Energy Price Guarantee (announced 8 Sep): initial reaction & questions

Hummingbird18

Thanks, it's just so hard to know what to do. I previously hadn't fixed and stuck on the variable rate but then felt the pressure to fix when all the figures came out of 6-7k bills in April. This is people's money, lives and mental health the government is messing around with due to their indecision. 

Janie2008

Hummingbird18 said:

Please help I'm in a panic. I fixed last week at a rate above the October price cap. I did this because I am due a baby in January and wanted to avoid the massive increase at the next price cap change. However, with the announcement about freezing the price cap Im now massively overpaying and want to get out of our fix or we will be absolutely screwed. Octopus said it is no exit fees so I thought it would be a win win, but I've just seen something about they can change that now?!! Someone please reassure me. I've emailed octopus but not got a response yet and I can't phone until the morning. Is there a legal cooling off period where I can change my mind? 

When I took a fix my account had a cancellation form for the 14 day cooling off period. Worth checking. Otherwise email asking to cancel. Will be cheaper for you to do that than to wait for your rate to be reduced.

Spoonie_Turtle

Hummingbird18 said:

Please help I'm in a panic. I fixed last week at a rate above the October price cap. I did this because I am due a baby in January and wanted to avoid the massive increase at the next price cap change. However, with the announcement about freezing the price cap Im now massively overpaying and want to get out of our fix or we will be absolutely screwed. Octopus said it is no exit fees so I thought it would be a win win, but I've just seen something about they can change that now?!! Someone please reassure me. I've emailed octopus but not got a response yet and I can't phone until the morning. Is there a legal cooling off period where I can change my mind? 

I don't think Octopus have ever imposed exit fees on their tariffs, and the ones offered recently certainly haven't had any.  They will not now suddenly put on an exit fee that you never agreed to. 

(The only potential change applies other suppliers, if the contracts for a fix stated an exit fee they may be able to remove it, or however it's going to work.)

So I echo the other responses to you, don't panic

Tilona

Chrysalis said:

Hummingbird18 said:

I hate the government for doing this to us. I fixed because I had so much anxiety over the coming rises. Now they have come out with all this new confusing information last minute before 1st October. The government has known this was coming for months and should have decided then to put people minds at ease, but instead they were going on holiday or arguing over who should be prime minister. 

It's not idea its been left so late,  but at least they have taken people who fixed into consideration, even if Martin's tweet is wrong, the document he published from the secretary of state, the last part of it says all fixes can be exited penalty free.  So you will probably be ok, we just need to wait now to hear the confirmed details from the suppliers.

Tbh if the government say that (no exit fees) then they must know that people are better off variable in the longer term and perhaps Martin's quote has been misunderstood. I have for now gone back on to my variable. I was paying £50 per month (usage was £30) and it was going to be fixed at £143. W eknew we would be worse of with the October price cap rise but we're doing to be better off after the January one. So whatever happens I would think variable will still be better off for us. Arguably our bills will now go up to £70'ish and not double that. But please correct me if I'm wrong. Like @Hummingbird18 said...it's messing with people's heads and a lot of us are out of our depth and don't understand it as it is! Just grateful for the responses of @chrysalis and @[Deleted User] who can make things a bit easier to understand. But I don't understand how a fixed will be cheaper than a variable as per the quote from @mmmmikey?

It's just so difficult as well as we are not a "typical household" so it's difficult to know how to work it out but I'm sure someone will be able to put my mind at rest. Thank you! 

mmmmikey

Hi @Tilona one of Martin's tweet suggested that everyone would get a discount of a few p per kWk of their rate and this might even take fixed rates lower then the variable rate for some customers. But this is a fast moving situation so we really just don't know yet. Best thing to do is to sit tight. Hope my comment didn;t add to the confusion, apolgoes if it did

xzibit

I switched back to SVT today. I have a 14 day cooling off period so if it appears that I should have stayed on the fixed rate, I can revert back. But if not, at least I’ve started saving money immediately. 

tomg35

Can someone please tell me how to unsubscribe from this thread? The bookmark symbol, at the top of the thread is unselected 

Chrysalis

tomg35 said:

Can someone please tell me how to unsubscribe from this thread? The bookmark symbol, at the top of the thread is unselected 

If its unselected you unsubscribed, and even that doesnt subscribe you it just adds the thread to your favourites.

But you may still get notices depending on your forum settings, you will probably get this one as I quoted you.

Actually check these three when selecting edit profile top right.  The 3rd one especially.

Notify me when people comment on my discussions.
Notify me when people comment on my bookmarked discussions.
Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in

Spoonie_Turtle

tomg35 said:

Can someone please tell me how to unsubscribe from this thread? The bookmark symbol, at the top of the thread is unselected 

There doesn't appear to be the granularity on this forum to stop notifications from just one thread.  I get frustrated with it too.

Chrysalis

Spoonie_Turtle said:

tomg35 said:

Can someone please tell me how to unsubscribe from this thread? The bookmark symbol, at the top of the thread is unselected 

There doesn't appear to be the granularity on this forum to stop notifications from just one thread.  I get frustrated with it too.

Yeah I would set like this for opt-in notifications.

Notify me when people comment on my discussions. OFF

Notify me when people comment on my bookmarked discussions. ON

Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in. OFF

Then simply bookmark the threads you want to be notified. (icon to right of thread title)

I turned off Notify me when people comment on discussions I've participated in. A long time ago, its very spammy.

Turn all three off if you want only notifying when you quoted and just to use bookmarked threads in your bookmark list.