Is OVO Energy renewal hike from £115 to £250 a month normal?

notjanuary

Three things (sorry)... 

1. My fixed renewal is in July and this is the increase - from £1,380 a year to £3,000 a year - Is this the kind of hike everyone else is seeing? It's much more than the average £700 a year increase I've seen quoted. 

2. I checked through the Energy Club and as a new customer, I get quoted £215 a month, rather than £250 as an existing customer. Can I leave and come back?!

3. My variable cost renewal is £182 a month - I guess this is my best option, but is it risky? £2,184 a year which is more like the £700 a year I've seen. 

Thanks in advance! 

Best wishes

Sail

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

notjanuary said:

1. My fixed renewal is in July and this is the increase - from £1,380 a year to £3,000 a year - Is this the kind of hike everyone else is seeing? It's much more than the average £700 a year increase I've seen quoted.

Yes. It's likely that your current fox is cheaper than the previous capped variable tariff, and so your increase will be a bigger percentage. Bills doubling like this is not unusual.

2. I checked through the Energy Club and as a new customer, I get quoted £215 a month, rather than £250 as an existing customer. Can I leave and come back?!

Check the name of the tariff you're being offered through CEC and see if you can get the same named tariff.

3. My variable cost renewal is £182 a month - I guess this is my best option, but is it risky? £2,184 a year which is more like the £700 a year I've seen.

Your £3000/yr fix is almost 50% higher than the £2184 variable tariff. It's likely that the variable tariff will cost you less overall,even allowing for the cap increase that's expected in October.

[Deleted User]

In the past 12 months, when you were on a fixed price tariff, the Ofgem capped tariff has gone from c.£1200 last October to c.£1970 today with a further substantial price rise expected this October. Standard tariffs are now more popular than fixed. The latter gives price certainty but at a cost: only you can decide where you sit on the risk register. A lot of fixed tariffs have very high exit fees as suppliers are having to hedge these tariffs and do not want to be left with high costs if the market drops and customers switch away.

PS Start thinking kWh/year and not Direct Debits. What matters is your annual contract cost and comparing DD payments is a ‘fools errand’.

notjanuary

Thanks for the welcome and help with my questions @QrizB! Much appreciated! 

notjanuary

Thanks @[Deleted User]!

pochase

Coming from a fix with £1380 and going to a SVT with £2184 your fix would have been extremely bad. More common is doubling the electricity cost and trebling gas with a good fix.

Did you use your real usage for the quotes, or did you use a generic usage as suggested by the site? In this case the relation between fix and SVT would be correct, but your new cost might be much higher.

Have you used your real usage and unit rates plus standing charge to calculate what you really will pay?

prowla

Yep - seems about right.

Every supplier will have gone straight to the cap level.

Based on a couple of readings my supplier then suggested I reduced the monthly amount (not by a lot though!).

bristolleedsfan

Dolor said:

 A lot of fixed tariffs have very high exit fees as suppliers are having to hedge these tariffs and do not want to be left with high costs if the market drops and customers switch away.

Standard fixed rate tariffs with no exit fees are a lot more expensive than those with exit fees, it is as if exit fee costs have been built into unit rate, (comparing existing customer/loyalty fixed rate tariffs)

[Deleted User]

bristolleedsfan said:

Dolor said:

 A lot of fixed tariffs have very high exit fees as suppliers are having to hedge these tariffs and do not want to be left with high costs if the market drops and customers switch away.

Standard fixed rate tariffs with no exit fees are a lot more expensive than those with exit fees, it is as if exit fee costs have been built into unit rate, (comparing existing customer/loyalty fixed rate tariffs)

Quite possibly.  There are various ways of skinning the metaphorical cat. We really cannot blame for suppliers for being risk averse given that so many have gone to the wall. Mystic Meg’s crystal ball also seems to have lost its smart connection.

Mstty

bristolleedsfan said:

Dolor said:

 A lot of fixed tariffs have very high exit fees as suppliers are having to hedge these tariffs and do not want to be left with high costs if the market drops and customers switch away.

Standard fixed rate tariffs with no exit fees are a lot more expensive than those with exit fees, it is as if exit fee costs have been built into unit rate, (comparing existing customer/loyalty fixed rate tariffs)

The company that is the exception is Eon Next with their fixes.

£0 exit fees and they are in line with the other fix offerings now