Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

chrcoluk · 17 Jul 2022 at 05:02

Seen a tiktok with a lady saying she is going to default on a £500 and something bill for the last 3 months. She said it was an estimated reading bill, and the account was in debt of over £1700. I was going to reply to check the actual readings, and also see if the DD is something reasonable, I expect that situation is happening to loads of people with not paying bills.

chrcoluk · 17 Jul 2022 at 05:05

MadMossy said:
The low cap was why so many suppliers went bust. Essentially the only solution that I see is the energy market being government owned and ran.

It wasnt the sole reason, they were to be fair ran badly..

theone8181 · 17 Jul 2022 at 08:06

chrcoluk said:
Seen a tiktok with a lady saying she is going to default on a £500 and something bill for the last 3 months. She said it was an estimated reading bill, and the account was in debt of over £1700. I was going to reply to check the actual readings, and also see if the DD is something reasonable, I expect that situation is happening to loads of people with not paying bills.

That's why paying the exact amount is a bad idea for the majority of people. I bet if she did, she'd be in even more debt come winter.

MadMossy · 17 Jul 2022 at 08:19

fez said:
How have lots of people benefitted? Genuine question because I can't think of anything that has been better for me since Brexit and I can think of a dozen things that have been much worse.

Yeah, this is one of those things which doesn't help many of us have as much sympathy as we could with those struggling. All those little things add up and none of them are necessary or even improve your quality of life.

People spending money on lunches at work every day. A coffee and a pastry for £5 a few days a week. A couple of takeaways every week. People are spending thousands a year on entirely luxury items that they have just become so used to that to ask them to stop is seen as entirely unreasonable.

This squeeze is going to disappear within a year or two I imagine so asking people to tighten their belts in the short term isn't crazy IMO.

Those people are the sort that claim they are skint, when in reality they are just down to their last 5 figures in their bank account.

platinum87 · 17 Jul 2022 at 08:26

Minusorange said:
That's why paying the exact amount is a bad idea for the majority of people. I bet if she did, she'd be in even more debt come winter.

I dont quite understand what you are saying, why exactly is it bad?

b0rn2sk8 · 17 Jul 2022 at 08:37

Because generally people get paid the same amount each month and have less than £500 in their bank accounts. Therefore having bills that fluctuate from next to nothing in summer to rather a lot in winter generally isn’t that helpful when you are not sat on a big cash buffer. Paying the same amount via by DD each month is that person budgeting.

413x · 17 Jul 2022 at 09:24

If people can't afford the summer overpay and pay for energy used they are not going to be able to cope come winter.
Thier bill will jump massively.

For a lot of people paying same each month is better. I'm good at budgeting but would rather pay equally month on month. Especially as winter is usually more expensive in general (not just bills) than summer for me.

Harnser · 17 Jul 2022 at 09:47

413x said:
For a lot of people paying same each month is better. I'm good at budgeting but would rather pay equally month on month. Especially as winter is usually more expensive in general (not just bills) than summer for me.

Agree. It was different when savings were getting 6.5% interest as overpaying meant losing out. But now, I like having reserves built up for the winter.

HungryHippos · 17 Jul 2022 at 09:47

chrcoluk said:
Seen a tiktok with a lady saying she is going to default on a £500 and something bill for the last 3 months. She said it was an estimated reading bill, and the account was in debt of over £1700. I was going to reply to check the actual readings, and also see if the DD is something reasonable, I expect that situation is happening to loads of people with not paying bills.

I wouldn't get involved personally.

She's in debt for over £1700 so her problems aren't just with the new cap.

Harnser · 17 Jul 2022 at 09:49

jpaul said:
Have you considered exclusively load shifting (no pv), and getting a powerwall/embedded-invertor type configuration which you could transport to a new house,
assuming, that with the battery usage pattern it maintains a good capacity after those 8 years, it's probably resellable too, if new property was already equipped.

