MSE News: Market-leading two-year energy fix to end tomorrow

I doubt anyone can give an accurate answer to your question. No-one actually knows what will happen to energy prices.

I'm currently on the British Gas collective fix that ends 3rd October and was swithering between either E.On or EDF 1 year fix or the Ovo 2 year switch. I eventually applied for the EDF 1 year fix as it's cheaper for the next 12 months and I'm happy enough with switching again after it.

So, for me flexibility rather than being locked in for too long, won.

I was contemplating a longer fix as the debate seems to be polarised between those who say a high increase would be needed before a longer fix was economically worth it, and those who say an increase is inevitable and the longer fix is protection.

Looking into this I compared the tariff I was on before the switch to Bgas, which was EDF's Blue+fix Nov16 tariff that I joined in Sept 2015 with their current equivalent offering Blue+Price protection Oct 18 {both fixed for the year with no exit fees) . Plugging the same Usage figures in each showed that the current offering showed that the 2018 tariff was CHEAPER than my old one, by around 5%. Bearing in mind that I wasn't using EDF's cheapest offering - their online and the MSE negotiated ones are cheaper, it was a shocker.

If you examine the tariffs and ones in between you see that as Unit prices go up, the standing charge goes down, and when the unit prices go down, the standing charge goes up. I did this for other suppliers who's historical tariff information is available and found broadly the same on the couple I tried.

Completely unscientific because of the small sample size and purely basing it on my use (2 bed semi), but doesn't seem worth the longer fix. What I might do is look at autumn verses spring fixes to see if their is seasonal fluctuations which might make people think they need to protect against price rises.