Energy Suppliers

The small number of people on the tracker tarif reflects the fact it can't be made mainstream - it's being used by Greg as a flagship product, despite that, but, I'm sure yielding interesting research data for them.

Come October, as born alludes, when spot prices shoot up, it will present the dilema of quitting with a no return of 9 months or playing the long game;
 
danlightbulb said:
Is the pre-purchasing strategy of these companies efficient for customers?

Perhaps they should charge wholesale rates + X in the summer and pre-purchase their winter energy.

How do you know the purchasing strategies are designed to minimise costs for customers?
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The issue before was they didnt hedge but gave their customers assured prices for a year or more, then when the market turned as they had emptied their coffers the back broke.

What we have now is a choice between hedged energy, so consumer side is same as before, but also the supplier side is committed to the cost for the same time period, ensuring its financially viable, or the daily market, where you can reap the benefit of on demand pricing, but of course it can go both ways, its like playing the stock market.

SVR is hedged as well, but done a bit different with the ofgem cap in play.
 
chrcoluk said:
What we have now is a choice between hedged energy, so consumer side is same as before, but also the supplier side is committed to the cost for the same time period, ensuring its financially viable, or the daily market, where you can reap the benefit of on demand pricing, but of course it can go both ways, its like playing the stock market.
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Yeah I get this, but what I am saying is why not hedge just for the winter. I.e why can't we enter a fix now but just for the winter 6 months, instead of it having to be for 12 months. If I could go on a fix now for the winter to come I probably would, but I don't want to give up the lower summer prices. So it stops me doing it now.

At the moment the ofgem cap is skewing things because we know that we can drop back onto it at any time, and there are no fixes cheaper anyway.
 
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So my saga with EON next numpties continues.... I'm still on a random gas fixed I never once asked for. I've just logged on though and got my new next flex prices through for electricity:

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The meter is still reporting 48p a kWh and 50p standing charge with 18p evening charge but I guess those take an age to update?

The whole experience with Eon next has been miserable and totally unnecessary though so I'll be moving to Octopus as soon as they redact my gas fixed deal (I'm assuming it has 75 quid exit fees) and my July 5th direct debit puts a ding in my balance remaining.
 
danlightbulb said:
Yeah I get this, but what I am saying is why not hedge just for the winter. I.e why can't we enter a fix now but just for the winter 6 months, instead of it having to be for 12 months. If I could go on a fix now for the winter to come I probably would, but I don't want to give up the lower summer prices. So it stops me doing it now.

At the moment the ofgem cap is skewing things because we know that we can drop back onto it at any time, and there are no fixes cheaper anyway.
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Think! who is the other side of the transaction here?

Do you honestly think the suppliers are going to quote a price for a 6 month hedge when they know its going to be more expensive for them to generate that matches what we pay now.
All that would happen if you asked to hedge for ONLY the expensive period is that you would be quoted a price that reflects that more expensive period ONLY.

When they give longer hedges they take into account the whole period, and the B2C companies do the same as well.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Think! who is the other side of the transaction here?

Do you honestly think the suppliers are going to quote a price for a 6 month hedge when they know its going to be more expensive for them to generate that matches what we pay now.
All that would happen if you asked to hedge for ONLY the expensive period is that you would be quoted a price that reflects that more expensive period ONLY.

When they give longer hedges they take into account the whole period, and the B2C companies do the same as well.
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Of course I would expect the 6 month hedge to only take account of the forecast prices over the 6 month period in question.

So what's the forward prices, buying today, if you were to buy for the winter 6 months? If it's higher than current cap then no benefit. If it's lower than current cap, the suppliers could offer a fix on it and still have a mark up for profit.
 
danlightbulb said:
Yeah I get this, but what I am saying is why not hedge just for the winter. I.e why can't we enter a fix now but just for the winter 6 months, instead of it having to be for 12 months. If I could go on a fix now for the winter to come I probably would, but I don't want to give up the lower summer prices. So it stops me doing it now.

At the moment the ofgem cap is skewing things because we know that we can drop back onto it at any time, and there are no fixes cheaper anyway.
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Last year winter was cheaper than summer.
 
Octopus only do pay monthly tariffs and I refuse to pay a company so they can make interest on my money to pay their shareholders. We're moving house soon so I decided to get a quote from them and their electricity only tariff meant I'd be paying them twice as much than our current tariff is for electricity and gas.
No thanks and I'll stick with quarterly bills..
 
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cuke2u said:
Octopus only do pay monthly tariffs and I refuse to pay a company so they can make interest on my money to pay their shareholders. We're moving house soon so I decided to get a quote from them and their electricity only tariff meant I'd be paying them twice as much than our current tariff is for electricity and gas.
No thanks and I'll stick with quarterly bills..
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Octopus do variable DD, so they dont get your money and earn interest on it, if you choose that option. You pay for what you use….
 
I’m in credit as octopus oddly only bill electric on go faster. Switched to agile about month ago and still no bill.

Gas is on the tracker
 
Simon said:
I’m in credit as octopus oddly only bill electric on go faster. Switched to agile about month ago and still no bill.

Gas is on the tracker
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If they're not billing you, you'll need to ask them, there will be a problem of some kind only they can solve.

I get billed for gas + electric on schedule monthly.
 
cuke2u said:
Octopus only do pay monthly tariffs and I refuse to pay a company so they can make interest on my money to pay their shareholders. We're moving house soon so I decided to get a quote from them and their electricity only tariff meant I'd be paying them twice as much than our current tariff is for electricity and gas.
No thanks and I'll stick with quarterly bills..
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Beware the evil shareholder. Beware.
 
Firestar_3x said:
No plans to switch off, the cheap summer months should offset the potentially more expensive winter.

Plus the wait list to get back on is huge.
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Yeah I want to get the cheapest prices over the summer obviously but can't risk paying more than SVR in the winter, so may be forced to come off if the prices climb too high.
 
danlightbulb said:
So for those on tracker currently or switching to it, what's your strategy for switching off it if prices start rising?
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I wont dodge as soon as prices rise, they go up and down.

I also havent really thought about it that much, I am not that risk averse.

If the prices go obscene and look like they going to stay there for a while I would perhaps just move back to SVR. Or go to agile and do heavy load shifting off peak, batteries etc. (if off peak still reasonable).
 
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