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!

You don't have to pay that per month. You can just put meter readings in and pay differently each bill. Just say no to that and set the amount you want it to be then just keep topping up so you don't get too much in debt

How does this fix the problem? The total bill over the course of the fix will be the same unless they use less energy. Better make a viable plan to reduce consumption first and then reduce the debit to what you think the new usage will be.

I would go on to the variable rate. It will be the price cap rate which in October is:
Gas - Unit rate: 14.76p per kWh Standing charge: 28p per day
Electricity - Unit rate: 52.09p per kWh Standing charge: 46p per day

Although it will go up again in January I don't think it will be worth paying the extra now

@mistressofthedarkside
I suppose its because, while it's probably is going to be bad, nobody knows HOW bad its going to be.

I suppose some people will be looking back a few years -There was huge scaremongering about food supply chains due to brexit, but actually there were a few short term issues and then it worked out okay. Then there was scaremongering due to people panic buying at the start of covid but once everyone realised supermarkets would be staying open and they had stockpiled enough Loo roll for the next decade that calmed down too. Then there were huge worries that everyone who couldn't work during covid would become destitute, mass house repossessions, economy woukd go into recession etc - the govt then introduced furlough and (although there were some exceptions) research has since shown that most people actually benefitted financially from covid and actually saved more than in the years before/since, house prices shot up, etc. Then there was the issue with petrol shortages earlier this year -again short term mass panic but was fixed within a week.

So basically I think people have either lost the will to worry about things after so many crisis in a short space of time OR are used to things being "okay in the end"

I actually think that this potential crisis is one of the more serious and least easy to fix but that could be one reason.

Bear in mind there will be a lot of people who are okay and will still be spending for a variety of reasons. Either because they are wealthy enough to not be bothered by the increases or because they managed to get a fix with minimal, or at least manageable increases. Unpopular opiniom but there will also be a lot of people who would struggle to pay their utility costs IF they continued to use energy to the same extent they previously had but if they made an actual effort to make minimal changes to their lifestyke like putting a jumper on rather than the heating, turned the heating off overnight, stopped washing clothes after 1 wear, limited showers to short ones max once per day, etc could still end up with completely manageable, if higher, bills.

There will also be people who just bury their heads in the sand and continuing spending "my kids deserve a nice Christmas, ill put it on the credit card and worry about it in january." It's not like you miss one dd and then your meter gets cut off- a lot of people won't realise how much they owe until their next quarterly bill comes back hugely in deficit and then it still takes a long time for the energy companies to issue the various letters for repayment, send the debt to a collection agency, go to court or whatever. So for a lot of people the impact will be pushed down the road.

Sorry a very long post to just say basically I agree with you and there is a huge potential for everything to really go to shit but at the moment there is no clarity as to whether it will be a little bit shit short term for some people OR really really shit for nearly everyone with knock on effects lasting years.

@latetothefisting

Thank you for your well articulated and thought out reply - what you say does make lots of sense…..

I am also aware that this another created “state of fear” via the media in all it’s myriad forms and I wonder if some of the laissez faire vibe is coming from people who don’t want to be caught up in what might be needless panic based on the events of the last few years as you describe - trouble is there is then the danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water when things are true but surrounded by mis / disinformation from various nefarious sources……

I just get the feeling that we’re all boiling frogs and willingly adding our own seasoning….

@Wheretheskyisblue

Those are only predictions unless you know some insider knowledge nobody else does. New price cap for October will be announced this Friday.

But if they don't have £500 to put aside from October they also don't have it to pay to the energy companies before then either.
That includes me. I'm not saying I won't pay, but the fixes I've been offered are ridiculous for what I actually use so I'll carry on paying for what I use and set aside what I can.

You tell them no.

I am with British Gas and told them that the DD would bounce.

They said it was to make sure I didnt get into debt. LOL.

My quotes are for Elec 60.35 kWh and standing 48.15 (oct cap 52.09p/kWh daily 46)
gas 15.19 p/kWh standing 27.22 (oct cap 14.76 p/kWh and daily 28.00)

so Martyn’s calculator says don’t fix as more than double what paying now, but I fixed before the price increase so below the variable now. Should I over pay octo to Jan to avoid the hikes again in jan? Are they really going to go up as predicted on Jan?

Are the Jan predicted actually going to be as the table?

