Energy price rises - what are you paying?

[anxious_ant]

Blue Oval84 said:

If you've fixed with EDF I can assure you don't need to pay a fixed DD. Just contact them and say you want to be switched to "Direct Debit Whole Amount Monthly" (or quarterly if that's your preference) and you will still receive the same unit rate, and they'll send a read reminder every month/quarter. If you fail to send a reading they will deduct an estimated amount.

If you're on a smart meter then you won't even need to send the reading.

Regarding prices in general - they're all being driven by the wholesale market going mad. It's currently backwardated and energy in 2023 is cheaper than 2022, hence the fixed deals are now all 2/3 years as a one year deal includes solely very pricey energy. It's still going to get worse before it gets better. If anyone reading this is due to renew this side of winter I would suggest you change now. Although strangely, in quite a few cases, suppliers Standard Variable Tariff will shortly appear to be cheaper than the 2/3 year fixe deals, but likely only until March when Ofgem will raise the cap further.

Thanks for the advice.
I have an outstanding saga with my gas meter which has now gone on for 5+ months and haven't been resolved, just plenty of empty promises.
Escalated this to the Executive Team and a manager called me an assured me that this time they will resolve it.
I had sneaky suspicion EDF trying to drag this out as my GNE contract ends next month.

I will keep paying fixed DD probably for few months to let things settle once I get my smart meter installed, then consider switching to "Direct Debit Whole Amount Monthly" as advised. I really don't think I would be using that much per month, so prefer paying for what I actually used, like how I used to be able to with BG.

[Condi]

anxious_ant said:

I had sneaky suspicion EDF trying to drag this out as my GNE contract ends next month.

I can assure you that EDF are not trying to "drag it out as your contract ends next month". EDF have 600,000 customers, including some of the UK largest businesses - they're not worried about 1 customer being on quite a cheap tariff for a few weeks longer!

It's sweet you think there is that much joined up thinking and commercial awareness across a French state owned utility company.

[anxious_ant]

Condi said:

anxious_ant said:

I had sneaky suspicion EDF trying to drag this out as my GNE contract ends next month.

I can assure you that EDF are not trying to "drag it out as your contract ends next month". EDF have 600,000 customers, including some of the UK largest businesses - they're not worried about 1 customer being on quite a cheap tariff for a few weeks longer!

It's sweet you think there is that much joined up thinking and commercial awareness across a French state owned utility company.

It's not so much about the cheap tariff, it's about sorting my gas meter. All I want is to be able to get some readings from the meter. Took months to finally get an appointment, to which no one showed up. The estimated readings are a bit rubbish as well, it's almost double what I would be using.

Anyway, hopefully this will get sorted soon.

[Jasandjules]

I really need to find the cheapest provider.... £330 pcm leccie, £140 pcm for gas.....

[Welshbeef]

Jasandjules said:

I really need to find the cheapest provider.... £330 pcm leccie, £140 pcm for gas.....

What square meter is your property?
Do you have an electric car charger?
Do you heat the property with leccy?
Do you’d daughters leave hair dryers switched on to warm their bedrooms.
How many leccy units do you use per annum.

[dmsims]

Jasandjules said:

I really need to find the cheapest provider.... £330 pcm leccie, £140 pcm for gas.....

Are you running a farm?

Context is everything and what you have stated is meaningless

[Wombat3]

I need to renew this month. Is the general concensus to lock in for 2 or 3 years rather than 1?

Currently paying about 13.5 & 2.3 so this going to be painful. I appear to be looking at near enough a 50% increase on both. Mad

[Welshbeef]

Wombat3 said:

I need to renew this month. Is the general concensus to lock in for 2 or 3 years rather than 1?

Currently paying about 13.5 & 2.3 so this going to be painful. I appear to be looking at near enough a 50% increase on both. Mad

What about the standing charges?

You need to look at the whole consideration + if your returning to work your usage will decrease not stay static

[Wombat3]

Welshbeef said:

Wombat3 said:

I need to renew this month. Is the general concensus to lock in for 2 or 3 years rather than 1?

Currently paying about 13.5 & 2.3 so this going to be painful. I appear to be looking at near enough a 50% increase on both. Mad

What about the standing charges?

You need to look at the whole consideration + if your returning to work your usage will decrease not stay static

Standing charges are going to be +/-

I never rely on their calculations either, just stick the numbers in a spreadsheet using last 12 months usage which will be about right.

[Welshbeef]

Wombat3 said:

Standing charges are going to be +/-

I never rely on their calculations either, just stick the numbers in a spreadsheet using last 12 months usage which will be about right.

But if you WFH 100% due to covid and now / forward looking will be WFOffice or much more so then the actual £ cost for utilities will be less meaning the standing charge has a higher impact.

[outnumbered]

I’ve never found the standing charge to make much of a difference in deciding between suppliers and deals. The difference in unit rate is always far more significant.

Edited by outnumbered on Tuesday 31st August 09:30

[Wombat3]

Welshbeef said:

Wombat3 said:

Standing charges are going to be +/-

I never rely on their calculations either, just stick the numbers in a spreadsheet using last 12 months usage which will be about right.

But if you WFH 100% due to covid and now / forward looking will be WFOffice or much more so then the actual £ cost for utilities will be less meaning the standing charge has a higher impact.

