fixing gas & electricity prices - good idea or not??

piglet29

Hello, I received a letter this morning from British Gas, who I am currently with for both my Gas & Electricity and both on prepayment meters. This letter has a form on the bottom for me to sign and return if i wish to protect myself against future price changes. It allows consumers to fix both gas and electricity prices at the new (higher) rates until 28th February 2009.They guarantee the rates wont change even if the energy prices go up again.It says that you will be charged a cancellation charge of £20 for electricity and £30 for gas if you leave British gas before the 28th February 2009, either by switching supplier or tariff. Now my question is: what would you do? Do you think this is a good idea or not? I am really not sure whether to go for this or not and would love some advice from others as it seems a good idea but what happens if the prices go down!!!! I will then be left paying the higher prices and it will cost me more!!! Any advice would be very much appreciated and yes I do know I am paying more by having prepayment but our circumstances mean that this is our best way of paying our bills as we really could not cope with a big heating or electricty bill at the moment or indeed in the future as things stand. Sorry for such a long post but i am really not sure what to do for the best on this one, thankyou:o

Cardew

The same question has been asked about the various fixed/capped price tariffs for some years(not only from BG but other suppliers) If you do a search you will find loads of posts.

The answer is that is is just a gamble and nobody, but nobody, knows if it will turn out to be a good 'buy'. So anyone offering advice is just making a guess.

I think it is fair to say that the majority(all??) of these deals have turned out well for the consumer. That is of course because the trend in prices has been up and up(with only a small decrease last year.

Of course that is absolutely no guarantee that the next deals will turn out the well.

On the other hand if prices did drop, £30 & £20 isn't a huge amount to lose as a penalty - you would save that pretty quicly from the reduced prices.