Tariff due for renewal please help!

bootcutboy

Hi all, I am sure mods and frequent users of this forum are sick of this question being asked many times a day but everyone is in a different boat and I really hope someone will be kind enough to offer their advice.

So basically, as everyone else is, we are skint.  Our mortgage has gone up £200 a month and my wife’s job requires 2-3 driving commute daily which is now costing a fortune.  We have been only just surviving on our income but this month we have noticed we are in negative territory which is scary AND our elec/gas deal is up for renwal NOW, it changes on 16th Sept so I need some advice with what to do??

We are currently on Outfox the Market Clean Fix'd Aug21 v1 tariff, this ends 16th Sept when new monthly payments will be approx £452.  Should we stick with Outfox and hope the government intervenes and helps us all out or should we be looking about and switching?  Will we even get a better deal elsewhere?   Annual usage is 4131 KWH for electric and 13980 KWH for the gas.

Any help would be absolutely brilliant please. 

Many many thanks in advance, this is worrying us sick!

GingerTim

What are the unit rates for the new tariff?

pochase

Based on the latest predicted increases for 2023 without knowing the rates the fixed tariff might just be cheaper than the SVT

QrizB

bootcutboy said:

We are currently on Outfox the Market Clean Fix'd Aug21 v1 tariff, this ends 16th Sept when new monthly payments will be approx £452.  Should we stick with Outfox and hope the government intervenes and helps us all out or should we be looking about and switching?  Will we even get a better deal elsewhere?

Outfox The Market's fixed tariffs aren't great but predictions for the cap have risen and they might work out slightly cheaper as pochase has calculated above.

Annual usage is 4131 KWH for electric and 13980 KWH for the gas.

Anything you can do to reduce these numbers will help. Is it just the two of you in the house? Are you in generally good health? What controls do you have on your heating?

Turning down your thermostat by a couple of degrees and reducing your hot water use (shallower baths, shorter showers, and longer gaps between them?) could reduce your gas use somewhat.

bootcutboy

GingerTim said:

What are the unit rates for the new tariff?

Hi Tim, I am sorry but I cant even seem to find the breakdown of rates anywhere, I basically have only one big button to press which says “select this tariff” and there’s just no info anywhere.  

bootcutboy

QrizB said:

bootcutboy said:

We are currently on Outfox the Market Clean Fix'd Aug21 v1 tariff, this ends 16th Sept when new monthly payments will be approx £452.  Should we stick with Outfox and hope the government intervenes and helps us all out or should we be looking about and switching?  Will we even get a better deal elsewhere?

Outfox The Market's fixed tariffs aren't great but predictions for the cap have risen and they might work out slightly cheaper as pochase has calculated above.

Annual usage is 4131 KWH for electric and 13980 KWH for the gas.

Anything you can do to reduce these numbers will help. Is it just the two of you in the house? Are you in generally good health? What controls do you have on your heating?

Turning down your thermostat by a couple of degrees and reducing your hot water use (shallower baths, shorter showers, and longer gaps between them?) could reduce your gas use somewhat.

Hi there, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me, there are three of us, we have a 3yr old, oh and a basset hound too.  I am not in good health and home most of the time.  We do not have thermostatic valves on all our radiators but we have a new boiler that has a portable temperature sensor.  Shorter showers are not really possible as we have cut down as much as we can, my wife and I don’t have baths anymore.  We are really at the bare mimimum now and feel like we are surviving not living, how the hell are people supposed to keep afloat with these price hikes, it’s making us ill.

Robin9

@bootcutboy    Have you had the £150 ?      You will get the £400 (in instalments) from October.

Look very closely at your gas and electric consumption -  cutting it by 10% should be straightforward with some effort. Drop that thermostat by a couple of degrees, cut the time the boiler runs for ;   go through the house room by room and list those energy guzzling devices -  the panel heaters, the halogen lights, the American fridge/freezers

Nip over to the Debt board (you're not there yet but easily drift into it) and post a SOA. Look at every £1 you spend - that coffee at, the take away, the magazines /  newspapers.

QrizB

bootcutboy said:

QrizB said:

bootcutboy said:

We are currently on Outfox the Market Clean Fix'd Aug21 v1 tariff, this ends 16th Sept when new monthly payments will be approx £452.  Should we stick with Outfox and hope the government intervenes and helps us all out or should we be looking about and switching?  Will we even get a better deal elsewhere?

Outfox The Market's fixed tariffs aren't great but predictions for the cap have risen and they might work out slightly cheaper as pochase has calculated above.

Annual usage is 4131 KWH for electric and 13980 KWH for the gas.

Anything you can do to reduce these numbers will help. Is it just the two of you in the house? Are you in generally good health? What controls do you have on your heating?

Turning down your thermostat by a couple of degrees and reducing your hot water use (shallower baths, shorter showers, and longer gaps between them?) could reduce your gas use somewhat.

Hi there, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me, there are three of us, we have a 3yr old, oh and a basset hound too.  I am not in good health and home most of the time.  We do not have thermostatic valves on all our radiators but we have a new boiler that has a portable temperature sensor.  Shorter showers are not really possible as we have cut down as much as we can, my wife and I don’t have baths anymore.  We are really at the bare mimimum now and feel like we are surviving not living, how the hell are people supposed to keep afloat with these price hikes, it’s making us ill.

No worries, we're all going to have a tough winter.

Your gas use of 13980kWh/yr is roughly double mine (four people, two middle-aged adults and two teens, 1950s 3-bed semi) which is why I thought you might be able to cut back somewhere. If you've already made all the changes you can then hopefully next winter's numbers will be a bit lower.

macman

OP, have you taken into account the £400 energy rebate and the £150 CT rebate (for bands A to D)? Also, if you are in receipt of certain disability benefits, another £150, and for means tested benefits, another £650. Warm Home Discount, £150?

jj_43

I would move to the SVT for now. It will be fixed for the few months after October and gives you a free option to move to a cheaper fix in the future. However the ability for suppliers to provide cheap fixes now is restricted by rules introduced by the big energy companies and ofgem.

[Deleted User]

You can stay on the SVT if you choose - we know what price that will be for October, November and December.

Fixes offered in the future might be higher or lower than the fixes on offer today - it entirely depends on what happens in the global fuel supply market and the policy of national governments across the world.

The ability for suppliers to provide cheap fixes now is restricted because they can't buy cheap fuel right now (or find anyone to agree to sell them cheap fuel in future).