Gas and electricity bills to soar

[Cosmos123]

This is worrying as it will push many into fuel poverty.
Rising food prices and empty shelves.
Is anyone worried?

endlesscraziness
Fab, I will get a heated throw then. Our elec is renewable and from what I can tell it's the price of gas that is driving the biggest rises. I've just had a new radiator put in the study, to be fair it is a more efficient one than what was there before.

Definitely look into the heated throw, electric blankets for the bed etc. Something that really helped to make my flat warmer was to apply some weatherstripping around external doors and windows, where there were gaps ( it's like a foam tape - so it's also renter friendly). That and using door snakes to block draughts really helped a lot. There is a thread on MSE Old Style Money Saving called Preparing for Winter, where they talk about getting ready in various ways - very helpful for ideas.

But still, blue passports right?
How is a boom in global oil and gas prices to do with Brexit? Time to move on.

We fixed with Octopus back in March but we only took a 1 year fix so it'll be a nervy 6 months.

I think I might buy a ton of logs for the burner over the winter to try to reduce our heating bill.

@OhYouBadBadKitten I need to get on the weather thread!

@Georgyporky

I've used MSE for years - guaranteed to get the best deal.

So I just go on the website?

This is the Which tariff guide;

switch.which.co.uk/index.html

I used to be a switching tart but I had two go bust on me and it was a total nightmare. I vowed I wouldn't go through it a third time.

I take monthly readings and keep a spreadsheet of our usage, so I don't get any nasty surprises. I'm hoping our electric usage will go down now we are back at school and I'm the office which I'm hoping may offset the price rises.

I think this winter will be a difficult time

[quote CornishTiger]@OhYouBadBadKitten I need to get on the weather thread![/quote]
At the beginning of Oct I'll start a winter weather prospects thread :)

I've been trying to swap from the piss poor British Gas for 18 fucking months!!
Unable to swop until I went onto smart meter
Several attempts to install smart meter (couldn't do both gas and electric at same time FFS)
As part of swap to smart meter I was locked into a contact
The contract won't end until AFTER the prices have gone up

Well and truly FUCKED

The idea that you can just shop around for a cheaper tariff just isn't true

I'm with British Gas (Scottish) and currently pay £150 a month dual fuel on a 3-bed semi, terraced house. The 3rd bedroom is the converted attic so that's warm and insulated.

I'm on their standard variable at the moment because I never got round to doing a shop-around when our fixed rate ended. Not sure now what to do as there is talk of a cap and maybe sticking on their variable will be best?

Annoyingly we used to get an annual paper statement outlining our usage for the year. When I tried to find this online all I could find was what we paid each month, so multiplying that by 12 gave me an annual actual cost in money but not a usage figure in KwH and whatever the other measurement is. I need this for doing comparisons. Anyone else find this?

It doesn't sound like I'm going to pick up much of a deal anyway so might just stick on the standard variable till March. Dreading to think what our DD of £150 will go up to. We seem to use much more than some other people. We're a family of 4 and our son's room doesn't even have a radiator in it and doesn't get too cold.

Out of interest, how many radiators does everyone have? We have 7. In our last 3-bed semi we had 12.

Should also say the little display thing that's supposed to show you how much gas and electric you are using has never worked

@Lockheart

brexit etc has nowt to do with it

The UK has very little gas storage capacity. It is heavily reliant on imports. Brexit has much to do with it (as do several other factors).

Doesn't our gas come from Russia? Maybe it's because of Rexit!

Anyone thinking of switching to Avro....don't! Well, you can't at the moment as they have been banned from taking on new customers. They will be the next to go, along with some of the newer/smaller suppliers that have been undercutting the larger suppliers for months, very shortsighted.

Those of you using heated throws do check the running costs versus running the central heating. The throw is on continuously whereas the heating turns itself off when it hits temperature, so will not be on so long. It also will take the chill off the whole house.

I really don't get it at the moment tbh, we had a smart meter installed at December, up until I did meter readings probably bi monthly.

Since the meter change it is trying to tell us our gas usage is nearly 2/3rds higher than last year 🤔

Anyway. Most prices are the same between the providers, or very close at least. So if all those switching around to cheaper 'deals' aren't actually inputting their usage and just going off the suppliers' estimates they'll be in for a surprise.

Direct debits don't only go up because of price rises, but also because you're using more than you're paying for.

We were with Bulb but we're a little bored of not having a fix so switched the other week.

I'm happy we are fixed until next April . Paying £47 a month for two bedroom property for gas and electricity. We are about £300 in credit so l don't have to worry to much atm.

@StayAGhost

I've been trying to swap from the piss poor British Gas for 18 fucking months!! Unable to swop until I went onto smart meter Several attempts to install smart meter (couldn't do both gas and electric at same time FFS) As part of swap to smart meter I was locked into a contact The contract won't end until AFTER the prices have gone up

Well and truly FUCKED

The idea that you can just shop around for a cheaper tariff just isn't true

We can't have a smart meter as we have solar panels and managed to swap to octopus. However, it's a variable tariff so not the best for the coming winter. But MUCH better than British gas who I wouldn't touch with a bargepole - their customer services are useless and don't seem to have improved much in the last 15 years since I managed to get rid of them

@Lockheart

brexit etc has nowt to do with it

The UK has very little gas storage capacity. It is heavily reliant on imports. Brexit has much to do with it (as do several other factors).

As much as I hate brexit myself, this actually has nothing to do with brexit. Gas and power prices are rocketing all across Europe because we are short on gas in storage for various reasons. But also coal prices are high for their own reasons..

Well done on getting out drippy dinosaur
It was octopus I wanted to go to 🙄
IME British Gas is like the Hotel California, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!

@BlackLambAndGreyFalcon

I am very worried. I also use MSE and am religious about switching every year to the cheapest tariff. When my tariff comes to an end I use the MSE site to identify the cheapest one to switch to. I usually either pay around the same for the new fix as for the old one or occasionally it is a little cheaper. Just out of interest I did a comparison on MSE today to find the cheapest deal available - it is £400 MORE EXPENSIVE PER YEAR!!!! WTF??!!! I've never known anything like it! I certainly am not getting paid £400 per year more! Fortunately my current deal is fixed until February, but goodness knows what the situation will be like then!

Same here. I work in the energy sector and I'm also religious about switching every year to get the cheapest deal. My last deal I was paying £102 per month for dual fuel. Now paying £137, so that's £300 more per year! I picked a 2 year fixed tariff as there wasn't much else available but it has zero exit fee. I'm hoping that the prices will go down come spring (although I don't hold out too much hope) and I'll switch supplier without incurring fees.

So if my octopus fix is up in 2 months (I misread the date!) then am I better off locking in another fix now, or then?

@Misty9

So if my octopus fix is up in 2 months (I misread the date!) then am I better off locking in another fix now, or then?

I was wondering the same. But just looked at for me there would already be a 25% rise in cost so I have decided to risk waiting.

I wokld look what offers you can find, what your get out costs are and then decide from there

All gearing up for charging electric cars? Some companies are rubbing their hands.

@Misty9

So if my octopus fix is up in 2 months (I misread the date!) then am I better off locking in another fix now, or then?

My fix is up in 2 months too. MSE said to stay put for now.