AIBU to not fix my energy bill?

[Snoods]

Currently on a flexible tariff. Had a look at fixing it and wow, more than double what we pay now!

current advice from martin money supermarket is to wait as the price cap will be cheaper than every fixed price at the moment - he estimated £500 per year more for an average person if you fix now.

Even Uswitch sent me an email this morning saying 'don't switch' !

Thank you. To be honest I haven’t watched or read much about it. But thought based on what I’d heard I’d have a look. It was literally double if I fixed yesterday.

This is interesting to read. I'm due out of my current contract and everywhere wants to charge me an additional £50 a month to fix. I've tried arguing I won't be using any more gas, unless they know we are in for an Artic winter and even with the price increase it won't be an additional £600 a year!!

We are Avro customers. Still have no idea what our monthly payments will be ......

I've just switched to octopus from a varied rate on edf. Yes it was £28 a month more but I panicked! The flexible rate had gone up every 6 months for the past couple of years so I've told myself it would have only been a matter of time anyway. Think it's fixed for a couple of years now.

I'm not convinced I made the right decision. But I've paid extra a month to have the carbon offset too which has made me feel better about my decision .

I’ve just switched to eon next from octopus.

Had been paying £88 a month
Octopus flex was going to be £135 a month
Eon next 2 year fix was £132 a month
Cheapest octopus fix was - a couple of weeks ago - £145 a month. It rose to £168 a month as I was leaving.

So, happy I fixed when I did. Now? I’d probably stick with flex.

I'm not sure what to do either. I have a combined energy bill of around £2500 a year. If I have a fixed tariff it's going to rise to £3200! And it's fixed for 2 years! The flexible tariff is looking quite tempting as it's similar to what I pay now. But obviously that could change.

I’ve got British Gas and I’ve just been put down to a really low rate. But it’s not fixed beyond Jan. Waiting to see.

Yeah nkt fixing wither. I am actually aven on top up atill purely because I am having arguments with them that I don't want smart meter 🙄
Fixes are waaaaay up. As pp said, even Martin Lewis said not to fix now
I saw price per unit go up, but we spend about 70-80 a month average and it hasn't made any big difference to small usage.

I'm not fixing either for the same reason as you OP but we'll probably end up getting shafted whatever we try. It seems to be how things go. I've kind of resigned myself to it and if it doesn't happen it'll be a bonus. I've given up trying to second guess how to make good household financial decisions because everything is so fucked.

Currently with Octopus. I’ll stay flex then for now.. and pray I’ve made the right decision

I think it’s important to understand why the fixed rates are more expensive.

Basically, the variable/flex rates are subject to a price cap imposed by the government. Recently wholesale energy prices shot up, so the wholesale energy price is actually higher than what people are paying if they are subject to the price cap. That’s why so many suppliers have gone bust recently.

But the fixed term tariffs are not subject to the cap - so the prices reflect the current wholesale energy price and what suppliers thinks might happen with the wholesale price in the near future.

So that’s why the variable rate is always going to be cheaper at the moment.

Kicking myself I didn’t fix a couple of weeks ago. The deal I was looking at disappeared overnight.

Current advice from Martin Lewis is to stay on variable. Hoping that the Govt will intervene before April because I don’t think I can afford another rise.

We are fixed till the end of December and then I think I’ll leave it well alone till everything’s calmed down.

There's no point fixing now as there are no fixes available that are cheaper than the price cap.

I fixed in September but it was only an addition £5 a month so was a no brained. My mother check to fix hers before the cap came in and had left it far too late they wanted an extra £80 a month! She’s stayed on the variable. As she says she’ll be using the same amount of energy as before and not enough to justify these huge mark up in tariffs. Right now you’re sensible to stay on the variable if it’s such a big increase.