Energy Suppliers

[chrcoluk]

The BBC are reporting today that every household in the country is going to be hit with an extra £85 in there bill because of the Govt. enforced collapse of Bulb.
There are people like me and millions of other that can afford the higher energy costs.... I'd rather not but hey ho. The whole reason for the price cap was to help those unable to afford it. SO how is the extra £85 on top of already high bills going to help them???

The media need to stop this dumbing down, what is this £85, a fixed rate or "average", they need to quote the per unit and/or standing fee increases so its in plain english.

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Ok so its an estimate based on average use, so if e.g. you a low user it wont be that much, if you heavy it will be more, they need to quote on unit rates.

 

[robj20]

The media need to stop this dumbing down, what is this £85, a fixed rate or "average", they need to quote the per unit and/or standing fee increases so its in plain english.

It's based on the average home. There is no other way to do it as even the per unit and standing rate is different throughout the country.

 

[chrcoluk]

It's based on the average home. There is no other way to do it as even the per unit and standing rate is different throughout the country.

Of course there is, you quote it per region. The average bill would vary per region as well, so its possible. It seems to be aimed at deliberate confusion perhaps asked for by the suppliers. The rates probably should be fixed round country to simplify things and then any regulatory information should then be quoted in unit and standing fee costs, I would perhaps go as far as to outlaw standing fee's and its all just per unit pricing.

 

[200sols]

Its insane that in 2021 people are still having to live in cold homes as they can't afford to heat them.

And they are still charging VAT on those bills.

 

[The1nonly1]

A lot of working class people and families should be worried about the future. We're seeing rising energy prices (with cap increase highly likely in April), fuel prices that are ridiculous, likely council tax rises (as they seem to always go up), rises in the prices of food etc. The cost of living is shooting up at an alarming rate but wages are not going up at the same rate. There will be millions who struggle through this winter period with heating their home for fear of how much it will cost.

 

[fezster]

It will but will it go higher than the fixed you been offered and then stay that high for the duration of the fixed? Not to mention you have to account 4 months of that period you are paying much less on variable as cap wont change until April, so that also has to be taken into account so e.g. if its a 12 month deal, would the last 8 months be cheap enough to save you mroe than a fixed rate?

Simply put I would go variable.

I thought so too, but E.On Next (my SOLR after Symbio's collapse) offered an 18 month fixed for electric at 22.53p/kWh (23.31p/day standing charge), which is marginally higher than their variable. Given prices are definitely jumping ~40% in April, it made sense to take it.

I was surprised they offered it as new customers are being offered close to 30p/kWh.

 

[Trifid]

A lot of working class people and families should be worried about the future. We're seeing rising energy prices (with cap increase highly likely in April), fuel prices that are ridiculous, likely council tax rises (as they seem to always go up), rises in the prices of food etc. The cost of living is shooting up at an alarming rate but wages are not going up at the same rate.

The government are going to have a lot more headaches with people striking in the private and public sector if there aren't strong rises in wages over the next couple of years. We are already seeing it at the moment with Tesco and Kellogs.

 

[M1k3H]

Today my fixed tariff with Outfoxthemarket comes to an end.

They sent me a few renewal emails over the past month, with my projected costs if I go to their new fixed tariff going up by £1,000/year to £1,700/year

The projected cost if I go on their standard tariff is apparently £700/year for electricity and £0/year for gas! Going onto their website it doesn't even let me see their standard tariff nevermind selecting it.

I emailed them asking them about it and their standard tariff costs and got the following response:

On the variable tariff there is £0.00 standing charge for Gas and Electric.
The projection for the tariff is correct however you will only charged for Unit rates not standing charges.


I'll just leave it to go onto their standard tariff and see how much it is next month I suppose.

 

[413x]

I thought so too, but E.On Next (my SOLR after Symbio's collapse) offered an 18 month fixed for electric at 22.53p/kWh (23.31p/day standing charge), which is marginally higher than their variable. Given prices are definitely jumping ~40% in April, it made sense to take it.

