Anyone fixing electricity tariff right now ?

[Serena2016]

I’m already with Octoous and they are offering a loyalty tariff - but its 27% higher than my current one !

Money saving expert says anything less than 40% more then currently pay is a good deal . Seems so much ! Anyone else fixing ?

@FourTeaFallOut - most energy companies are not offering SVR to new customers at the moment. There is no obligation on them to do so from the energy regulator.

Yes, you couldn't move to another company and demand to be a customer but the existing supplier to a property is required to supply power to a home on a standard tariff until told otherwise.

@FourTeaFallOut - Ah yes, I see what you mean. Thanks for clarifying. Sounds like a good back up plan!

No worries, it really should have been something I checked before I switched . I'll email them tomorrow and see if you can just request the change to the SVR tariff. A quick chat with a bot reveals nothing, I don't think it's a question that has come up very often!

[quote TheFoldOx]@Pascha the fix is a fixed price per kWh (and standing charge), not a fixed payment per month. Your direct debit may be "fixed", i.e. the same each month, but this can be altered during the course of the contract.[/quote]
Yes, I'm aware and we did a fair bit of thinking about whether its the right decision for us given the slightly higher rate. We would be upping our dd to at least this anyway to account for the coming shortfall and feel more comfortable on a fix.

I renewed my fixed term tariff with Octopus in November when prices were increasing but I'm shocked to see the charges in them now :/

@BarbaraofSeville

I think there probably won't be a huge difference between the loyalty fix and the new higher price cap tariff from April.

The big unknown is what happens next autumn and winter.

If prices continue to rise, the loyalty fix is probably best, if they fall, or the government steps in and changes the rules to help people out, the fix will look expensive.

But there's no exit penalty for leaving the fix, and if prices continue to rise, the loyalty fix will also continue to rise.

My octopus account says my annual prices are around 1440, 2270 and 2800 for the current price cap, loyalty fix and standard fix respectively. I think I'm going to risk staying on the price cap for now.

I disagree, I think that loyalty fix is a fair bit cheaper than the April price cap will be. I would fix on to that if it were me.

As a previous poster said, it’s also in my line of work and the rise in April is likely to be a lot bigger than that loyalty fix.

We've just had a conversation with Scottish Power about fixing for either 1 year or 2 years.

Currently we pay £103 per month (dual fuel) and when I looked two weeks ago the cheapest I could fix our bill for was £203 which felt like a scary hike.

This evening they've said the fix is £286 for a year, and £287 for 2 years.

We could (only just about) afford to fix and almost triple our direct debit a month, but it feels like a ridiculous thing to do (for us). We're going to stick with the variable rate and see how we go.

New fix is 140 pcm

I’d snatch their hand off for that. Looks like mines going up from £103 to £250.

@Aposterhasnoname

New fix is 140 pcm

I’d snatch their hand off for that. Looks like mines going up from £103 to £250.

I hope you understand that you arent fixing your monthly cost, it's merely a guesstimate by the utility company and a cynic might say they underestimate to get you to sign up. You wil have to pay for what you use and that could be very different to the initial DD

Ignore that and compare the actual rates per kWh to find the best deal.

My British gas tariff ends this month and the new and only tariff they're offering is 120% more expensive than my current deal. there are no options on price comparison sites and I cannot afford such an increase. Has anyone ANY suggestions please?

There are two things to do. First is to find the best tariff, which means ignoring what you are paying now, because that simply isn't available any longer. Price comparison sites will still show you results, but you'll need to deselect 'only show those we can switch you to' as right now only manual switches will work (i.e. you need to go direct to the supplier, after choosing them on the comparison site. Get your annual or monthly use from your British Gas account. The second thing is to look at minimising your energy use - lots of online advice but think about switching your thermostat down; lowering the temperature of your hot water (most people have it far too high); eliminating draughts round doors, windows, letterboxes, catflaps etc; cook several meals in one go (so you run you oven less); don't take too long in the shower, etc, etc.

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.