Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

BG - £10 profit from each household customer for the whole year. [19 pence per week]

I can’t think of any business with profit margins that low!

Yet the whole social media / news scene are loosing their heads :cry:
So again, as they are struggling so much with such a terrible profit of £72,000,000 when do the lay offs start? Must be soon surely. Maybe they could ask for a government bail out.
 
So again, as they are struggling so much with such a terrible profit of £72,000,000 when do the lay offs start? Must be soon surely. Maybe they could ask for a government bail out.
No one is saying they are struggling :rolleyes:

My point - what do you want BG to do?! Cut the profit for each customer by 10p per week, just think of the opportunities that will unleash :p
 
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No one is saying they are struggling :rolleyes:

My point - what do you want BG to do?! Cut the profit for each customer by 10p per week, just think of the opportunities that will unleash :p
I imagine one phone call from a customer takes their £10 profit for that customer to a loss. That's the margins we are talking about.
 
My point - what do you want BG to do?! Cut the profit for each customer by 10p per week, just think of the opportunities that will unleash :p
They're double dipping though, they're supplying their own gas, charging a premium for the supply and then charging customers on top of that premium but fudging it in a way they can say "we only made £10 per customer at the mains" while conveniently ignoring they made £1000 (for example) per customer at the source
 
They're double dipping though, they're supplying their own gas, charging a premium for the supply and then charging customers on top of that premium but fudging it in a way they can say "we only made £10 per customer at the mains" while conveniently ignoring they made £1000 (for example) per customer at the source

Both Centrica and BG have been transparent on their profits, tax payments and donations.

Sure, energy prices remain high, but let‘s not get carried away on the click-bait media.

Profits at Centrica's British Gas Energy arm, which supplies domestic customers, fell by 39 per cent to £72 million, which "largely reflects voluntary donations made to support customers and the repayment of furlough funds received by the Group in 2020," the company said.

Group chief executive Chris O’Shea said: "We invested £75 million in supporting our energy customers in 2022, which was greater than the £8 post-tax profit per customer earned by British Gas Energy. Whilst customers may see some relief given recent easing of prices, it remains clear that some will continue to need help and we will do what we can to support them in the year ahead."

Centrica also noted at the top of their results statement that it has paid £1 billion in tax relating to 2022 profits.
Source : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/02/16/uk-energy-company-centrica-triples-profit/
 
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Sure, energy prices remain high, but let‘s not get carried away on the click-bait media.
Much of the profit rise came from Centrica's upstream oil and gas production operations
They're the ones setting the prices, so while the benevolent BG "only" made £72million in profit, they can afford this because Centrica are selling billions of £ worth of profitable gas to BG, who pays for the gas in the end ? The customers so it's disingenous to say it's media click bait when the customers are literally providing billions of £'s worth of profit for Centrica's gas generation arm
 
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They're the ones setting the prices, so while the benevolent BG "only" made £72million in profit, they can afford this because Centrica are selling billions of £ worth of profitable gas to BG, who pays for the gas in the end ? The customers so it's disingenous to say it's media click bait when the customers are literally providing billions of £'s worth of profit for Centrica's gas generation arm
Energy producers and suppliers don’t set the gas wholesale price .

-> The producers extract the gas and sell it at the market rates to the suppliers.
-> The suppliers sell it to us, plus 5% profit

Also, Centrica cannot sell the gas it extracts to its own company (British Gas) for a rate than is preferential to the one it charges other energy companies.
 
I'm with British gas for my gas and electricity. Is it worth trying to move to a different supplier to save more?if so what would you suggest please?
 
I'm with British gas for my gas and electricity. Is it worth trying to move to a different supplier to save more?if so what would you suggest please?

No one can really save you much at the moment. Octopus we're doing a good tracker but they've pulled it basically for new people.

My gas rate today is 6.5p/kWh on Octopus tracker for example vs 10.4p I was paying on SEG.

I like Octopus though and recommend them all the same, even if the tariff is the same price.

If you're not in a decent contract worth considering.

Grab a referral code off someone and you split £50 bill credit each as well, which is better than nothing.
 
No one can really save you much at the moment. Octopus we're doing a good tracker but they've pulled it basically for new people.

My gas rate today is 6.5p/kWh on Octopus tracker for example vs 10.4p I was paying on SEG.

I like Octopus though and recommend them all the same, even if the tariff is the same price.

If you're not in a decent contract worth considering.

Grab a referral code off someone and you split £50 bill credit each as well, which is better than nothing.
Hmm thanks. So it's just a matter of getting the referral code and going on their website to check if they can offer me a better rate?
 
Hmm thanks. So it's just a matter of getting the referral code and going on their website to check if they can offer me a better rate?

As mentioned I doubt they currently can really, fixed deals have been rubbish for a while now. They are possibly more likely to than anyone else though in the future.

Only benefit you'd get to switching now is a small referral sum of £50, and the good feeling of moving to Octopus (from what i can tell a decent company with good support) instead of British Gas (in the headlines for ripping people off, and not that great a company to be with).

Don't want to over-promise anything here!

If you decide to switch grab a code off someone though.
 
I'm with British gas for my gas and electricity. Is it worth trying to move to a different supplier to save more?if so what would you suggest please?
I am pretty sure octopus tracker is still open. But you cannot switch to that!

What you need to do is switch to octopus first and move to the current Capped Variable Rate. Also I don’t believe you can switch supplier via octopus site atm. So what you need to do is call octopus and say “hi, I have an EV and want to switch to you”. Then they will take over your supply in a couple of days. After the switch you then call them and ask to be put in tracker rate.
 
This isn't true, supply is the same, demand is the same all that's happened is a change in providers (Technically there is a slight increase in demand due to reaching back to pre Covid levels, but it's not really an increase in demand, it's just returning to normal levels)

Russia is still selling gas, just to different countries who no longer need to buy from their previous suppliers, those suppliers now have surplus supply to sell to Europe, if anything Gas should have been cheaper because of the cap imposed on Russian gas
Incorrect I'm afraid mate. I shall try to help educate you in the facts, but energy supply and demand is a very complex GLOBAL picture that includes swings in weather, the economy and everything in between.

You can't just "Sell gas to different countries", because that requires infrastructure which doesn't exist (yet).

Fundamentally, the GLOBAL supply of Natural Gas has reduced by about 25% because of Russia's war. Combine that with fears of a cold winter, EU storage not being good enough and diversity of supply (Finland, Germany, Eastern Europe..) being poor you get price rises as a result.

This report is good if you care about the details:

 
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