Energy price cap freeze on a fixed tariff

jimexbox

sienew said:

jimexbox said:

sienew said:

jimexbox said:

Paid for through borrowing, not extra on bills. 

There are still conflicting reports on how it'll be funded.

Although borrowing or extra on bills doesn't really matter, it'll still be repaid by us eventually. On bills actually is the best way to repay as it'd be those who were getting the most advantage repaying rather than potentially someone who uses little/no energy.

Of course it matters. Do you think the national debt, currently over 2 trillion will ever be paid off?

Extra on bills will be. 

We pay for the debt even if we don't pay it off. Massive debt and money printing weaken the £ which has huge repercussions.

Also, the more debt and printing we do the closer we get to a potentially massive economic disaster. We can't just increase debt forever. We are just setting our children and grandchildren up to solve our problems later down the line.

We wasted 400 billion on covid. I'm sure we'll pay off a chunk of the national debt. Then the headless chickens will demand another lockdown whenever a new pathogen emerges, and repeat. 

casjen

 Regarding fixed or SVT, you cant have a huge headline that says it  will help everybody with their energy bills and  then offer it to only half of them. Even the most deluded policy maker cant have come up with that idea.

si_74

ElizaSue said:

I'm in the same situation with EDF and the exit fees are £300.  I didn't envisage that the Government would freeze the energy cap.  I have now gone from feeling reasonably comfortable that I could pay my energy bills to rather concerned.  If the energy cap is frozen, then for me the tables have turned as I'll be losing out big time.

I am also on an EDF fix, May24v3. I don't know which fix you are on but assuming it is a similar rate to mine then I posted my own calculations earlier in this thread.

Essentially, if the cap is frozen at April 22 levels then, over a full 12 months, it will still save me money even if I have to pay the exit fee to move onto the SVT.

If it is true that the bill cap will be £2500 for the mythical average usage then my fix is around about bang on that.

As you have said yourself you have been feeling reasonably comfortable in paying your bill and now, even in the worst case scenario your bill won't be going up, so with a combination of that and your peace of mind over the last few weeks and/or months I would say that you can still feel reasonably comfortable.

ElizaSue

si_74 said:

ElizaSue said:

I'm in the same situation with EDF and the exit fees are £300.  I didn't envisage that the Government would freeze the energy cap.  I have now gone from feeling reasonably comfortable that I could pay my energy bills to rather concerned.  If the energy cap is frozen, then for me the tables have turned as I'll be losing out big time.

I am also on an EDF fix, May24v3. I don't know which fix you are on but assuming it is a similar rate to mine then I posted my own calculations earlier in this thread.

Essentially, if the cap is frozen at April 22 levels then, over a full 12 months, it will still save me money even if I have to pay the exit fee to move onto the SVT.

If it is true that the bill cap will be £2500 for the mythical average usage then my fix is around about bang on that.

As you have said yourself you have been feeling reasonably comfortable in paying your bill and now, even in the worst case scenario your bill won't be going up, so with a combination of that and your peace of mind over the last few weeks and/or months I would say that you can still feel reasonably comfortable.

No, mine was a July 22 fix, so higher than yours and I have done my sums.  Would have been about £35 to 40 a month better off on the SVR if they freeze the cap.  I couldn't fix before then because I was still on a very low, fixed rate contract which ended in June, so I suppose I got that benefit.

jimexbox

I'm absolutely convinced that exit fees will be scrapped on current fixed tariffs. So people will be able to drop onto the capped rate if they wish.

Just do the sums on the Thursday. 

spot1034

jak22 said:

The price cap is the price cap and there's no sign of the cap being frozen. It might go up less next year if wholesale prices are capped.

Even the media arent phrasing it as a price cap freeze but a bill freeze.

This scheme being mentioned in the media is a discount from the cap so that people wont be paying more than now. It might be a cash reduction or a unit price change - so that the nominal consumption works out at £2500 but each person ends up not paying more for their own consumption in their own region. Also businesses arent capped so they need a unit price change or cash discount.

That's an interesting suggestion - the price cap rises to whatever Ofgem calculates it should be, but a discount of a specific sum per unit is applied, which could be done for fixed tariffs as well as the SVT, thus preserving the value of the deal you have.

si_74

ElizaSue said:

si_74 said:

ElizaSue said:

I'm in the same situation with EDF and the exit fees are £300.  I didn't envisage that the Government would freeze the energy cap.  I have now gone from feeling reasonably comfortable that I could pay my energy bills to rather concerned.  If the energy cap is frozen, then for me the tables have turned as I'll be losing out big time.

I am also on an EDF fix, May24v3. I don't know which fix you are on but assuming it is a similar rate to mine then I posted my own calculations earlier in this thread.

Essentially, if the cap is frozen at April 22 levels then, over a full 12 months, it will still save me money even if I have to pay the exit fee to move onto the SVT.

If it is true that the bill cap will be £2500 for the mythical average usage then my fix is around about bang on that.

As you have said yourself you have been feeling reasonably comfortable in paying your bill and now, even in the worst case scenario your bill won't be going up, so with a combination of that and your peace of mind over the last few weeks and/or months I would say that you can still feel reasonably comfortable.

No, mine was a July 22 fix, so higher than yours and I have done my sums.  Would have been about £35 to 40 a month better off on the SVR if they freeze the cap.  I couldn't fix before then because I was still on a very low, fixed rate contract which ended in June.

Ok, so the calculation will be a little different to mine, and of course IF the price cap is frozen at april 22 levels, and IF the exit fee is not waived then of course you will not be as well off as if you had stayed on the SVT. But I don't think anyone thought the govt were going to do a cap or bill freeze, so your decision making was sound in my opinion.

However if you are currently paying £35-£40 a month more than the april cap then the £300 exit fee will be paid off in 8 or 9 or months should you decide to go down that route after the announcement is made, you are then in territory where your bills are lower than they would have been on the fix.

How long any government support goes on for could then raise a dilemma for people in our position. If it is a year do we hold onto the fix knowing that year 2 will not see an increase or do we give up on the fix on the hope that more govt intervention comes, or that prices calm.

Just_A_Dad

we signed up to a BG one in July 23 and immedately started paying 300 instead of 180 - all due to the experts - including ML - stating that the October Cap would be 50% (now 80%)
Obviously the government announcement might be changing that - but will wait and see how that pans out - but fortunately there is the ability to penalty free move to any tarriff they have...so basically if this handout is for past July 23 - it makes no sense to stay on it and bail out... unless more details suggest otherwise..

GasPants

Reading suggestions that the cap will be frozen at £2500 (2900kWh elect & 12000 kWh gas) representing a 30% increase. The £400 `grant` will then reduce the cost to just 10% above the current level.

Inigo_Montoya

has anybody calculated what the standing charges & units rates would be for this new £2500 cap in october ?

2.5k is about 27% more than the current cap of 1971 so I guess you could get a rough idea by adding 27% to the current unit rates ? (eg electric would go from 28p to 36p for example)