Time to look at energy deals

Sncjw

Hi 

I have an alert my energy deal ends in September and I've had a brief look at the price comparison. I have used the data from full year last year as its tricky to do so for this year. 

Currently with edf

ELECTRICTY 
Tarriff 22.82 p
Standing charge 70.33p

Gas

Tarrif 5.96p
Standing charge 30.28p

I did the energy club comparison and there's companies i do not know so don't feel compatible going with them..also i would prefer a fixed rarrif i know the price i pay is going to be different depending on usage.

Currently i pay 124 a month for both as a direct debit. I have seen on price comparison energy club octopus is about the same but edf will be going up by 5 quid..however I have done it on tbe octopus website and it comes out 104 quid plus I can get 75 credit via discount page. 

Octopus tarrif 

25.28p with 56.6p Standing charge

5.83p with 28.94 Standing charge 

No exit fees


New edf deal 

Electricity 

25.60p with 50.70 Standing charge

Gas 

6.30 with 23.05 Standing charge

100 quid exit fees

What would you do.

Scot_39

Firstly edf annualised dd of £124 its only a guesstimate of your bill, anc its likely based on the current rates and could include past credit or debit offsets at tine of recalculation.

You need to use a tool to compare using your actual Consumption if you haven't done so for both new deals, "forgetting" the current dd amount ax if you want a comparison to current again you need actual costs.

Or use your own calculator or mini spreadsheet.
(Rate x annual use + 365 x sc) /100  for both electric + gas on both new options

Given theres a balance of cheaper rates and higher standing charges and tge need to look at both fuels together with those quotes its not determined by any one of the 4 numbers in isolation.

Without actual use numbers, sone generic comments
The electric rates are similar so in isolation which you shouldn't realky think about at all would need a large use for many all electric - almost twice the Ofgem pc2 median for e7 3900kWh etc - let alone duel fuel home to balance the 5.9p sc difference at the 0.32p rate saving = c6700 kWh.
But with gas in isolation, only just over 4500 kWh less than half median tdcv on gas.
But what you need is comnined costs.
Andcso if assume say your I suspect at under normal df cap electric use - median duel fuel tdcv electric is 2700kWh - let's say your nearerv10% under at just under 7kWh per day, your only going to save c2p of the electric SC difference via lower unit rates 
So gas lower rate costs needs to say cover 3.9p of electric sc premium +its own 5.89p sc premium =9.79p at 0.47 p tariff difference = c20 kWh/ day = 7600kWh pa.
So around median tdcv 11500 you could be saving just c3900x.47p around £18.
Less if below median tdcvs - which the £124 suggests given that c70p electric sc especially,  as current cap £1720 is around £144 per month.
So you could be c10-15% plus down on those tdcvs making saving minimal if at all.

So do your own usage calcs.  There should be a running estimate of past year if like my bills in your tariff summary box on bills.


Fixes give stability.
But changes have been afoot of late - not just fuel and policy costs.
But maybe even cost distribution - like the doubling of SC for, electric to mid 2024 and mord recent like last 2 caps for me Jan to July,  that more recent drop. Showing as c14p drop from 70p on Octopus, electric , more like 20p on new edf fix.  14p c £50 pa, 20p £70 pa.But in reality looks more like shuffling costs back into unit rates than a real saving - at least for tdcv type consumption..

You need a large downward shift in prices before it would be worth paying edfs £100 exit fee - your free to move if prices drop a fraction of that at Octopus.
Both of course protect against price increases 
So people who want thst option, who dont want to do the maths once per year, get a price they can live with for stable budget planning then relax to next year, tend to prefer zero fee fixes when costs similar. 
Only you know which camp your in and what you want to do risk wise.  

And without annual use actaul kWh usage we cannot tell you the actual annual costs now or on new deals either.

badmemory

You really cannot depend on an energy company's estimate of what they think (or say they think) your monthly DD will be.  The best you can do is take your annual usage which your bills may well state & then figure out whether company A is cheaper of more expensive than company B.  I am guessing that a fixed rate now is going to be cheaper than a fixed rate in 3 months time.  Based on previous 3 quarters up & only one (July) down.

Again do not trust what they say the DD will be, just on the actual prices.

spot1034

No one knows where prices will go in the future, but it's worth noting that since the start of August there has been a significant fall in wholesale prices which may not yet have fully fed through to fixed deals, and of-course if they stay at a lower level this will not feed through to the price cap until January. The level of the October to December cap is due to be announced in the next few days and is likely to be very slightly higher. This of-course will make all the headlines about rising energy prices!