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

QrizB

basketcase said:

I was with Pure Planet and transferred to Shell Energy.

I can't see that Shell are offering any new tariffs at all.

Or am I just looking in the wrong place?

Shell have not offered any choice of tariff for several months now. It seems to be a business decision of theirs.

PierreLeSol

As an existing customer of Octopus Energy with a fixed rate soon to end- 
(Octopus 12M v1 - gas 3.01p kWh 17.8p/day; elec 16.11 kWh 20.7p/day),
just been offered a new fixed rate-
(Octopus 12M Fixed - gas 11.69p kWh 27.21p/day; elec 43.18p kWh 41.39p/day).
I calculate this as >60% increase above the energy price cap, so will probably decline the offer! Unsurprisingly, they declined my request to continue on my existing fixed rate tariff (no harm in asking). Defaulting to the deemed tariff seems to be the best option. My monthly direct debit is currently £67 but asked for a quote from Ovo Energy who wanted a monthly direct debit of £206.

Sidwell38

I am also an existing Octopus energy user with a fixed rate ending next month, currently paying £78 a month via Direct Debit and live in Suffolk.
I have been offered a 12 month Loyal fixed rate at £257 a month, a 12 month fixed rate at £267  a month and a Flexible Variable rate at £181 a month. 

It seems that these figures are based on an annual gas consumption of 15000 kWh for gas and 2900 kWh for electricity.
If I go for the Flexible rate my month payments will increase by over 110% from next month.
I would be grateful if anyone could advise the best way to challenge these offers and would be interested to learn if anyone has managed to get any offers by Octopus reduced.

pochase

Octopus does not have any reasonable fixed tariffs. The rates are above what is currently predicted for the October cap.

You cannot compare debit orders, they mean nothing. You need to do the calculations based on the energy use for the last 12 months.

QrizB

pochase said:

Octopus does not have any reasonable fixed tariffs. The rates are above what is currently predicted for the October cap.

@pochase is sadly correct; Octopus have many interesting smart tariffs (Tracker is currently cheaper than the variable rate and might be worth a go, if you don't mind a tariff that changes every day) but their current crop of fixed rates is generally poor.

MuckChucker

We're offered the BG Jul 23v2. Doesn't look great. My "problem" is that we got a new boiler in January which replaced a 30 year old monster and our gas usage dropped off a cliff (also a weirdly notable dip in electric usage) so it's proving quite hard to judge without a proper winter of use. The estimations provided are way off. This stuff used to be so simple....

basketcase

QrizB said:

basketcase said:

I was with Pure Planet and transferred to Shell Energy.

I can't see that Shell are offering any new tariffs at all.

Or am I just looking in the wrong place?

Shell have not offered any choice of tariff for several months now. It seems to be a business decision of theirs.

@QrizB

I thought that was the case.  This is what Shell's currently got me on.  They do keep trying to get me to up my DD.  (At first they said it should be over twice what I had been paying!) It was sensible to increase the amount, but not by that much... Even on what I'd been paying Pure Plant, I ended up in credit after the Oct-April amount was deducted,  I'm still in credit and gaining extra credit as I go.  I've increased the DD to the minimum they said it could be increased and have decided to put the difference they've "suggested" into a savings account against winter rises.

QrizB

basketcase said:

QrizB said:

basketcase said:

I was with Pure Planet and transferred to Shell Energy.

I can't see that Shell are offering any new tariffs at all.

Or am I just looking in the wrong place?

Shell have not offered any choice of tariff for several months now. It seems to be a business decision of theirs.

@QrizB

I thought that was the case.  This is what Shell's currently got me on.

Shell Flexible 7 is a capped variable tariff and is near-identical to the variable tariffs offered by all the other suppliers.

basketcase said:

They do keep trying to get me to up my DD.  (At first they said it should be over twice what I had been paying!) It was sensible to increase the amount, but not by that much... Even on what I'd been paying Pure Plant, I ended up in credit after the Oct-April amount was deducted,  I'm still in credit and gaining extra credit as I go.  I've increased the DD to the minimum they said it could be increased and have decided to put the difference they've "suggested" into a savings account against winter rises.

Having a savings account with a reserve in it is probably a good idea.

If the credit on your account is more than 2x your monthly payment, you may be able to ask for some of it to be refunded.

basketcase

QrizB said:

Having a savings account with a reserve in it is probably a good idea.

If the credit on your account is more than 2x your monthly payment, you may be able to ask for some of it to be refunded.

Thanks for the advice, @QrizB

The credit isn't that high because I didn't alter my DD to their "suggested" amount.  The minimum fixed DD was c £30 more than PP's Winter rate, so I went with that.  Shell still suggest at least £20-£30 more, but even a month of cold weather, WFH etc was less than I was already paying.

I'm only getting enough credit on the bill to build a surplus for winter.  The amount I'm transferring to savings is the excess suggested amount IYSWIM.

BUFF

MuckChucker said:

 My "problem" is that we got a new boiler in January which replaced a 30 year old monster and our gas usage dropped off a cliff (also a weirdly notable dip in electric usage) 

If the new boiler includes an integral pump or they also replaced an external pump it's not surprising as manufacturers were mandated to use more efficient (but initially more expensive) pumps a few years ago. The rest of the electronics are probably more efficient too.
You can see the increase in my electricity usage come winter when the ch goes on (I am a low electricity user, ~1150kWh/year) & that's with a 14 year old boiler c/w integral pump - when my boiler is next replaced I expect to see a decrease in electricity usage of several kWh/month in winter due to a more efficient pump.