I was surprised they offered it as new customers are being offered close to 30p/kWh.

Yeah that's a good deal.
I've gone with something slightly higher than current cap locked for 3 years just in case.

 

[413x]

The government are going to have a lot more headaches with people striking in the private and public sector if there aren't strong rises in wages over the next couple of years. We are already seeing it at the moment with Tesco and Kellogs.

Life is getting more expensive. Not sure how it's going to be handled. If we are at point of NI increases it shows they don't think there's any other option but tax increases.

 

[kona786]

I've been moved over from people's energy to British Gas. It's been over 2 months now and they haven't transferred my credit of £140 over.

Is this credit guaranteed to be transferred over at some point?

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Don't fix, there is no way the cap will be raised to the level of fixed contracts now imho. Can you imagine the outcry when energy bills treble?

The cap will be raised substantially, all suppliers are currently running at a loss due to the cap (which was a ridiculous idea in the first place) expect a significant jump in April as the suppliers will need to charge the going rate and then some to recoup the current loses.

 

[dlockers]

(which was a ridiculous idea in the first place)

Whose side are you on?

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Whose side are you on?

The side of the people who are now unemployed due to another ill thought out idea brought about by our incompetent government. A cap wasn't required as utility companies were already operating on tight margins due to the competitive nature of the industry, all the cap managed to achieve was preventing the utility companies raising prices due to the (huge) rise in wholesale gas/electricity.

 

[dlockers]

The side of the people who are now unemployed due to another ill thought out idea brought about by our incompetent government. A cap wasn't required as utility companies were already operating on tight margins due to the competitive nature of the industry, all the cap managed to achieve was preventing the utility companies raising prices due to the (huge) rise in wholesale gas/electricity.

Ah, "the few" then. Sorry you lost your job

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Ah, "the few" then. Sorry you lost your job

I don't work for a utility company, the only affect it's had on me is my bills going up

 

[BigBoy]

The current situation is not of the energy companies making and th cap was put in place to protect the consumer.

If the cap was not in place the companies that have died off would have done so anyway. Contractual agreements have to be maintained no matter what the cost of gas is. This is why the larger companies hedge so far in advance.

The UK and most of Europe has had artificially low gas prices for years because of the Russian gas pipeline. Now the UN has embargoed Russia due to the Ukraine incident Russia has decided to cut off gas flow at the price they had agreed. We now have to rely heavily on North Sea Gas, the MOST expensive to produce natural gas reserves in the world..

Stop blaming energy companies and Offgem for actually trying to protect your (the customers interests) when the fault is with the EU and Russia!

 

[Simon]

We pay market rate for a commodity. Supply and demand the lines cross somewhere and as we are all focused on green expensive electric then it’s not going to change.

If consumers did have to pay real prices then maybe it would change behaviours of energy use?

 

[200sols]

The current situation is not of the energy companies making and th cap was put in place to protect the consumer.

If the cap was not in place the companies that have died off would have done so anyway. Contractual agreements have to be maintained no matter what the cost of gas is. This is why the larger companies hedge so far in advance.

The UK and most of Europe has had artificially low gas prices for years because of the Russian gas pipeline. Now the UN has embargoed Russia due to the Ukraine incident Russia has decided to cut off gas flow at the price they had agreed. We now have to rely heavily on North Sea Gas, the MOST expensive to produce natural gas reserves in the world..

Stop blaming energy companies and Offgem for actually trying to protect your (the customers interests) when the fault is with the EU and Russia!

Bad timing for this article then, but no... look over there 'Russians'..

 

[BigBoy]

Bad timing for this article then, but no... look over there 'Russians'..

Not of you read the whole article.and see the statement from Offgem. The CAB will always back the consumer. I'm an industry employee have been for a long time, I have been and am on both sides of the equation. Yes I work for one of the big six and yes we projected costs increasing but as Offgem stated in that article the energy market as it exists is broken!