New gas and elec tariff! Oh my!!

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Our fixed rate gas and electric tariff for which we paid £156 a month comes to an in September. We have been v lucky to have been protected from the April rises.
We have just had our new tariff come through - it’s going up to £702 a month. Wtf do I do? I know everyone is in the same boat but holy crap, I had about £500 in my head not £700!

Please can someone help me work out what my payments will change to?

I pay £195 electric and £170 gas. It is a joke. No way have we ever used that but they just argue it.

I am so worried about winter

No one can tell you without knowing your actual usage. Do you have a smart meter? You need to know how much you’re actually using and then compare this against the upcoming price predictions.

People need to be very careful about opening up unsuitable fireplaces. But I can see that the desperation might lead to this.

Agreed, we paid a huge amount for our log burners to be put in, it involved scaffolding and a several man team, certainly not a DIY job for anyone!

@vinoandbrie I also am glad I put one in when I renovated a doer upper (I'd had power cut at last house which was miserable so made sure I have electric, gas and logburner to cover every eventuality) but have you seen how much wood has gone up too (unless you have your own wood of course) I used to get 5 nets for £20 looked the other day thinking must get stocked up early and was £30 for the same amount and no doubt that will go up more too!!

You’re right it’s gone up like mad. It’s horrible thinking how people are going to cope.

I know this won't make a huge difference (£1 a cycle ish depending on various factors) but if you have space to dry clothes either on a dryer or outside then a tumble dryer is surely a good thing to stop using.

I've seen lots of posts over the last few months where they are mentioned and I really don't think they are necessary?

I've never had one so maybe I don't know what I'm missing out on..

Coal is so expensive. My mum still has a coal fire!!

if you have space, buy it by the tipper truck load. Not handfuls.

You don't need to take their fixed rate tariff. Just pay for what you use. Everyone seems terrified of not having a cushion but you can put money aside for it yourself.

I'd be paying around £500 if I took a fixed tariff last time I looked - probably gone up now. Instead I submit meter readings and my last bill for gas and electric combined was £82. Obviously that will go up not it's never going to be 5-700. Don't take the fix it will by default drop to the standard once yours has run out

The dd amounts being offered are crazy. I moved at the beginning of the year and was given a fix by octopus and a dd amount of over £300pm. Based on absolutely nothing. So far I haven't used more than £225 in winter and currently around £120 in summer, without being careful about usage. I've reduced the dd twice and I'm still in credit. I've no doubt I would be offered another fix at £800pm+ based on what I've seen others being quoted. It's nonsense. The 60p+ per kwh for electricity is scary though. I'm fixed until Feb and hoping the unit prices drop before then, but if not we'll have to be ruthless with our usage from then on.

I'm sticking on the price cap even if it's a risk. The fixes are ridiculously high! I'm hoping prices come down at some point and even if they don't, I don't want to be tied in to a ridiculously expensive contract. Like others have said, you can work out your usage and top up your direct debit and needed.

I simply wouldn't be able to pay that, it would be impossible. As a single parent working with a UC top up, I'd go under.

What do you do in these situations I wonder? I suppose someone like me would just have to ring them up and say 'sorry, I can't pay it at all. This is what I can pay, take it or leave it'.

I've worked out based on last year's usage we'll be about £530pm come October. Ridiculous.

We're needing to become militant about our usage but I really do not feel like we're prolific users - numbers say different though.

2 Adults, 1 Young Adult, and a Child.

I wouldn't be locking into any fixed deals right now.

Personally I think the energy companies are trying to capitalise on peoples fear and lock them into deals whilst we are still waiting to see if - in fact - we are going to have a cap of £6000.

Even then if I understand correctly only households who use higher than average amounts will exceed that and the £500 a month.

I'm staying on price cap. I just can't afford a fix.

The greed of the energy industry is sickening and the government need to do as Labour suggested and levy a huge windfall tax on those companies.

I suspect the government will do something radical because if they don’t they have absolutely no hope of winning the next election.

The point is that prices are going up in October. All those saying they can’t afford fix offered and will stay on the cap. By current predictions the cap announced on Friday could quite possibly be higher than our eye-watering fixes. Or they might not. Nobody knows what to do for the best but many fixes are being offered with no exit fee. So those fixing now have the option to return to the cap if predictions turn out to be way too high. However we’ve still got Jan and April 23 rises to go. Even if fixers are still paying over the rate in Oct they may not be after those two subsequent rises. Those staying on the cap for now won’t have such ‘generous’ fixes later. The fixes offered are eye-watering because October’s predictions of new cap ARE eye-watering.

The trouble isn’t what we can pay, it’s that a unit of energy is actually probably going to cost that so if you use it and give monthly readings this is what you will be asked to pay!

That ^^

Also you're not fixing your amount you pay per month, you're fixing your unit price you pay

But the price cap will almost definitely end up being more than (some) fixed rate costs, if not in October (although it won't be far off) then definitely by January and significantly more by April.

People don't seem to get that others aren't fixing because they like paying more than they have to - they are fixing even at an extortionate rate because its almost definite that (unless the govt puts in some emergency measures) a fix will still end up being cheaper for the overall next 12 months.

Also people don't seem to understand that if you fix at a direct debit of £100 per month that doesn't mean you HAVE to pay that much. If you make an effort to limit your usage you will spend less than the amount they used to estimate your cost so you will either be in credit for next year or can reduce your dd after a few months. Although similarly of course if you think "right I've fixed at £300 p/m absolutely extortionate amount so let's make sure I get my moneys worth" and whack the heating and sex pond on all winter long you will be using more than you did last year (which is what they based the £300 average on) so will owe much more!

Because the direct debit amount is just (fixed) cost price per unit x ESTIMATED useage.
So even if unit price is fixed usage will affect how much you pay..but at least you have some control.

To those saying that you don't have to pay the full fixed price, pre energy crisis I argued with my supplier that the direct debit was too high but they refused to refund me the extra or to make it lower because they said it would even out over the year. Flat our refused when I argued again. So I do very much feel like that money will be going out of my bank account every month regardless if I halve my energy use or not and I won't be able to stop it

But the trouble is is that the fixed price of a unit of gas and electricity is going to be like 2/3x what it is now. And you will be billed for that and have to pay for it. So if you use the same amount as now you will be billed for 3x the amount you are paying now. If you don’t pay then that’s a debt collection. It’s not just a case of choosing not to pay a higher fixed offer, the higher fixed offers might be cheaper than what you actually come to pay. It’ll be horrific

@ScarlettSunset p.s. Most people don’t have enough tucked away to put it aside for that extra £500 a month needed from October. In like 2 months. Read the room.