Energy prices

Bulb’s email just arrived. They estimate that my costs should increase by £0.53 per week. We’ll see. R-

Mine is £0.77 a week or £40 a year. When you say £0.77 a week you think it means nothing but when my current bill is about £50 a month it is basically just affording an extra month on top of normal! All about how you spin it!

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My email says £1.60 a week :scream::scream::scream:

That’s a pretty steep jump in price!

I think bulb are one of the few (the only?) where it would actually be cheaper to be on a pre pay meter. If you have a smart meter, I think it’s possible to switch back and forth between you smart pre-pay and pay monthly, which might be worth looking into for some people.

Glad I’m with Avro then.

Fixed in December for 12 months :smiley:

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I’m with Octopus. In January, they started taking readings from my electricity meter - I wasn’t even aware it was a smart meter! I moved into a new build four years ago and there was no mention of smart meters. Anyway, turns out it was a SMETS1 and they’d just gained the ability to read from it.

I actually had new SMETS2 gas and electricity meters installed by Octopus in February. Love the dashboards they provide - really useful info.

In terms of prices, I believe Octopus were one of the last to implement an increase this year.

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I have just started process of switching from Neon Reef to Octopus Energy for Electric. The deal I had with Neon Reef was a brilliant deal at the time. But they have given 30 days notice of a price increase so thought it was time to move. Quite amazing how the prices of gas and electricity have gone up. I am with Bristol Energy for my gas and that is a really good deal but it ends in September so will need to hunt around nearer the time. Just got some quotes for Gas and the standing charge and rate per unit are quite a bit higher compared to what I have now.

Do you find it works better for you, separately rather than dual fuel with same supplier?

Hi Breezy in my experience it was better doing them separate. But some will swear blindly that dual fuel is better. Just amazed at all the energy price increases.

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Sadly, yet two more energy companies have gone bust:

I was a Utility Point customer about 3 years ago. I didn’t really have any issues wih them, though trying to get through to their customer services was a bit of a challenge, sometimes it would literally take them days to respond. Anyway irrelevant now and yet a whole bunch more customers will now find themselves in a sort of energy limbo until a new supplier has been appointed.

There’s a real risk of the whole grid collapsing.

Coal plant owners winning again!

It seems there is major concern that energy prices are going to go quite literally through the roof. I’ve been in my new build home now for 3 months and when I moved in, both gas and electric were already tied to British Gas as the housing developer used them to fit the smart meters.

So obviously, during the first week of moving in, I contacted British Gas to ensure that all the billing etc was put in my name. From the date I took over, the gas and electric tariffs, would have been on BG’s standard variable rate. Because I had just moved into a brand new home, BG offered me a fixed 1 year homebuyers tariff. I took the offer. Monthly billing via variable direct debit. Our monthly electric bill works out at almost bang on £40 a month (Wife works from home and she of course gets the HMRC tax break) and our gas, £15 a month. It’ll be interesting to see how much gas we use for heating this winter having moved from the East Midlands to the South West, where it is somewhat less chilly in the winter months. And of course we’re in a brand new build home, so the EPC rating is pretty good. Our monthly gas bill back up North during winter, used to be around £30 a month.

Today, I decided to compare my BG gas and electric tariff, but none of the comparison sites have my tariff listed, probably because BG haven’t given them that information. As it turns out, just by comparing my monthly useage via MSE’s Cheap Energy Club and looking at the cheapest providers based on monthly kwh use alone, it seems that BG’s tariff in my case cannot be beaten by any other provider at this time. Result me thinks!

Anyway, definitely NOT looking forward to next June when my tariff comes to an end. I think I’ll be in for a bill shock if the prices escalate.

So, if anyone is sat lingering on an expensive tariff, or as in some cases, you just can’t be arsed to switch tariffs because you’ve got too much money and aren’t bothered, then perhaps it’s time to have a look at your energy. I would hope though that most users of this forum are at least a bit money savvy!

My fixed rate deal comes to an end in January 2022. Expecting a big hike :frowning_face:

May be worth moving to a new fix now and just sucking up any exit fees you might have. Might still be cheaper than the inevitable hikes you’ll be offered in January.

