Current Home Heating Oil Prices - Still Far Too High

dunstonh

Glad you can afford 1000l on refill. Plus not everyone's tank will be that big.

1000 litres is not much.   We use 3000 litres a year normally but fill up 3x 1000 litres as the tank is too small for the house. Although we have managed to use 1000 litres less this year thanks to last Winter and this Autumn being mild.   So, in reality, whilst the price is up, the usage is down.  So, money out is going to be not much different.

£750 for 1000 litres compared to £1100 as it was in April this year is not too bad.   

in_my_bumble_opinion

I ordered 650 litres today at 73p per litre with Oilfast (South Lanarkshire).

Boilerjuice and a local company were about 79.5
Certas were 78

Couple of phone calls saved £50.
 

propertyrental

smallblueplanet said:

MattMattMattUK said:

smallblueplanet said:

GingerTim said:

Greater demand lessens supply during a cold snap? Seems quite unsurprising that prices would rise in this sort of weather.

Oh come on, greater demand as opposed to having no choice where to buy. This sort of weather? It is winter, and next week is forecast to be warmer!

Most people do not run their tanks down to zero though, so have the choice of when and where they buy their oil from. Waiting right until the last minute to refill is always going to be a bad idea, as is buying 500 L vs 1,000 L where there seems to be a 20-25p price difference per litre at the moment.

Glad you can afford 1000l on refill. ....
........
I've had oil heating for over 18 years, I know how it works!

then you'll know that like gas users, you pay monthly to spread your costs across the year. The only difference is that a gas user pays their gas supplier monthly, whereas you pay your savings account monthly. And so have the funds to pay for 1000ls when the time to buy is right.

smallblueplanet

propertyrental said:

then you'll know that like gas users, you pay monthly to spread your costs across the year. The only difference is that a gas user pays their gas supplier monthly, whereas you pay your savings account monthly. And so have the funds to pay for 1000ls when the time to buy is right.

Yes I know that you can set up an account to pay by monthly direct debit and I also know that isn't the way to guarantee the best price per litre!

Why do I care what gas users do, I don't have gas.

Just for amusements sake I checked the price per litre of oil for both 500l and 1000l on BoilerJuice today - guess what they are wanting to charge the same price. But that will be nothing to do with price gouging will it! Oh and in case you're thinking that it was a lower price they were both being charged it, it wasn't!

So if I'd waited until today to buy a delivery for 30th December it would have been charged at 93.80/l rather than the 80p/l I paid yesterday!

rp1974

Situation regarding oil and it's pricing reminds me of living in Perthshire and relying on LPG for heating and hot water,not a great deal different,worth bearing in mind that oil,lpg,other alternative fuel users will be getting £200 towards the cost,albeit at some as yet uncertain point in the future.
Sidepoint,stepson in semi-rural Aberdeenshire has been there about 4 years or so,buys his heating oil in late spring/early summer and it's usually cheaper than doing so in late autumn/early winter,recent events not withstanding.
As mentioned by others discounts on sliding scale can help bring the price per litre cost down,depends how big your tank is,small capacity tanks will require more frequent and more expensive fills than a larger one,stepsons is 2000ish litres as I recall.

Ebe_Scrooge

smallblueplanet said:

propertyrental said:

then you'll know that like gas users, you pay monthly to spread your costs across the year. The only difference is that a gas user pays their gas supplier monthly, whereas you pay your savings account monthly. And so have the funds to pay for 1000ls when the time to buy is right.

Yes I know that you can set up an account to pay by monthly direct debit and I also know that isn't the way to guarantee the best price per litre!

Read the reply from @propertyrental properly.  They advocate paying a monthly amount into a personal savings account - which is what I do and is undeniably the best way.  You're right, paying a Direct Debit to an oil supplier is generally not a good idea as then you're tied in to them - and you should be shopping around each time you order.

smallblueplanet

Ebe_Scrooge said:

smallblueplanet said:

propertyrental said:

then you'll know that like gas users, you pay monthly to spread your costs across the year. The only difference is that a gas user pays their gas supplier monthly, whereas you pay your savings account monthly. And so have the funds to pay for 1000ls when the time to buy is right.

Yes I know that you can set up an account to pay by monthly direct debit and I also know that isn't the way to guarantee the best price per litre!

Read the reply from @propertyrental properly.  They advocate paying a monthly amount into a personal savings account - which is what I do and is undeniably the best way.  You're right, paying a Direct Debit to an oil supplier is generally not a good idea as then you're tied in to them - and you should be shopping around each time you order.

