Advice please!

marianne77

My fixed tarriff with my energy supplier comes to and end this month..I was paying £97 DD for dual fuel. The cheapest fixed price tarriff I can move to with them is £244 a month.  

What do you advise me to do? I'm on a very low income but just above threshold for benefits and would like to continue to pay monthly rather than quarterly. 

Should I just let it roll onto a variable rate tarriff? 150% price hike seems astronomical to me and quite frightening as I'm on such a low income! 

Alnat1

Find the figures for your annual use of gas and electric in kWh. Try to work it out from actual readings on old bills if possible but the figures quoted on your last bill (they may be estimates) will do if not.

Post the tariff you're being offered, include standing charges and cost of each fuel per kWh.

Someone will help and work out how much you will pat on SVT and the offered fix so you can make a choice.

TheMilkmansDad

Sound about right without knowing any details regards usage. Anyone coming of a Fix is in for a shock.

1st thing I'd do is check that the £97 you are currently paying is paying for your usage. Is your latest bill based on actual meter reads and does it show a debit or credit balance?

This bill should show you an estimated annual usage - does this match with a meter read from 12 months ago to todays?.

Up until the revelation yesterday that the Oct cap is to go up more than expected, there probably isn't a fix worth taking right now so stick to the variable may be the best option at the moment.

marianne77

Thanks everyone so:

My gas usage for last year was 9330 kwh. my electric usage is 2539 kwh. 

They are offering me a 2 year flexi price tariff which works it at 2935.96 for year. Based on a DD of 244.66 per month. with £150 exit fee per fuel and ending on 31/08/24 . 

I am 178.49 in credit this month and current tariff ends on 30th June so DD would be 232.33 per month to account for the credit  do you think I should let it roll onto variable or change to the flexi tariff?

marianne77

 Electricity

Tariff

Help Beat Cancer Green Flexi August 2024 CM1 Online

Payment method

Monthly direct debit

Standing charge

55.79p

Primary unit rate

45.98p

Exit fee

£150.00

Tariff end date

31/08/2024

 Gas

Tariff

Help Beat Cancer Green Flexi August 2024 CM1 Online

Payment method

Monthly direct debit

Standing charge

35.43p

Primary unit rate

13.64p

Exit fee

£150.00

Tariff end date

31/08/2024

marianne77

The charges for our new Flexi Price tariffs consist of two parts. The first part is a fixed price, the majority of which is for the energy we supply you, so this protects you from rising wholesale energy costs. The second part is the variable costs, which are linked to external industry costs such as network, social and environmental obligation costs that may increase or decrease throughout the tariff term. If these variable costs change, the charges payable by you will be updated on a quarterly basis on 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October until the end of the tariff and these new charges will apply until the next quarterly update. The first update for this tariff will be on 1st July 2022.

 Electricity

Assumed electricity annual usage

2570 kWh

 Gas

Assumed gas annual usage

10417 kWh

Expected electricity monthly cost

£115.45

Annual electricity cost

£1385.35

Expected gas monthly cost

£129.22

Annual gas cost

£1550.61

Expected total monthly cost

£244.66

Total annual cost

£2935.96

pochase

The rates for the rates are above the current worst case scenario. Take into account that the cap is predicted to come (slightly) starting in April and that this is a fix for two years I would not touch this deal. 

Mstty

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/

Have a read here, that deal does not look good value

Spoonie_Turtle

marianne77 said:

My fixed tarriff with my energy supplier comes to and end this month..I was paying £97 DD for dual fuel. The cheapest fixed price tarriff I can move to with them is £244 a month.  

What do you advise me to do? I'm on a very low income but just above threshold for benefits and would like to continue to pay monthly rather than quarterly. 

Should I just let it roll onto a variable rate tarriff? 150% price hike seems astronomical to me and quite frightening as I'm on such a low income! 

Not energy-related and not wishing to derail the thread, but are you certain that's currently the case?  (I'm assuming you are working age, otherwise the following is totally irrelevant anyway.)  Last November Universal Credit had a couple of changes which allow people to keep more of the money they earn, which effectively increases the threshold for people earning to be eligible.  If you have checked eligibility since then, please feel free to disregard!  If not, it would be worth using a benefits calculator just to check you're not missing out on anything.

marianne77

Spoonie_Turtle said:

marianne77 said:

My fixed tarriff with my energy supplier comes to and end this month..I was paying £97 DD for dual fuel. The cheapest fixed price tarriff I can move to with them is £244 a month.  

What do you advise me to do? I'm on a very low income but just above threshold for benefits and would like to continue to pay monthly rather than quarterly. 

Should I just let it roll onto a variable rate tarriff? 150% price hike seems astronomical to me and quite frightening as I'm on such a low income! 

Not energy-related and not wishing to derail the thread, but are you certain that's currently the case?  (I'm assuming you are working age, otherwise the following is totally irrelevant anyway.)  Last November Universal Credit had a couple of changes which allow people to keep more of the money they earn, which effectively increases the threshold for people earning to be eligible.  If you have checked eligibility since then, please feel free to disregard!  If not, it would be worth using a benefits calculator just to check you're not missing out on anything.

Yes I'm just on the cusp. The 'just about managing' bracket