Doesn't apply to me

Anyone have a view on 1,2 or 3 year deals?

[Welshbeef]

Wombat3 said:

Doesn't apply to me

Anyone have a view on 1,2 or 3 year deals?

Surely the question should be what will the market be in 1/2/3 years time ie what deals might be available at that point.
Crystal ball time.

However

If there continues to be WFH (as well as offices open) the demand on the network is higher so that would prevent price reductions
Continued investment in green energy and moving away from fossil still costs more
Replacement of the nuclear power generation has prices in the deals they are not below what we pay
Power generation by gas reducing (extremely cheap) to other forms of generation is a one way move.
Inflation - staff/ raw materials as we all know are seeing huge rises. This isn’t going to stop.

The real options you need to consider is how you can use less & maybe solar etc.
It must also be a warning sign to EV drivers that proce per mile is creeping up.


But I’d be looking at futures prices & Reading Moneysaving expert guidance

[Condi]

Wombat3 said:

Anyone have a view on 1,2 or 3 year deals?

Prices are much lower further forwards, so a 3 year deal should be cheaper than a 1 year deal.

The flip side is that in 12m time a 1 year deal then will be cheaper based on where things are today, as the really high prices should be behind us.

Tbh there is no right or wrong answer, it's much like fixing a mortgage. You only ever know if you've done the right thing afterwards. At the moment things are very tight (/expensive) due to a unusual set of circumstances, hence the lower prices further forwards. Of course between now and then everything could change.

If it were me I suspect I'd take the short term hit on an expensive 1 year deal and see what it looked like after that, but that could easily look like the wrong decision in 12m time.

[Nath911t]

I'm glad I took the time out to read most of this thread.

This time last year I was with EON at £55 per month for both. I switched to British Gas in Sept 2021 on a 12month fixed deal. My direct debit went up from my recent meter readings in July this year from £55 to a minimum of £94.

Banged in a few numbers on comparison sites and have been getting £120+ per month. I read one of the previous posts (Thanks) about SSE and done a quote on their website as they don't show up on comparison sites and they're coming in at £102pm for one year fixed.

Even at what seems the lowest quote I can currently find from one of the big names at £102, that's some hefty increase for £55pm in the space of just over a year.

[Welshbeef]

Nath911t said:

I'm glad I took the time out to read most of this thread.

This time last year I was with EON at £55 per month for both. I switched to British Gas in Sept 2021 on a 12month fixed deal. My direct debit went up from my recent meter readings in July this year from £55 to a minimum of £94.

Banged in a few numbers on comparison sites and have been getting £120+ per month. I read one of the previous posts (Thanks) about SSE and done a quote on their website as they don't show up on comparison sites and they're coming in at £102pm for one year fixed.

Even at what seems the lowest quote I can currently find from one of the big names at £102, that's some hefty increase for £55pm in the space of just over a year.

Thing is £55pcm might not have been correct / estimated value hence moving to a new deal without the real cost is the key.

You can get the pence per unit and pence per day of your existing deal to then compare vs new deals.

[Blue Oval84]

Condi said:

Prices are much lower further forwards, so a 3 year deal should be cheaper than a 1 year deal.

The flip side is that in 12m time a 1 year deal then will be cheaper based on where things are today, as the really high prices should be behind us.

Tbh there is no right or wrong answer, it's much like fixing a mortgage.

^This

Personally if I was in the market right now I'd be fixing on a 2-3 year deal, but ideally one exit penalties that aren't too heavy, so that if prices on fixed deals in a year's time are sufficiently low it will be worth exiting and moving to a new one.

Current rises are of a scale I've never seen before, hence my view.

[Nath911t]

I get what your saying WB. With my previous supplier it was good for my usage and I usually had a rebate.

My fixed BG from last Sept is more costly per kwh and per day than EON was, although seemed a good deal at the time. EON magically attempted to increase my DD from £55 to £140 for no reason whatsoever which is why I left. I've been using less dual fuels kwh this term and somehow this year I'm upside down in comparison.

SSE work out a bit better for me per unit and per day despite the fact I'm paying a hell of a lot more than last year.

[anonymous-user]

I put my dad onto octopus and they're fantastic. They sent an email saying instead of passing the increase onto the consumer, they're cutting their profit margin. None of this you have to have at least a month of credit at all times nonsense either.
He also went from paying 170 a month from his previous supplier to 140 a month and is still always in credit.

[MJNewton]

I'm glad I stumbled across this thread, or at least insofar that it forewarned me of impending price hikes.

In November we'll be at the end of a 1yr fixed tariff and have been paying an accurate £68/mth (£816/yr) for gas and electricity... taking a look at what's out there at the moment reveals that if we maintain the same annual consumption (8287 kWh gas, 3807 kWh electricity) the best (cheapest) fixed tariff out there is a whopping £97/mth (£1168/yr). That's a 43% rise - ouch! I can see that the bulk of the increase is down to electricity rises where we're looking at going from 11.781 p/kWh to 19.661p/kWh. Even the variable tariffs aren't looking much cheaper (£93/mth / £1111/yr). Maybe that big new TV wasn't such a good idea after all...

Edited by MJNewton on Wednesday 1st September 21:35