British Gas - Fixed or variable tariff?

[Ohtheaudacity]

This time last year our energy bills (dual fuel) were £80/month. With the price increase in April our direct debit increased to £145/month. We’ve just been offered a fixed tariff with British Gas (our current provider) at £215 a month for the next 12 months. I can’t work out if we should fix or stay on the variable tariff? I’d really appreciate any advice! Thank you.

You need your current price per kwh and standing charge and then the fixed price per kwh and standing charge to work out whether its worth your while to fix

What is the daily standing charge & what's the price pkw?

I didn't fix with BG in Sept when my previous fix was ending. The 'saving' over the variable was £5 for the year, it didn't seem worth the hassle of being fixed (I'm looking at moving) kicking myself now! Anyway I have fixed on the Dec 23 tarrif. At the time Martin what's his name of MSE was saying not to, now he's saying you should look at it. I figured the prices weren't going to come down, & if they did & I ended up paying a little bit more, I'd rather that than have no idea how much it was going to go up.

Are you dual fuel?

personally with them going up again in October & possibly again shortly after, I'd be very surprised if fixing turned out to be a bad idea for you.

Sorry, just saw you did say duel fuel.

I fixed with BG.I worked out the new fixed tariff was about 32% above the variable rate. I'm worried the October hike will be more than 30% and I seem to remember another hike is due in January. As @JuneJubilee says, Martin Lewis is now advising to look at fixing contrary to previously saying to stay on the capped (variable) rate.

The fix I'm offered (Octopus) is 44.75% higher than the price cap for electricity and 53.75% higher for gas so I'm staying on the variable rate

Think its only advised to look at fixing if the fix is not more than 35-40% above the price cap

Right when Martin Lewis was advising against fixing, I chose to fix my tarrifs for duel fuel for 12 months.

My tarriff ends on Dec 4th and it has given me some peace of mind until Dec 2022, if there is a price increase I will not pay any extra whilst I am on this tarriff.

I always check the tarrif plus SC with my useage which I know like the back of my hand after installing a new fridge this week where there is a significant drop in my electricity consumption.

Onwards and upwards

@dementedpixie

Are you not worried about the October (&subsequent) price rises??

I'm not paying more right now. The price rise in October is supposed to be less than the fixed prices quoted by Octopus so it would be daft of me to fix at those rates. I thought prices were supposed to fall a bit by April too. I am treating the standard variable rate as a short term fixed rate.

Watching as we are currently on a fix until the end of September. We don't have any exit fee however on a fairly reasonable rate for both gas and elec. Current 12 month fixes are quoting double the daily standing charge for both, and gas the unit price is more than double the current fix I'm on. And considerably higher than the current variable pricing.

I'm considering fixing before prices rise again in October however it seems all the available deals for fixed tarrifs have already tried to factor this in.