What the fuck do I do about my gas/elect tariff expiring?

[AntiMaskersAreTwats]

Our gas/elec tariff expires tomorrow with EDF. If we drop onto the standard variable tariff it goes up from £100 a month to £161 a month. The only other deal EDF offers at the moment is a long term fix until 2024 at £306 a month!! We can’t afford that! I can’t find any other deals with other companies that we can afford as every penny per month is accounted for. What the fuck do we do?

Also stay on the SVR because many of the factors causing the high current wholesale prices are temporary and expected to stabilise somewhat.

@dementedpixie I think £80 doesn't cover what i use. my DH says Shell (our provider) refunded some money to us so its possible they undercharged us and are now trying to get the money back.

Either way, its probably better to be mindful of usage.

I've fixed until 2023 with Good Energy recently. Find them reasonable, not sure they're on comparison sites. I've been with them before and they have good customer service, they sorted a problem out for me which gave me a good insight into that (it was a right nightmare - erroneous transfer problem it was, and they stuck with me and got to the bottom of it brilliantly). Worth checking them anyway

What you should be doing is feeling pleased now that autumn is here and winter is coming that you can feel all cosy. I’m assuming you do actually have the money to spend heating your home so it’s cosy after you come back from your autumn stroll through crisp leaves. Others, who are already at the point of heating just one room, or only putting the heating on when outside temperatures mean that central heating pipes might freeze, will just have to get their cosy feelings from imagining others getting cosy.

It's really hard to switch at the moment, I'm in the same boat as my provider went bust. You may be better off sticking on the variable rate for a bit and seeing what happens, that's what we are doing, it's a gamble though. If you fix now you risk fixing at a very high price.

I'm kicking myself. I was sent an offer to go on a Sept22 tarrif with BG, it would have saved me the grand sum of £5 per year. So I duly stuck it in the 'have a look later pile'. Then earlier this month I looked again, but thought I'd see what else they were offering etc. When I looked I was past the offer date. Wish I'd just switched 🤬🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

I'm on their Temp Dec 2021 plan, when I spoke to them they are only offering deals that are more expensive, but she said they might send out another offer... I can't decide whether to fix at an unfavourable rate or stay on the rate I'm on.

Procrastination is a skill so I might see how it goes 💁🏻‍♀️

@charlestonchaplin

What you should be doing is feeling pleased now that autumn is here and winter is coming that you can feel all cosy. I’m assuming you do actually have the money to spend heating your home so it’s cosy after you come back from your autumn stroll through crisp leaves. Others, who are already at the point of heating just one room, or only putting the heating on when outside temperatures mean that central heating pipes might freeze, will just have to get their cosy feelings from imagining others getting cosy.

Why are you being so horrible? She said...

I can’t find any other deals with other companies that we can afford as every penny per month is accounted for. What the fuck do we do?

I don't get the impression she's rolling in £100 notes!

@charlestonchaplin

What you should be doing is feeling pleased now that autumn is here and winter is coming that you can feel all cosy. I’m assuming you do actually have the money to spend heating your home so it’s cosy after you come back from your autumn stroll through crisp leaves. Others, who are already at the point of heating just one room, or only putting the heating on when outside temperatures mean that central heating pipes might freeze, will just have to get their cosy feelings from imagining others getting cosy.

Bit harsh. You've no idea of OP's ability to afford heating.

Stop voting conservative. Then we could have a government that actually cared about people not being able to afford their fuel bills

I wasn’t being horrible! Just trying (badly, I guess) to make a point about tone-deaf threads that wax lyrical about the joys of cold weather. This year is going to be particularly harsh for many so I would have thought that this year these posters could be a bit more sensitive to others in a less fortunate position.

@charlestonchaplin ah right sorry! Never been good at seeing humour in text form! Sozza

@charlestonchaplin

I wasn’t being horrible! Just trying (badly, I guess) to make a point about tone-deaf threads that wax lyrical about the joys of cold weather. This year is going to be particularly harsh for many so I would have thought that this year these posters could be a bit more sensitive to others in a less fortunate position.

It's a bit rich to make a post like that to an OP who literally said that every penny was accounted for, and then complain about others being tone deaf.

[quote onlychildhamster]@dementedpixie I think £80 doesn't cover what i use. my DH says Shell (our provider) refunded some money to us so its possible they undercharged us and are now trying to get the money back.

Either way, its probably better to be mindful of usage.[/quote]
Some energy providers refund your credit balance at the anniversary of joining them but then want to increase your payment as you are then at a £0 balance. I'd prefer that they held on to some of it to cover future bills rather than give it all back

Wouldn’t be fixing now

Standard variable / energy cap is going to be the cheapest.

Wait till the new energy cap is announced and hope the wholesale prices drop.

Also make sure you don’t Vote Tory they’ve caused this chaos with the stupid fucking Brexit. European rates aren’t rising like ours. Cluster fuck.

I wfh today in my dressing gown...,and will continue to do this all winter....I will use the central heating less....and the log burner more ( we get free wood) ....only put on full loads of washing....And turn off lights when not being used .....we are fortunate that we can afford any increases but I still don’t want to pay them

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4361534-To-be-glad-it-s-cold-and-wet?msgid=111197560

I was referring to this thread, not the OP. I should have responded on that thread (bit my tongue) not here. I apologise.

Invest in a boiler management unit,to really cut down on boiler firing but really does cut down fuel,as most boilers just fire up as soon as the internal temperature in the boiler starts going down,what is called by the trade false firing ,I bought a unit cost around 160£ installed it myself,took about 1/2 your & watched it take loads off the bills,they should be mandatory

I'm shocked at some of these posts, how on earth are you using £200 quids worth of electric a month (before price rise).
My combined gas and electric is £100 a month with OVO, I've not found anyone including bulb cheaper for the last three years. I'm due to renew in November the new monthly rate OVO offered me is £119 which I've signed up to.
We are a 2 bed, 3 adults, someone in the house all day 24/7

Igloo ceased trading today, the little ones are falling over like dominos. Layered clothes less charging devices and thank god for the wood burner

Thank you daytripper28 we had signed up with Octopus earlier today but we have been able to apply the link to save £50!!!

@HalzTangz

I'm shocked at some of these posts, how on earth are you using £200 quids worth of electric a month (before price rise). My combined gas and electric is £100 a month with OVO, I've not found anyone including bulb cheaper for the last three years. I'm due to renew in November the new monthly rate OVO offered me is £119 which I've signed up to. We are a 2 bed, 3 adults, someone in the house all day 24/7

This is also me, although just 2 adults I'm really vigilant about switching plugs off at the wall if not in use and we've not had to have the heating on in months so have managed to pile up a good bit in our SSE account which will see us through winter too

The gas electricity companies are going to save a fortune by doing away with the discounts. So hopefully they will pass some of it on (ok I can dream).

How big is your house that that's the amount?

Nothing you can do though sadly. Just be more strict about turning things off that aren't needed or being use, wear more clothes and use the heating less.

@FWBNC, @AmDillDandin
charlestonchaplin was being tongue in cheek as there are several threads on the go with posters eulogising about autumn and winter. They are practically orgasmic about being cosy and snuggling under a blanket with hot chocolate in front of a fire and candles.

It doesn't occur to them that so many people will be fuel poor this winter because they hate the heat and love the cold.

The ”tone deaf” posters are the ones on the "I love winter and hate summer threads", and who seem to live somewhere where it is perpetual summer.

Same. We're going to stay on the variable rate for now and hope some decent offers come up. If we need to cut down on usage then the main thing I could do is start to work from the office again instead of from home. But I like wfh so things would need to get pretty desperate...