Gas and electricity price increase

[Ohsugarhoneyicetea]

My supplier went bust recently and I have been moved to Octopus. I have just had their prices through and the new tariffs are:
Gas: 4.01p/kWh
Elec: 23.02 p/kWh

By comparison, what I was on with my old supplier was:
Gas: 2.494 p/kWh
Elec: 15.435 p/kWh

So the price has nearly doubled for gas and a third up for elec. And yet somehow this insane increase is being reported as an increase in the price cap rising by an average £139/yr

"The regulator Ofgem has increased the price cap on standard and default tariffs today from £1,138/yr to £1,277/yr for a typical dual-fuel household"

Except in practice my £1500 per year bill will now increase to nearly £3000 if my consumption stays the same. I live in a typical household by size, so why is this being reported as a £140 increase when it is actually a £1400 increase? Can anyone explain this and why there is not more outrage over what is happening?

And how much are you paying p/kWh? Are these prices typical?

And why is inflation being reported as 3% where what I am seeing is food up 20%, gas & elec up nearly 100%, other bills at least 5% - where on earth did 3% come from?

I'm with Octopus but currently on a fixed tariff until January. Who knows what I'll pay at that point.

Current fix is:.
Elec: 16.10p kWh, 21.17p s/c
Gas: 3p kWh, 17.85p s/c

The only way to save is if you use less energy
Best not to take a fix just now and no supplier is offering better than the price cap tariffs on the standard variable tariff

We're avoiding putting the heating on as much as possible. Wearing lots of layers. Hot water bottles in bed! LED lights. We've been moved to octopus too.

Just have to hope things improve next year.

Hopefully things will improve but w lot of people really need to look at their usage as well.

We have always tried to be careful with our energy but I have turned the thermostat down to 17 from the 18 it was last year, I guess we could go a bit lower if we needed to but we should manage. This on top of food prices also going up and the loss of the £20 UC uplift really is going to hit some people really hard.

@Ohsugarhoneyicetea

I didnt miss the uproar. But what I did seem to miss is 'your bill is now double' - didnt see that anywhere.

I heard that reported - the plight of people in your position moving from a low tariff to standard variable because their supplier had gone bust, and unlike previous company collapses (eg White Rose and Robin Hood last year) no companies are willing to take on customers at a loss-making tariff.

Console yourself, now you have ended up with standard variable, that Octopus tops the Which? magazine list of fuel suppliers, with excellent customer service.

You also need to brace yourself for the standard variable tariff having another sizeable increase in April.

Just put in my meter readings for Octopus and we have gone from being £89 in debit to £288 in debit…that’s one month that’s £200 a month in electric (no gas) never normally go over £125/130 a month and that’s with a hot tub running (which has been off for over a month)

I’m going to look up what rate I’m paying according to my bill I’m on the lowest tariff

Crazy crazy times

@RagzReturnsRebooted

My supplier went bust, I was on the cheapest fix available at the time. I managed to fix in with Eon just before all the cheap fixed rates went. I'm now paying roughly the price cap charge and my monthly payment went up by 50%.

The increase in the price cap is what is reported as £140 based on average con3, but if you were on a lower price fix before and have higher than average consumption, then it will be a much larger increase.

I used to pay £80 a month, now it's £132, so up from around £1000 a year to around £1500 a year.

Agree re inflation, some things are going up much higher than inflation and the products and services they include the measurement of inflation don't reflect reality.

Similar here. I was with GNE and was moved to EDF. I also managed to fix before it went totally bonkers, but my payments have still gone from £83 to £132 per month.

I fixed for 2 years, but with £15 exit fee per fuel. If the situation improves before the fix ends, I'll swap. I'm not holding my breath though.

So you're using twice the amount of energy as an average household? I suggest you investigate where it's all going and make some adjustments. Do you have an in home display linked to the smart meter? They are great for helping you track where it's all going.

Has there been a news blackout where you live?

@MintJulia I am with OVO and my bill is itemised. Split by electric / gas, then each says clearly what is the daily rate, what is the charge per kW, and how they arrived at the total. The rates are also much lower than the OP’s - but I’m on fixed price for another few months.

and that’s with a hot tub running (which has been off for over a month)

And that's part of the problem a lot of people on here aren't normal users a hot tub isn't normal use.

Washing towels everyday isn't normal ect ect.

If you want to do this fair enough but you will pay for it.

@eatyourvegetables I had to go back to the SSE website to check what my separate gas and electricity charges were.

All OVO shows me is one figure with no detail so they must be dealing with different groups of customers in different ways.

I'll wait a quarter and see if their billing gets more detailed. I can't think of an honest reason why they would hide the detail though. It's worrying.

I am also surprised there isn't an outcry!! Mine has increased from £78pm, always in credit to £176 pm 😱😱😱 thats a lot of bloody money in one jump

If you're in credit then you don't need to accept a large jump in direct debit. I can adjust my direct debit up and down with Octopus

We've been moved onto a shell one and I'm terrified of how much it's going to cost us. Looking like double here too. I can be certain my salary isn't about to double so not really sure what the plan will be!

I have electricity only.
My fixed rate is due to end next month 😢
That is £15.85 p/kWh unit rate
7.35 p/day standing charge
£21.50 per month
£267 per year
(I pay more than just this due to set up with my flat - communal heating system. This is just for my flat)

New variable rate:
20.77 p/kWh unit rate
23.31 standing charge
£33.28 per month
£400 per year

The fixed one is
£40 per month and nearly £500 per year
It’s nuts

I got mine today. It’s now £107 per month for gas and electricity. That’s 6 people in a 3 bed house. It’s a jump but not the horror I expected at all.

It’s a jump of £79 to £107, but it’s smaller than others and before we’d switched a while ago it was £90. No jump is fun, but especially if we actually start being more careful it’s manageable, and we are a larger household.

You could look at it, that you were underpaying for your energy for too long. Your fixed rate enabled you to have cheap energy, and pay under the actual price. The effect was that your supplier went bust.

There has been lots of articles that have explained the artificially low price cap led to suppliers not having the flexibility to increase prices to customers when the wholesale price went up.

The system worked when prices were low, now unfortunately we will all have to pay more.

Yeah, that’s how we were just discussing it. Our bills were as low as a flat we had years ago

Hello. Popping in to let you know that we're doing a Q&A with fuel poverty charity National Energy Action about these energy price hikes on Wednesday 23rd Feb at 12 noon. The thread is now open for questions here.