£2500 Price Cap Martin's view

MWT

artyboy said:

Forced off my current fixed tariff, erm no thank you!

but I agree, there's no realistic chance that will happen

Same here, I have no interest whatsoever in moving away from my fixed tariffs, and I would not take kindly to any suggestion that there should be any 'automatic' shift from the contract I have already agreed.

Mstty

MWT said:

artyboy said:

Forced off my current fixed tariff, erm no thank you!

but I agree, there's no realistic chance that will happen

Same here, I have no interest whatsoever in moving away from my fixed tariffs, and I would not take kindly to any suggestion that there should be any 'automatic' shift from the contract I have already agreed.

Same here we won't be moving from our fix. 

The_Green_Hornet

Whatever happens I'm sure Mr Lewis will try and take credit for it.

TheBanker

I think whether people should be moved automatically from fixed tariffs or not depends on what's on offer...

If the government announce that the £2,500 cap will be in place for 18 months, then logically anyone who has a fixed tariff at a higher rate which expires within the next 18 months would be better on the SVR. And moving them in bulk would make sure nobody 'missed out', and save overloading the suppliers' call centres.

Obviously if the £2.5k cap is for a shorter period than someone's existing fixed tariff then they will have to do their own calculations to decide what's best for them. And people who are on older fixes, paying lower unit prices than the £2.5k cap prices won't want to move at all until their fix expires.

spot1034

TheBanker said:

I think whether people should be moved automatically from fixed tariffs or not depends on what's on offer...

If the government announce that the £2,500 cap will be in place for 18 months, then logically anyone who has a fixed tariff at a higher rate which expires within the next 18 months would be better on the SVR. And moving them in bulk would make sure nobody 'missed out', and save overloading the suppliers' call centres.

Obviously if the £2.5k cap is for a shorter period than someone's existing fixed tariff then they will have to do their own calculations to decide what's best for them. And people who are on older fixes, paying lower unit prices than the £2.5k cap prices won't want to move at all until their fix expires.

If it becomes clear tomorrow that it will no longer be advantageous to be on a fix, I shall want to get off it the same day, or preferably sooner! I am overpaying at present and have no intention of letting this continue until the end of the month if it's no longer of any benefit to do so. (I'm with E.On Next so there's no exit fee to worry about) 

I am sorry for the suppliers as this mess is not of their making, but this is costing me about £10 extra a week over what I'd be paying on the SVT and I'll happily contribute to the overloading of their call centre rather than pay £35 or so extra to wait to be moved 'in bulk'.

CSH1

My BG fix is just under £2700 until July23 compared to the current price cap so if it is set at £2500 as reported in the press it's not the end of the world if I have to stay on it, my exit fees are total £150 so not too bad, if it is set at the current price cap though I would want to change it.  What would be good is if the energy suppliers emailed us the offer of going back to the SVR without charge like they email us the offer of fixed rates as it would save contacting them.  I wait with bated breath the outcome of all this, I suspect all the detail won't be ready by tomorrow.  

£2500 sounds the most likely of all the scenarios because it takes account of the £400 and stops people moaning about it being taken away and looks like the government have done a 'good thing'

GingerTim

CSH1 said:

My BG fix is just under £2700 until July23 compared to the current price cap so if it is set at £2500 as reported in the press it's not the end of the world if I have to stay on it, my exit fees are total £150 so not too bad, if it is set at the current price cap though I would want to change it.  What would be good is if the energy suppliers emailed us the offer of going back to the SVR without charge like they email us the offer of fixed rates as it would save contacting them.  I wait with bated breath the outcome of all this, I suspect all the detail won't be ready by tomorrow.  

£2500 sounds the most likely of all the scenarios because it takes account of the £400 and stops people moaning about it being taken away and looks like the government have done a 'good thing'

Remember that the cap headline figures are essentially meaningless, what you really need to compare are the unit rates of your fixed tariff and whatever the government-capped new SVR are going to be.

(I know you almost certainly know this, but we see plenty of new posters who don't).

Mstty

Also will the freeze price per kWh only apply to the first £2500 worth of energy then it goes up to the price cap rate?

Sea_Shell

Mstty said:

Also will the freeze price per kWh only apply to the first £2500 worth of energy then it goes up to the price cap rate?

That would be sensible, but would soon become very complicated for many customers, who can't currently do the maths on single rate tariffs.

spot1034

I still like the idea of a fixed discount per unit which would be easy to implement, would preserve the value that people thought they'd secured with fixes and would also allow bills to be presented showing the full cost before the government discount was taken off, and this would bring home to consumers what the true cost of the energy was. So you'd have a 'full price' tariff based on Ofgem's calculation of the price cap, then a discount of a certain number of pence would be applied to each unit, and this could be done regardless of what tariff you were on.

In these circumstances Ofgem would still need to do the three monthly calculation on what the price cap should be.  Are they going to continue doing this anyway even though it won't apply to bills? I don't suppose we know.