 I read the post properly thank you. Read what the thread is about - not how to pay for oil or setting up a saving account, but the prices being charged for oil.

 smallblueplanet said:

So if I'd waited until today to buy a delivery for 30th December it would have been charged at 93.80/l rather than the 80p/l I paid yesterday!

How can that be justified?

Ebe_Scrooge

smallblueplanet said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

smallblueplanet said:

propertyrental said:

then you'll know that like gas users, you pay monthly to spread your costs across the year. The only difference is that a gas user pays their gas supplier monthly, whereas you pay your savings account monthly. And so have the funds to pay for 1000ls when the time to buy is right.

Yes I know that you can set up an account to pay by monthly direct debit and I also know that isn't the way to guarantee the best price per litre!

Read the reply from @propertyrental properly.  They advocate paying a monthly amount into a personal savings account - which is what I do and is undeniably the best way.  You're right, paying a Direct Debit to an oil supplier is generally not a good idea as then you're tied in to them - and you should be shopping around each time you order.

 I read the post properly thank you. Read what the thread is about - not how to pay for oil or setting up a saving account, but the prices being charged for oil.

My comment was specifically referring to your reply to propertyrental - it appeared that you had misunderstood what they said, since you quoted them saying "you pay your savings account" yet proceeded to refer to "set up an account by monthly direct debit".

I realise it's not directly related to the overall cost of oil, which is influenced by many factors - the three main ones being the global price of crude oil, supply and demand, and the USD/GBP exchange rate.  Plus, the price at which your supplier bought their current batch of oil - did they buy a million litres 6 months ago when it was really expensive, or just yesterday when it was slightly cheaper? 

But the point about saving up and buying 1000 litres at a time rather than 500 is still very valid.  You can't influence the wholesale price of oil, but you can influence - to a small degree - the price you pay by buying in bulk.  Also by buying when demand is lower (typically the summer).  I fully appreciate that most people can't influence when they buy - if you need oil, you need oil.  But if you're in a situation where you have a large enough reserve, it's something to consider.

Must admit I've toyed with the idea of buying an extra tank, the theory being that if I could buy enough in summer to last me all year then I could save quite a bit.  Not sure if the savings would offset the cost of an additional tank, but that's a different discussion!

smallblueplanet

Ebe_Scrooge said:

But the point about saving up and buying 1000 litres at a time rather than 500 is still very valid.  You can't influence the wholesale price of oil, but you can influence - to a small degree - the price you pay by buying in bulk.  Also by buying when demand is lower (typically the summer).  I fully appreciate that most people can't influence when they buy - if you need oil, you need oil.  But if you're in a situation where you have a large enough reserve, it's something to consider.

Must admit I've toyed with the idea of buying an extra tank, the theory being that if I could buy enough in summer to last me all year then I could save quite a bit.  Not sure if the savings would offset the cost of an additional tank, but that's a different discussion!

Whilst saving up for 1000l of oil is easy to say, the reality, especially in current circumstances is very different. There are many people having to choose between heat or food! Quite unbelievable really.

Another thing that stops me buying 1000l is that there have been oil thefts in this area. Yes I know about security - they did too but nothing stopped the thieves!

I can only presume that most are happy with the current pricing of oil. I'm not.

MattMattMattUK

smallblueplanet said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

But the point about saving up and buying 1000 litres at a time rather than 500 is still very valid.  You can't influence the wholesale price of oil, but you can influence - to a small degree - the price you pay by buying in bulk.  Also by buying when demand is lower (typically the summer).  I fully appreciate that most people can't influence when they buy - if you need oil, you need oil.  But if you're in a situation where you have a large enough reserve, it's something to consider.

Must admit I've toyed with the idea of buying an extra tank, the theory being that if I could buy enough in summer to last me all year then I could save quite a bit.  Not sure if the savings would offset the cost of an additional tank, but that's a different discussion!

Whilst saving up for 1000l of oil is easy to say, the reality, especially in current circumstances is very different. There are many people having to choose between heat or food! Quite unbelievable really.

Another thing that stops me buying 1000l is that there have been oil thefts in this area. Yes I know about security - they did too but nothing stopped the thieves!

I can only presume that most are happy with the current pricing of oil. I'm not.

Likely a wrong presumption, but being unhappy about something is one thing, but if there is a negative factor that one dislikes the best solution is to mitigate it as best as one can, which in this case is buying 1,000 litres rather than 500 litres. Misreading people's posts and creating strawmen is not going to help.