Advice needed - is it worth paying £300 to ditch my EDF fix?

evangelinepapa

I currently pay £176/month for energy with EDF, via a fixed tariff (Fix Total Service Jul24v6) that I locked into back when the energy crisis was at it's peak (July 2022, I think?) unfortunately, the tariff doesn't end until July 2024, and it costs £300 (£150 each for gas and electric) in exit fees to leave. The unit rates for the tariff are as follows:

• Electricity unit rate: 42.34p per kWh; Daily standing charge: 51.62p per day
• Gas unit rate: 13.129p per kWh; Daily standing charge: 27.22p per day

According to my last EDF bill (bill date 11 May 2023):
I have used 1430 kWh in electricity and 6674 kWh in gas, between Nov 2022 and May 2023.
EDF have estimated that my annual consumption for electricity is 2185 kWh and 7944 kWh for gas. At the time of that bill, they had calculated that I was £162 in debit.

Further info, if it helps: I live in a 2 bed flat with just my partner, one of us is pretty much always at home and using a computer so I expect we use a lot of electricity.

I've tried putting my usage values into the calculators to try and figure out if it would be worth spending £300 to abandon my expensive fix and move to another provider, and it certainly seems like it, but I really want to be 100% sure before I drop £300 quid. So I ask: what would you do? Can somebody help me do the maths? Thanks in advance, I'm clueless on all this energy stuff!

mmmmikey

Welcome to the forum - great post - happy to crunch the numbers for you as I'm sure many others here will be too. Just a quick check first though. When you say you used 1430kWh in electricity and 6674kWh gas, is that based on actual readings from your bill or estimates? If you check the bill it should tell you.

Ayr_Rage

If you log in to the EDF website and go to CHANGE TARIFF then you will see difference in monthly price between your fix, the SV tariff and all others available.

EDF will be using you estimated annual usage from your recent bills and my account is pretty much bang on regarding that.

My bill has just come in today, I am on the May 2024 fix with 2 x £150 exit fees and for my lower than average usage sticking with the fix is still less overall than paying the penalties.

Base you calculations on being able to leave the fix 49 days before the end.

The switching sites will show cheaper payments but you need to consider whether leaving now will save that £300 before your current escape date.

evangelinepapa

mmmmikey said:

Welcome to the forum - great post - happy to crunch the numbers for you as I'm sure many others here will be too. Just a quick check first though. When you say you used 1430kWh in electricity and 6674kWh gas, is that based on actual readings from your bill or estimates? If you check the bill it should tell you.

Hi, thank you! Ah yes, looking closer, the electricity value is based purely on two of my readings and two of theirs, but the gas value is based on two of my readings and two of their "estimates" - probably because they can't read my gas smart meter.

evangelinepapa

Ayr_Rage said:

If you log in to the EDF website and go to CHANGE TARIFF then you will see difference in monthly price between your fix, the SV tariff and all others available.

EDF will be using you estimated annual usage from your recent bills and my account is pretty much bang on regarding that.

My bill has just come in today, I am on the May 2024 fix with 2 x £150 exit fees and for my lower than average usage sticking with the fix is still less overall than paying the penalties.

Base you calculations on being able to leave the fix 49 days before the end.

The switching sites will show cheaper payments but you need to consider whether leaving now will save that £300 before your current escape date.

Currently, my options in the Change Tariff tab are:

• EDF Essentials fix until Oct 2026: estimate £140/month
• Standard Variable: estimate £134/month
• EDF Essentials fix until Oct 2024: estimate £140/month

I have 8 months left of payments until I can leave the tariff for free, so 176 x 8 = £1408.
If I were to pay £140 for the next 8 months, that's 140 x 8 = £1120, plus £300 for leaving early, so £1420. So not worth exiting for one of the other fixes, it seems.

Variable would be 134 x 8 = 1072, plus £300 which is £1372, so I would save a little by that maths, however it would assume that £134 payment wouldn't increase in 8 months.

I am quite keen on changing providers to Octopus as I hear good things about them, I'll have another look at what they're offering.

debitcardmayhem

Don’t be fixated on your monthly dd  that is a guesstimate on usage over 12 months, not how much you will pay for the energy during the colder months.

Aidy

EDF waived the exit charges today via Chat if I changed to another EDF tariff - I complained they hadn’t been upfront in advising there are alternate, cheaper tariffs - might be worth a shot?

MultiFuelBurner

evangelinepapa said:

I currently pay £176/month for energy with EDF, via a fixed tariff (Fix Total Service Jul24v6) that I locked into back when the energy crisis was at it's peak (July 2022, I think?) unfortunately, the tariff doesn't end until July 2024, and it costs £300 (£150 each for gas and electric) in exit fees to leave. The unit rates for the tariff are as follows:

• Electricity unit rate: 42.34p per kWh; Daily standing charge: 51.62p per day
• Gas unit rate: 13.129p per kWh; Daily standing charge: 27.22p per day

According to my last EDF bill (bill date 11 May 2023):
I have used 1430 kWh in electricity and 6674 kWh in gas, between Nov 2022 and May 2023.
EDF have estimated that my annual consumption for electricity is 2185 kWh and 7944 kWh for gas. At the time of that bill, they had calculated that I was £162 in debit.

Further info, if it helps: I live in a 2 bed flat with just my partner, one of us is pretty much always at home and using a computer so I expect we use a lot of electricity.

I've tried putting my usage values into the calculators to try and figure out if it would be worth spending £300 to abandon my expensive fix and move to another provider, and it certainly seems like it, but I really want to be 100% sure before I drop £300 quid. So I ask: what would you do? Can somebody help me do the maths? Thanks in advance, I'm clueless on all this energy stuff!

Yes ditch that contract you can save circa £400-£600

As above state other customers are being offered other deals without exit fees 

evangelinepapa

Aidy said:

EDF waived the exit charges today via Chat if I changed to another EDF tariff - I complained they hadn’t been upfront in advising there are alternate, cheaper tariffs - might be worth a shot?

Ooh interesting, this is good to know. I suppose waiving the exit fees would make switching to one of their £140 fixes worth it?

victor2

evangelinepapa said:

Aidy said:

EDF waived the exit charges today via Chat if I changed to another EDF tariff - I complained they hadn’t been upfront in advising there are alternate, cheaper tariffs - might be worth a shot?

Ooh interesting, this is good to know. I suppose waiving the exit fees would make switching to one of their £140 fixes worth it?

Or switch to their standard tariff without exit charges, then switch away to another supplier's fix without penalty, as the SVT has no exit penalty. Never done it myself but have heard of others doing just that 

jvjack

quickly reading post. I definatley got no exit fees on account after going through edf chat in july this year.
  aEDF - getting out a fixed contract without penalties - Page 10 — MoneySavingExpert Forum