That does rely on the differential between favorable night, and day, rates, with the likes of octopus, remaining; maybe other suppliers will soon be onboard and restriction of EV ownership 'relaxed',
more wind capacity coming online and limited supplier storage capacity investment suggests it will (private market and ev's monopolising lithium supply)
Unclear how any change in vehicle/EV taxation - mileage based ? might modify market.

I haven't, that's a really interesting idea. Any idea how I'd go about quantifying the savings, as the rates I think fluctuate every day?

CaptainRAVE · 17 Jul 2022 at 10:11

My wife has gone for the predicted £400 a month fixed. And with that the hot tub can go off.

Dangerous Dave · 17 Jul 2022 at 10:13

What is scary is most households haven't experienced the full effect of the increases it will be in winter most households will have a shock even at the current cap electricity usage/cost's for most are only up £50-70 a month through spring/summer with gas use at a minimum. It will be when they start to heat properties especially on gas as the proposed cap is 5-7 times what a common fixed deal was last winter which was also a mild one.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 17 Jul 2022 at 10:25

Interesting BG wont even offer me a fix now

b0rn2sk8 · 17 Jul 2022 at 10:59

Dangerous Dave said:
What is scary is most households haven't experienced the full effect of the increases it will be in winter most households will have a shock even at the current cap electricity usage/cost's for most are only up £50-70 a month through spring/summer with gas use at a minimum. It will be when they start to heat properties especially on gas as the proposed cap is 5-7 times what a common fixed deal was last winter which was also a mild one.

The last decent fixed deals to be offered last year were 20p/3p and 25p/day around September time. The 1 year fix will be running out now and the 2 year fix obviously still has a year to run.

Hardly anyone is on a fixed deal anymore, it’s something like 80% of customers are on the SVR and have been for a long time.

I can’t really see where you are getting your numbers from as the cap going into winter is 2X a fix from last September.

For this winters cap to be 5-7X your fix, you need to have been paying under 10p a kWh and those kind of prices have not been a thing for years, perhaps even 10 at this point.

Dangerous Dave · 17 Jul 2022 at 11:09

b0rn2sk8 said:
The last decent fixed deals to be offered last year were 20p/3p and 25p/day around September time. The 1 year fix will be running out now and the 2 year fix obviously still has a year to run.

Hardly anyone is on a fixed deal anymore, it’s something like 80% of customers are on the SVR and have been for a long time.

I can’t really see where you are getting your numbers from as the cap going into winter is 2X a fix from last September.

For this winters cap to be 5-7X your fix, you need to have been paying under 10p a kWh and those kind of prices have not been a thing for years, perhaps even 10 at this point.

I'm just using my own bill, I was on 2.6p a unit last winter cap going to 15-17p for gas this winter.

My fixed tariff finished at the end of February this year along with a lot of my friend's they had fixes finishing after winter so this coming winter is going to be a big increase. Sub 3p a unit for fixed deals on gas were common until last year I've never paid more than 3p a unit until 2022.

I regret not paying to come out my deal and fix like 413x did would have saved me thousands over the course of the deal.

the shadow · 17 Jul 2022 at 13:10

1.3 million families – including one-in-twelve poor families – have no savings to cope with rising cost pressures or unexpected expenses • Resolution Foundation

www.resolutionfoundation.org

Surveyor · 17 Jul 2022 at 13:28

the shadow said:
1.3 million families – including one-in-twelve poor families – have no savings to cope with rising cost pressures or unexpected expenses • Resolution Foundation

www.resolutionfoundation.org

Do you need us to start a GoFundMe campaign for you?

the shadow · 17 Jul 2022 at 13:43

Surveyor said:
Do you need us to start a GoFundMe campaign for you?

Yes please target 2M only :cool:

Surveyor · 17 Jul 2022 at 13:54

the shadow said:
Yes please target 2M only

Greedy, I'm out.

the shadow · 17 Jul 2022 at 13:59

Surveyor said:
Greedy, I'm out.