I'm OVO Standard

Allex50

They are asking me to consider a fixed tariff. My current monthly has just gone from £63 to £75 (I've added an extra freezer in the garage and that could account for some of that, plus the hotter weather for 3 freezers and a fridge!). Should I go over to an OVO fixed or what. I'm a bit of a stuck in the mud really.

QrizB

Best bet is to get your actual annual energy use figures (either by checking your bills for meter readings 12 months apart, or by using the "estimated annual consumption" value from a recent bill) then plug them into one of the comparison sites to see what offers are available.

MSE's "Cheap Energy Club" is a reasonable place to start.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub/

See what pops up, and ask here if you need any help choosing!

Ildhund

@QrizB wrote:

 … get your actual annual energy use figures … by using the "estimated annual consumption" value from a recent bill … 

I don't know whether OVO is the only major supplier that doesn't show Future Annual Consumption (FAC) figures on bills, but they've not been there for as long as I can remember. They are available in the online account, on the Plan page: https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan - @Allex50 please note!

OVO's fixed-rate plans at the moment all more expensive than 'Simpler Energy' (OVO's name for their Standard Variable Tariff, SVT), and they're changing about once a week these days. I can only suggest that you check the fixed plans available; again, on the online account, you may see a menu option called Renew your plan, which will use your FAC to give an estimated monthly cost. The SVT won't change again until 1 October, at which point it will go up a bit (we'll see by how much in a couple of weeks' time) to reflect changes in wholesale costs over the past couple of months, and down a bit because the VAT is being taken off. Swings and roundabouts. This means you have a bit of time to think and compare before making a decision. Recent changes in your usage pattern will have affected the FAC, but it is based on a whole year's consumption, so there won't normally be major increases just because you've been using more for refrigeration this summer. It's things that heat that use the most electricity, and there won't have been a great deal of that recently.

Arunmor

Compare the prices per unit (and standing charge) not how much you are paying per month. You will need to collate your bills ieally over 12 months so that you know how much you are using. Monthly spend tells you nothing (or next to nothing).

happyhacker

Well, I've stayed but they've put me up to £75/month from £63! My ave so far for this year is around £47/month not even exceeding £63. Ave Kw usage so far around 195Kw/month. Yes, my plan is Simpler Energy.