OMG... I've just had my new fuel quote

[listsandbudgets]

£10650 a year!!!

We currently pay about £200 a month - big old house with quite a lot of people in and out so thats not unreasonable but this is astronomical

What the fu*k....

It's over a third of my annual pre-tax income.

They are going to have people on the streets

In shock

It just isn't viable to leave us paying this, even people who can find the money will have nothing for anything else - surely every business will go bust. The numbers are mental.

I'm currently on a fixed deal which expires on 31 Dec. I am currently paying 15.293 kwh in Electric and 2.666 kWh for Gas
I used 11000 kwh in Gas last year and 13100 in Electric
I looked at the deals at the current rates and SP offered me 1117 a month!
God knows what it will be in Jan

What matters is the kwh cost. Ours is standard (bulb) and projection is £187 from October (currently £139) 4 adults.

It's definitely worth investing in a few energy saving measures like insulating tape along any drafty windows or doors, think about making a draft excluding snake (I made one aged 8 and stuffed full of tights at school) plus throws for the living room

That electric usage is almost 4x the average household use. Could you have misread it?

Ive been very impressed with OVO during this.

Their email last week so so informative and I felt like this is the information we should have had from government months (if not a year) ago.

I honestly think there will be riots in the streets.

I have just given my September electricity meter reading to EDF which has put us at 280 in credit. We do not have any gas. At our last bill/DD review in February we owed them £20 and they put our DD up from £85.00 per month to £128 per month. They now want £194.00 per month. We have already cut down our showers (electric), using the dishwasher every other day rather than daily, the washing machine cut down to 3 loads a week and not using the tumble dryer plus we are using PIR lights in the kitchen, hallway, landing etc and I am currently wandering around the house with a camping lantern looking like Florence Nightingale. I used to be able to see how our usage compared to the previous year, but they appear to have removed that facility.

diversion our numbers are similar to yours😱

I have tried to build up a buffer of credit but I have limited funds, like every one else everything has gone up ☹️

Just checked the money saving expert link above. Thanks for posting. My direct debit is actually 229 and it’s says it’s around £200 on that for our usage, but I’m in credit at the moment. It says it will go up the £364. It’s a total joke. I did get a payrise for working ridiculously hard (so it deserved!) and it will totally wipe it out which is a kick in the teeth. I’ve reduced some bills such as sky and Amazon prime but then everything is more expensive. It just seems so depressive. We’ll be able to afford it but it’ll impact what we can spend monthly on other things and treats as a family, how will people who are close to the line cope?! Surely something has to be done. I do think there will be complete uproar about it all. Loads of people will get into debt and I think the fuel companies have to look at that. If they go straight to measures of debt collecting/ccj’s it’s going to ruin credit and borrowing for people and impact banks. Loads on knock on impacts with all this. I hope something gets done.

We fixed a few months ago until Dec 2023....£800 per month 😱😱😱 argh.

My first Mumsnet post 🙌🏻

There will be more assistance. GoldmanSachs suggested Truss is looking at 30bln further intervention and as much as a 10% VAT cut (which will reduce all costs). The idea is high inflation erodes debt so there is scope to spend even with higher interest rates.
Interest rates will be 4% by March, the doomsday predictions if you understand Futures markets is around 7% by May and the pound being parable £1:$1 with the dollar, the pound is tumbling right now, and the euro and dollar are level. It's crazy.

I'm perplexed by much of the posts on here. We were paying £163/mo for duel fuels, 4-bed detached new build. Could see this coming and fixed at 266/mo for 12 months in July. The predictions would put us at 294 out, up to 550/mo by April. Yes the fix was more than the variable but it's going to save us loads in the long term, particularly when you factor in the £400 discount for all homes - £66/mo off, so 266 becomes £200. Don't understand why people say don't fix, it's only going one way...and this assumes Russia don't turn the gas off in winter. It's being weaponised and is off now for 3 days (allegedly).

Finally if you don't pay your bills you get forced onto a pre-pay, and won't be able to get a mortgage or any form of "good" debt. Please don't fall into that trap.

If you're really struggling do weekly meter readings and only pay what you owe, rather than their estimates. You don't need to have a direct debit.

