£400 goverment energy grant -still worth it to fix energy tariff?

[EveSix]

As title says, really. We were going to go with a fix offered by British Gas (May23v2) but wondering whether its going to be worth it now, or whether the benefit from fixing would be 'eaten up' by the £400 grant?
Has anyone done any calculations on this or have any valuable insights that they'd be prepared to share, as my head is actually spinning with numbers now.

These are 2 separate things, you'll get the 400 as a deposit on your account and it'll go towards your bills after October whether you fix or not.

Whether to choose the fix is another separate issue, it'll depend how much more than the variable rate it is and if you want to know for sure how much your bills will be for the next year or two.

Thanks, Just. I was all set for a fix as the one on offer is quite a good deal for us, and according to Martin Lewis one of the few fixes worth considering, but I'm trying to figure out whether the £400 payment sort of fills the gap I was hoping to plug / prevent from widening out of control with a fix. Hm.

If you value a degree of financial certainty, worth doing.

Energy is set to rise again in October and I'm sure I heard again in January? I think ML said if the fixed rate is less than 30% on top of the cap then consider it. I'm also debating whether to fix or not with BG.

Grrr! Just logged into my account to sign up for the May23v1 fix only to find it's been pulled and replaced by a more expensive June version. So annoyed; we explicitly asked them on the phone last week how long the offer was available and they replied "until the end of May", which we assumed would mean the last day of May, especially as the last day of May is a regular working day! So sneaky. I'm going to hold them to it, there'll be a recording of the operator saying it somewhere. Hrrrumph!

The £400 is being sent to everyone and is a small fraction of how much most people's bills have gone up, so it's separate to deciding whether or not to fix.

Sadly you were mis-advised. When a company offers a fix, it will be available to a certain number of customers, eg 10000. Once all those customers have signed up, the product is pulled and replaced by another one.

This can happen very quickly, especially if it's picked up by Martin Lewis, who's website is one of the biggest on the internet. With this sort of thing, you have to move very fast to avoid missing out, as you have discovered. You snooze, you lose unfortunately.

We fixed and I don’t know if I did the right thing or not I literally could cry as I have discalculia and I didn’t fully understand but worrying now I did the wrong thing

Yep that's happened to me before.
If they specifically said a date in may you could fight it, but the end of may is too vague to pin them down.

Thanks, Barbara and ssd; not quite what I wanted to hear, but useful all the same.
golden, I'm sorry, this must be so stressful for you. My DD is dyscalculic and I can absolutely relate X

Ive been offered a fix just under 30% on top of the svr

I know i should take it but i just can't get my head around paying that amount for 2 years, its crazy

ssd, that sounds good when seeing what else is available. I'm holding off taking up BG's new offer as Martin Lewis seemed so clear about not fixing anything higher than 25% above SVT, but since the chancellor's announcement, fixes have gone up. I hate the uncertainty of it, but what to do.

I think you need to watch/read the whole 'story' on taking Martin Lewis's advice, because while he's always said be careful about signing up to expensive fixes, he also goes on to acknowledge that no-one has a crystal ball, and that some people will be happy to pay a little extra for the certainty.

He just wants people to think before fixing, and know that a fix that is 26% above the cap might be OK, not probably not if it's 60% above and the exact tipping point between these two points might not be the same for everyone. Plus be aware of what exactly you are signing up to, in terms of unit costs and daily standing charges. Too many focus on a price per month that might not match the actual amount they use.

Your best bet is to keep an eye on what BG are offering and be ready to sign up if a new decent offer comes out. After all, wholesale prices might drop over the summer, and BG might use this to offer some better price fixes, because it ties people in with them for 2 years, possibly longer if they don't jump straight away to another provider.

Sometimes the above is lost in a soundbite of 'fix if the offer is no more than 25% above the cap'

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/

I've gone ahead and fixed, because it'll save me £55 when the price cap goes up in October. But I'm now going to be paying nearly the same amount on energy as I am for the mortgage, which is fucking bullshit. I'm really angry about all this.

I fixed with BG last week on 24th, it's a fix til July 23, made the decision as it was £30 more than I am currently paying so will over pay during summer but means once the £400 is allocated (I've heard it'll be monthly???) will halve my payments. However in the app BG are now saying they won't take another payment from me til October 2022, I am less than £50 in credit, there's wierd things a happening at BG!