Energy price cap freeze on a fixed tariff

nicol2034

It seems a possibility that Liz Truss will freeze the energy price cap, I jumped on Utility Warehouses £2950 tarrif a few weeks ago and I am concerned now that this has been a mistake and I will effectively be £1000 worse off. Anybody got any advice? Many thanks

MattMattMattUK

nicol2034 said:

It seems a possibility that Liz Truss will freeze the energy price cap, I jumped on Utility Warehouses £2950 tarrif a few weeks ago and I am concerned now that this has been a mistake and I will effectively be £1000 worse off. Anybody got any advice? Many thanks

Wait and see what is announced first, it will be at least a week before we get any detail.

duckson

Ditto on GEUK. 

Might be able to move, most of the big suppliers are saying (when you try to switch) that there is no point as you’ll be on the same cap, this obviously is not the case with some so they may allow a switch if you give them a call. 

Here’s hoping. 

gj373

nicol2034 said:

It seems a possibility that Liz Truss will freeze the energy price cap, I jumped on Utility Warehouses £2950 tarrif a few weeks ago and I am concerned now that this has been a mistake and I will effectively be £1000 worse off. Anybody got any advice? Many thanks

What are the exit fees?

dunstonh

You do not buy a fixed price tariff to get the best price.  You buy it to give you the certainty of amount.  Sometimes it will end up being the best option. Sometimes it will not.

brewerdave

dunstonh said:

You do not buy a fixed price tariff to get the best price.  You buy it to give you the certainty of amount.  Sometimes it will end up being the best option. Sometimes it will not.

But the difference here ,is that a price cap freeze by HMG overruling OFGEM at almost the last moment, would be effectively retrospective legislation. Wouldn't expect to get the difference back from date of fix til the point of "cap freeze" but would expect exit fees to be waived. . 

The_Green_Hornet

dunstonh said:

You do not buy a fixed price tariff to get the best price.  You buy it to give you the certainty of amount.  Sometimes it will end up being the best option. Sometimes it will not.

Yes, you do get certainty of price but up until recently fixed tariffs were generally cheaper than variable so people did indeed fix to get the best price. It is only the introduction of the price cap and global events that has changed this.

jamtheman80

dunstonh said:

You do not buy a fixed price tariff to get the best price.  You buy it to give you the certainty of amount.  Sometimes it will end up being the best option. Sometimes it will not.

Under normal circumstances, yes. But these circumstances would have been looked upon as fictional until recently. An extreme nightmare scenario. 

They were advised in the summer by the creator of this very website to at the very least strongly consider tariffs that were lower than Octobers proposed (as it happens correctly forecasted) price cap. 

The idea that many people already struggling with bills, who felt compelled with no warnings to sign up to fixed deals with high exit fees which could end up paying hundreds if not thousands pounds more on a basic neccesity because of a panic driven, reactive government u-turn repulses me. I say that as someone who stuck on the SVR because of personal circumstances and has no objection to the cap being froze. 

The callous 'thats the way it goes' and 'im alright jack' sentiments on here shames those who post them. 

born_again

The_Green_Hornet said:

dunstonh said:

You do not buy a fixed price tariff to get the best price.  You buy it to give you the certainty of amount.  Sometimes it will end up being the best option. Sometimes it will not.

Yes, you do get certainty of price but up until recently fixed tariffs were generally cheaper than variable so people did indeed fix to get the best price. It is only the introduction of the price cap and global events that has changed this.

Which is also part of the reason 20+ consumer suppliers went bust. They were not covering their costs. Massive failure on the bean counters part.🤣Which sadly we are now having to pay for their mistakes.😢

spot1034

From what I have heard, freezing the energy cap isn't straightforward and will require weeks of work. So it may well be that the October price cap comes into force as planned with the already announced support package. A freeze might not start, say, until the next planned adjustment of SVTs in January, and it may well be that the freeze then would be at the level of the October cap, once again with the already promised support continuing.

In those circumstances, many fixes taken out a couple of months ago would still be worth keeping, although I accept that those secured very recently might not.

All speculation at this stage.

jak22

Each time this comes up sadly there are comments saying it was a gamble or similar taking a fix and its tough.

The point of freezing the cap is to help people but to help everyone it needs to take account of people on fixes but announcements tend to over-simplify. I doubt if suppliers will have mentioned fixes as they win either way. 

If the £400 is dropped and the cap is fixed at April then many people will be happy but all of us will be paying for it. Those of us who made the effort to take a fix this year will have been paying over the April cap rate for months already and looked forward to the £400 to help. Many fixes have exit fees over £200 dual fuel.