeze rates.

I did same for my parents, but just checked the initial offer email and says the following, so if government fix is cheaper, I will just switch them to that ….

“What if energy prices go down again?

This is super important: fixed tariffs are about helping you be in control, not about locking you in!  It’s why we have our tariff guarantee: if prices go down, you can move to any of our other available tariffs at any time without paying any exit fees. That’s a promise.”

Doc_N

From an interview with a government minister on the Today programme this morning, it does sound rather as if they’ve anticipated the potential problem of people having switched to more expensive fixed tariffs, and may have covered it in their proposals. We’ll find out soon.

I hope they’ve also covered the situation affecting those using oil and those not covered by the price cap.

Mstty

Doc_N said:

From an interview with a government minister on the Today programme this morning, it does sound rather as if they’ve anticipated the potential problem of people having switched to more expensive fixed tariffs, and may have covered it in their proposals. We’ll find out soon.

I hope they’ve also covered the situation affecting those using oil and those not covered by the price cap.

Oil and LPG users are probably not considered as the price per kWh will likely be lower than the price freeze figure per kWh for gas.

BaffledBloke

basketcase said:

BaffledBloke said:

Hi. First post here so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. I'll get the hang of it one day.

I've just had an email from Shell Energy saying they're upping my direct debit by an extra £120 on the next cycle, which is towards the end of this month.

I've had previous battles with them since my a/c was moved to them following the Pure Planet collapse: smart meter issues (ongoing), mistakes with billing "but if you pay the extra you'll build up credit" etc. (I suspect these are all familiar here.) So, before I go into battle with their call centre once more, is this just the Ofgen increase kicking in a little early, or a price rise prior to the price cap increase in October?

The latter would be surprising as I've been doing plenty of reducing usage since their last increase. 

Thanks for any help and opinions.

Hi Baffled

I was also moved from PP to Shell.  Do they actually say they are upping your DD or advising you that you should increase it?

When I've checked my account online it advises that I change my payment - by 400% in one instance!  Sometimes the amount advised changes between 2 logins on the same day!  I have a DD for (currently) £199/month - and am being advised to drop it to £135.  As before, being in credit, I mentally thank them for the advice and leave it as it is - though obviously I'll have to up it again if the rates go up.

Can you not do this?

Hi

No, they told me that they were increasing my direct debit (from £180 to £297) at the end of September. My immediate concern that the increased cap amount would be based on that rather than my current payment.

Looking through past bills the charge for actual usage has always been well below the money they've been taking for the direct debit (apart from one anomalous bill).

A long phone call to a very pleasant and patient lady in Mumbai has seen my direct debit back to the usual amount while they investigate my concerns over their differing sets of figures (with dire warnings that this could plunge me deep into debt).

This isn't the first time this has happened. Earlier this year they increased my direct debit to £250. This was traced to an error I made with a reading. I accidentally put in a low reading on their online reading submission form but you can't correct mistakes on it. I was doing this while they sorted smart meter readings out. They now take readings using it, although my little black box still doesn't give me any readings.

Again, they brought the DD back down but only after a lot of convincing that I didn't want to continue paying the higher amount in order to build up my credit further.

I only see this as a respite rather than a solution. I have no faith in Shell's accounting software.

doveman

The current Octopus tracker tariff is capped at 78p/kWh for electricity and 22p/kWh for gas (including VAT), with the following unit charges:

Electricity
Unit price	22.97p per kWh
Standing charge	41.39p per day
Gas
Unit price	6.54p per kWh
Standing charge	27.22p per day

Would it be pointless switching to this tariff now that the Government has capped residential bills?

Keith_F

doveman said:

The current Octopus tracker tariff is capped at 78p/kWh for electricity and 22p/kWh for gas (including VAT), with the following unit charges:

Electricity
Unit price	22.97p per kWh
Standing charge	41.39p per day
Gas
Unit price	6.54p per kWh
Standing charge	27.22p per day

Would it be pointless switching to this tariff now that the Government has capped residential bills?

IMHO yes, it is pointless.
Octopus will be revising all their tariffs over the next few days, it is highly unlikely that they won’t have options below these prices. 

dazzapb

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support/energy-bills-support-factsheet-8-september-2022

Interesting about fixes here. Slightly confusing at this point but my fix is just over the capped  rates of 34p elec. and 10p gas. Surely can’t go cheaper than capped rates. 

‘If you're on a fixed tariff at a higher rate caused by recent energy price rises, your unit prices will be reduced by 17p/kWh for electricity and 4.2p/kWh for gas’

Alnat1

I'd imagine that will get revised with an "up to" put in to make sense.

northernstar007

the rate i am getting, is being stung off the gov