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It’s a super tough market out there at the moment. When I went on MSE Cheap Energy Club and discovered that there wasn’t currently a single energy tariff cheaper than my current British Gas fix, it was a little surprising. As an example, if I swapped now, as well as forking out £60 in exit fees from BG, the cheapest tariff available to me based on my geographical location, would cost me at least £80 a year more than I’m projected to pay with BG.

Unfortunately, some folks, especially those who for whatever reason never switch energy provider, either through laziness or genuinely because they’re that well off, paying the extra just doesn’t bother or register with them, have already left it somewhat late.

I have a relative who falls into the camp of ‘i’ve got enough money I’m not really bothered either way’ attitude. A couple of years back we sat down one evening and he humoured me by seeking out a better deal on his dual fuel tariff and ended up saving himself a whopping £600 a year on his previous tariff. He wasn’t at all fussed. That’s what happens I guess when money doesn’t mean much, until you lose it all that is.

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Interestingly, due to the Ofgem price cap those on standard tariffs aren’t getting that bad of a deal at the moment, even after the increase coming in on the 1st October. After that their prices can’t rise again until April 2022.

It’s exacerbating the problems a lot of suppliers are seeing - the price cap is lower than you can currently buy gas & electricity for at wholesale and that’s before you add in all the other costs.

My switch away from Pure Planet just completed today - I took a look at what tariffs they’re now offering new customers, and the electricity is at 27p/kWh and gas is 7p/kWh! That’s way above the price cap (but obviously suppliers aren’t compelled to offer new customers a standard variable rate so they can go above the cap).

My BG tariff prices are electricity, 18.832p/kWh and gas, 3.44p/kWh.
It’s the daily ‘Standing charges’ that are an absolute rip off in my opinion, but then the energy suppliers will argue they need to be that high to maintain the energy infrastructure.

I’d be a bit worried about some of the lesser known players in the energy market. I’m guessing the two that have collapsed in the last couple of days, won’t be the last. If any of the Big Six go down the pan, we’re all stuffed. When I was with Utility Point 3 years back, it genuinely took me days to make up my mind whether or not to go with them. I stuck with them through the fixed rate tariff I had with them, then promptly swapped to British Gas and then after, So Energy. Back with now, but I’ll be very wary of who I go with when this tariff comes to an end.

I’ve been with Octopus for a few years but have switched my gas to Zog Energy, fixed at 3.16p/kWh for two years.

I’m on Octopus’ Go Faster tariff for electricity which is currently averaging around 11.9p/kWh, but that’s only fixed until May next year.

To be honest it’s not that much of a problem for the consumer when their supplier goes bust - credit balances and supply is protected which are the most important parts really.

The two main annoying parts are it can take some time to get your credit balance back (but you will get it), and you usually end up on a worse tariff than you were on when you are transferred to the SoLR (though not always and these tariffs never have exit fees).

Whether the latter is that much of a problem depends on the general market - at the moment it is as the cheapest deal is probably quite a bit more expensive. 18 months or so ago though, no problem at all because energy was very cheap across the board.

Other than that it’s just a little bit of admin - probably worth the overall savings you’d make vs. staying with BG.

Good move, doing that same switch today would probably cost you around 5p/kWh!

Wholeheartedly agree, it’s just the ballache factor of being in limbo until Ofgem appoint a new supplier.

Yes, this is something that quite honestly, I don’t quite get, how some customers allow a huge credit build up far in excess of what their energy use is. I’ve had it a couple of times where I was £120 in credit because they’ve not listened to me about how much energy I use and quite literally go off their own projections and I’ve basically told the energy company I was with at the time, to give me my money back or I would cancel my direct debit. I had exactly that scenario with Utility Point when I was with them. It took them weeks to cough up the money. When I switched away from them, I owed them less than £10 and they took it immediately. Funny how when you owe an energy company money, they’ll grab it faster than an Olympic runner out of the blocks, but when they owe you, it is like you’re trying to rob them.

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