Praying for a mild winter, I'm so sorry people are in this boat.

@5thCommandment first post and super informative!! So are you saying we could be better to fix? We would still pay I just wonder how it will all pan out. Some people won’t be able to pay. If prepay impacts credit then it’s a vicious circle. The banks will still want to lend, they will wipe some of that out h less they become less risk adverse which I don’t see happening.

I'm not fixing just now as the price per kwh and standing charge would be too high and give a monthly price over £560 right now which I'm not prepared to pay until I have to.

And who cares if you were offered a good fix?; I haven't been offered one that I find reasonable after I came off my fix in February.

Oh my! I'd have a heart attack at some of these DD's.

I'm on pre-payment smart meter and I just couldn't cope with £300pm going out.

I've just checked my meters, in the last 7 calendar days up to right now we've used £4.90 electric and £2.20 gas.

That's one adult one child, small 2 bedroom house.

It's not the pre-pay that's the issue. Refusing to pay brings final notice letters for bills, failure to settle leads to a County Court Judgement which black marks your credit file. THAT will stop you being able to borrow, get a credit card, buy on credit, get a mortgage... pre-pay is also more expensive per unit so it's just not logical.

Yes you may be better off fixing if the fix is below the projected January uplift. Our fix was higher than the variable at the time - but we will be better off by oct given the variable goes up more than the fix we've now taken.

Next year will very difficult. 22% inflation equates to 3.1% economic contraction (deep recession).

I think there will be intervention though. Bills up = no spending = share values fall = poor dividends. Tories like free money. Hang on another week and see what's announced. My bet is a half way between the costs and the fix proposed by Scottish power.

Wer with Scottish Power, £145 a month. Fixed term expires Dec. If we change tariff now its £560 a month. Just... Fuck.

@5thCommandment thank you appreciate you putting your knowledge out there. I hope for those that can’t/won’t pay there is enough time between the measure of not paying to court for something to change. It’s all rather depressing really, covid was bad enough but this on the back of that is terrible for the economy but also peoples health.

If people are struggling the first thing they should do is speak to their supplier as they may be able to help. I know Octopus has an Octo Assist fund and I imagine other suppliers will have similar schemes

Ouch OP! Are they trying to put you off fixing or will this become our reality in a few months time (relative to individual circumstances)?
I have no idea what is going to happen, still in two minds about fixing (with Octopus, someone on another thread advised how to find fix rates).
Predicted annual usage is showing on all our bills and the figures change from period to period ( possibly based on that month's bill I think they multiply by 12?).
Our consumption has been drastically reduced as we did a trial and error since about March. So I have some idea how to work out our own realistic predicted usage for a year, but I simply cannot find the time with the right frame of mind to complete this exercise and take a decision.
I'll pay for what we use, but it shouldn't take me so much time and energy to get a grasp on the situation. Too much uncertainty. We're not extravagant with our energy usage and are doing all the sensible things but this is still the biggest ongoing 'need to sort' item on my mental to do list.

It’ll be ok

the government will help people on low incomes

god help
everyone else

Unfortunately not there are 5 adults and 1 child here. We are making major cutbacks in the hope of bringing it down

That does seem high - and I say that as someone with stonking use too. Do you have an EV?

Our electricity usage is a bit above yours - but we're all electric, big 5 bed, with a large EV which eats kWh for breakfast. So your level of use plus gas seems high even for a big home.

We fixed at £5k a few days ago, if the Jan and April predicted rises come to pass we would be paying £7k on variable. Theres a 14 day cooling off period so if whoever is next PM does what they bloody should and freezes the cap we'll cancel and go back to variable. Otherwise there's a £150 contract break clause so still worth the risk.

Luckily we can suck up the £3k extra on bills without going into debt but that's our holiday budget bollocksed next year. Really hope government help especially for the sake of those with no disposable income. X

No EV. My DH has Reynards so will put an electric fan heater on as well as the gas in the winter which doesn't help even though he only has it on for short bursts . The dishwasher can be on full up to 3 times a day and the washing machine is on evey day the hot weather means we haven't used the rumble drier.

My DH has a gadget that we can measure usage at the meter stand it has been running fir a week si we are hoping that wiĺ help identify where we csn save