HELP!?

Sarah170681

My partner and I have just bought our first home, we are due to move in in the next couple of weeks. 

I haven’t got the first clue of what I do about the energy when I move in. 

The current owners are with E-ON.

Do I call E-ON and stay with them? What kind of tariff do I agree to? What do I say? I have no idea! Please help 😊

GingerTim

You call Eon with your meter readings - it's up to you to decide whether you want to stick with the standard variable rate (i.e. the price cap) or a fixed tariff. The latter will almost certainly be more expensive right now than the former, but may be cheaper than the cap when it rises again in January.

Enjoy your new home!

(and take photos of your meters when you do the readings).

Astria

I'd also make a note of the MPAN (electric) and an MPRN (gas) numbers if you can, and confirm they are the same when you get your first bill, as they will ensure that you are actually paying for your gas and electric and not someone elses.

TheGardener

A friend of ours moved recently and was basically told they had to stay with the existing property supplier. No one actually said 'we don't want you' but it was pretty much implied. 
The property the friend bought had been more or less empty for nearly 2 years so the computer calculated an estimate that was way too low (based on previous bills) and it took a bit of persuading to get the young man at the call centre to up the DD to something that would be more realistic and not leave the friend in debt almost immediately. do a bit of research to see what your usage might be (do you have electric vehicles, Gaming PC's etc) 
As GingerTim said - make sure you get photos of the energy meters asap.
Once you move in, monitor your usage frequently with meter reads so you know if you are paying enough

 

Sarah170681

Does a variable rate mean I will be paying a different amount each month? 

I honestly can’t get my head around how people are going to cope this winter ☹️

I can’t even compare it to what we use now because we both live at home with parents currently. 

We have no gaming consoles, just standard kitchen appliances, dryer, I will be using the air fryer as much as possible rather than the oven! We’re both out of the house all day at work, 2 people in a 3 bed house! 

Hoping it’s not going to be too overwhelming 

[Deleted User]

Variable rate means the amount that you are charged for each 'piece' of electricity can change.

Fixed rate means that you stay with the same price for each 'piece' of electricity for the whole contract.

What you actually pay to the company each month is up to you - you could either pay for what you have used each bill (which will go up and down A LOT - winter can be 3x or 4x summer quite easily) called variable direct debit, or you could pay the same each month (pay for less than you use in winter and more than you use in summer) called fixed direct debit.  It is usually cheaper to use one of the two direct debit methods than paying by cash/cheque etc.

Which way of paying you want to use is up to you, some find it easier to budget with a known payment, others prefer to only pay for what they have used and ride the waves.

GingerTim

The variable rate means that the amount you pay per unit will change every three months - see the current and rates from 1 October in the link below. They will increase again in January and April.

In short, your actual usage in kwh, as recorded on your meters, is multiplied by the unit rates + the standing charge.


https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/check-if-energy-price-cap-affects-you

pochase

The variable rate is unit rates that change every three month now based on the Ofgem cap.

Today the new cap was announces with 15p for gas and 52p for electricity (national average, you will pay slightly more or less depending where you are and maybe how you pay)

You will be billed by your usage in KWh multiplied by the above unit rates. So yes each month will be different.

The way most people pay is by fixed direct debit. The supplier predicts how much you energy use will be over the next 12 months and what you should pay every month so you are not in debt or have a credit at the end of the period. SO you would be paying an amount that does not cover your energy cost in winter and is much more than you use in summer, an average.

This has worked well in recent years, but with the cap now being changed every three months, and immense changes in the cap amounts this will not work very well in future. Direct debit reviews will happen every three month instead of every six month snow.

macman

Sarah170681 said:

Does a variable rate mean I will be paying a different amount each month? 

I honestly can’t get my head around how people are going to cope this winter ☹️

I can’t even compare it to what we use now because we both live at home with parents currently. 

We have no gaming consoles, just standard kitchen appliances, dryer, I will be using the air fryer as much as possible rather than the oven! We’re both out of the house all day at work, 2 people in a 3 bed house! 

Hoping it’s not going to be too overwhelming 

Please forget about gaming consoles and phone chargers etc. Up to 80% of your annual energy usage will be space heating and DHW, these are what you need to focus on. Use gas for this rather than electricity, it's less than a third of the cost. Hopefully you have mains gas CH and DHW.

Sarah170681

Basically we want to paying the same amount each month so we can budget.. don’t want to be hit with a massively different bill each month to not be able to afford it 😩

I don’t understand all this units talk 😂 

If someone could just tell me in the easiest form for me to understand haha!

We got a little “bills” book that ideally I’d like to be able write “energy each month ££??” And just have it at a set amount each month.

thanks 

[Deleted User]

You are buying a home, you shouldn't really be at the "don't understand all this units talk" stage.  You understand that beans come in tins?  Or that petrol is sold in litres?  A unit is just the name for a piece of energy.

If you want to know what you will have to pay each month to the supplier, you need fixed direct debit.  They will then guess what you will probably use, and spread it out so you don't get a big change from month to month.

This doesn't mean that the amount can't change though, if you use more (or less than they expect), or if the price for each unit changes, then your direct debit will probably change.

Reduce the risk of changes by agreeing a fixed price for each unit if you like, that's called a fixed tariff, but it's up to you to decide if the fixed price for each unit they offer is one you want to accept.  And still, if you use more then you will pay more.