Anyone able to help me make sense of this? Energy related.

[Crunchymum]

Current deal (fixed rate ended 31/01) is set to go up by aprox £80 a month. My supplier was not offering new fixed tariffs.

Entered all my info into ML website and found a 24 month deal with a different supplier for a better price. The was based on estimated usage.

I managed to find my statements to went back and added the actual usage and the quote jumped by almost £100 per month so is more than I will be paying with current supplier.

This was my usage for March 2020 - March 2021. I assume usage for March 2021 - March 2022 will be similar.

My question is do I opt for the cheaper deal on the estimated (cheaper) cost and try to keep my energy consumption down going forwards. I will provide monthly readings so the monthly DD can be amended, this is what my current supplier has always done? So even if I do use more energy than estimated the DD will be adjusted?

Current supplier is Shell. New Supplier would be So Energy
Cheaper deal will be £141/mth / £1,689/yr Shell will be raising me to £170 a month / over £2k per year

Is it worth it?
Will I end up paying the higher rate or even more anyway given my energy consumption is a little higher than the figures they've used to work out the best deal?

Any advice much appreciated.

I think you are over complicating it.

Forget whatever monthly DD they suggest. Focus solely on

a) how much energy do you actually use over a year
b) what's the cost per unit for that energy + daily standing charge
c) pick the lowest

Your monthly DD can and will be tweaked to match what you actually use over a year, so usage should always be your starting point, not whatever they quote as your monthly DD.

You can always then attempt to cut down on usage, bringing your blls down a bit.

Yup, as PP says. Completely ignore their estimates and DD suggestions.

What are the two charging per kW/h? And what is the daily standing charge?

What are the standard charges and the unit rates of the fixed tariff that you are considering moving to?

Agree with PPs, don’t look at the estimated DD - as ultimately you will be charged for your actual usage so you need to compare the standing charges and unit rates.

The DD based on estimated usage is meaningless. You want the lowest unit cost and standing charge deal.

Although, if you are easily able to use less electricity, you should do that whatever the cost. Even at the lowest available prices it's going to be a lot more expensive than you're used to in the near future, plus it's better for the environment to use less even if you can afford not to cut down.

Thank you for the replies - sorry I am so clueless! This is really helping though.

So Energy:
Electricity 33.570p per kWh 23.28p per day
Gas: 8.74p per kWh standing charge is 26.11p per day

Shell:
Electricity: 29.63p per kWh standing charge 32.14p per day
Gas: 7.51p per per kWh standing charge 27.22p per day

Shell is cheaper on kWh and So has cheaper standing charges.

I assume I need to go for the cheaper kWh?

Do you know how many units you normally use in a year? It should say how many units you’ve used on your previous bills for the bill period. Then you can calculate how much it would cost on each deal if you used the same this year.

Shell.

Working out those costs on a scale of 1000kwh - 10000kwh of electricity and gas (each) used across the year makes Shell cheaper in all circumstances.

At the bottom end, just £15 a year cheaper. But at the top end of usage, £480 per year cheaper.

Shell deal, standing charge is minimal compared to usage.

I worked out that the increase in standing charge is around £60-70 per year, between the price cap, but the increase in the fuel is hundreds of pounds a year for the average user.

In most cases, unless your usage is very very low, it's probably cheaper to pay a higher standing charge if this gives a lower unit charge.

Oh what did I miss? What did BeeMSE say?

I am going to work it all out as I do have my statements so know actual usage.

Many thanks again.