Hmm, as I’m fixed below current variable rate, if I put in current variable rates as my current figures then it says at a 98% increase it’s still worth me fixing! So think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and fix at a fucking nearly £400 and then hope Friday doesn’t happen and I can leave and go on variable rate

Me and my partner moved into our flat back in may and our gas and electric company told us it would be £140 a month for both so we signed up to the direct debit and they have an app that tracks usage. By July we looked and we had accumulated almost £140 between the two accounts in credit. I cancelled the direct debit and told them I would pay when I got my bills and I have smart meters which update the company half hourly on usage. We pay quarterly now and just top up our accounts what we spend in the month on gas and electric which is literally £30 on electric and £10 on gas

I keep seeing comments on these threads about cancelling direct debits and just 'paying what you use'.

The problem with this is that you end up having to pay huge amounts over winter. The whole point of DDs is that they spread the cost equally, so instead of paying £150 a month in summer and £400 a month in winter, you pay say £250 a month year round. So if you're saying 'I'm not going to pay £400 per month so I am just going to pay for what I use', are you able to pay £800 a month in January and February? You have to pay for what you use on either method (and at least DD often comes with a discount) unless you just don't pay. There's no hack to avoid paying for what you use - you have to pay for what you consume however you pay.

And I think a lot of people think the DDs being suggested are ridiculous when that's actually just what it's going to cost Yes it is ridiculous to have to pay £500 a month but they doesn't mean that isn't actually what it's going to cost because for some people it is. It's not some freak figure or a glitch in the system, it's literally the scale of the price rises we are facing.

That is mad!!

@Hugasauras i think everyone’s circumstances are different. Me and my partner have found it cheaper to pay quarterly than what we were paying monthly. We are with SSE and we were told that the DD would be looked at and could increase in price due to usage between summer to winter. If we continued to pay £140 from when we moved in until December and the cost of our usage taken off we would have been £700 in credit between the two accounts. That’s a ridiculous amount of money to have in credit and still having the £140 taken out every month DD. In total we pay about £150 for three months gas and electric. That’s basically what I was paying monthly beforehand. We are quite lucky that we live in a flat and our bills aren’t that expensive and I know it would probably be a lot more if we lived in a house but for us in our personal circumstances paying quarterly instead of monthly by DD has worked out in our favour. I think everyone needs to evaluate what would be best for them in their own personal circumstances.

Trying to complete on a house purchase and the cheapest fix we could find for the new property was £2,000. Obviously not based on our estimated usage...we will have to chance our luck and not fix!

Gah, have made typo in my post - electric useage last year 1840kWh, not 8540!!!!!

This. We're going to see a lot of people early next year complaining when they get the quarterly bill for the winter months and it's thousands.

We are with eon…in November our monthly tariff was £260, then by April it was £780!!! Utter madness, so I WhatsApped them through their Contact page, just asking how to cancel the D/D so that we would just pay for what we used, or reduce our D/D . And the reply came back…”sure…we can put your D/D down to £250” !!! WTF?? With ONE message!! Obviously I know we might get a hefty bill later, but I’d far rather owe them money than keep building up a ridiculous amount of credit with them.

We’ve £400 credit and low usage and still offered crazy fixes! Stayed variable and will just pay for what we use at the price at the time.

This. We're going to see a lot of people early next year complaining when they get the quarterly bill for the winter months and it's thousands.

You don't do it quarterly, you do it monthly. In fact you could do it weekly if you wished. I often do meter reads at convenient times for me to pay and it will generate a bill. Put money in an account if you're worried but seems senseless paying a huge unknown extra to someone who is profiting so greatly from holding your money

@peonyprincess we are with eon and you can change your direct debit yourself online. I upped ours slightly a few months ago to build up some credit ready for the winter but I've reduced it in the past too. By sending meter readings regularly, you can keep an eye on how much your using and change it accordingly.

Well I've just had a fun little hour looking back at our kwh usage over last 3 years for gas and electricity during the winter months. Using the predicted standing charge increase and the unit increase in October. We'll be looking at £650 per month...I can't even.... We've already made a lot of changes since 1st April. Eco settings on dishwasher and washing machine which we never used before. Tumble dryer never used now. Judicious about rewearing clothes and quick showers every other day, increasing gas hob meals instead of using fan oven. We both work from home and before we just used to press the +1hr if we were feeling nippy. Not this year!! Or next. Thermals and layers. Heating will only go on when children are home. But even with those changes it's still going to be around £500. We can take the hit, but we will be cutting out all non essential spending which is bad for the economy.

Meant to conclude that £650 on variable though is cheaper than the £900 fixed I've been offered though. But come January who knows??

Does anyone think January will jump again? My fix is slightly higher than predicted for the cap but should protect me in January.