[Closed] Gas. Fixed rate a no brainer?

>Is the clever money on fixed for the foreseeable?

no, the current thinking is go on the variable rate which is capped, unless you can find a fix which is WAY lower than the amount you would pay for your usage

to be fair, 768 per annum is way lower than the cap on variable rate so that does seem like a reasonable number, but check out moneysavingexpert

Nope, pretty much everyone from Martin Lewis to U Switch are telling everyone to not fix at the moment.

The current fixed rate 'deals' are way more expensive than the Oct 21 cap, and likely to be higher then the April 22 cap as well.

If, like me, your fixed rate deal has just ended, or it due to, there's no good solution, other than trying to reduce consumption and hoping that something can be done about the wholesale price of gas. At the moment the weather has been very mild, where I live anyway, I've turned the boiler down a bit, turned down the thermostat and trimmed some time on the timer.

The energy companies are screaming that Ofgem's cap is no long fit for purpose and want it gone, and why not, they're looking at huge losses, The Government are desperate to avoid that because it's hard to be populist if everyone is unhappy. The Russians have cooled things a bit, they've agreed to increase supply, but it's still up something like 200%.

I give it a week before Fracking is back on the table.

to be fair, 768 per annum is way lower than the cap on variable rate so that does seem like a reasonable number, but check out moneysavingexpert

I think the cap is only measure on a per-annum for the sake of comparison. Everyone still pays a combination of per KWh and standing charge.

I give it a week before Fracking is back on the table.

Got a news alert the other day reminding us that Blackpool is sat on a fracking gold mine. Won't be long before they fire that chestnut back up again.

you need to provide the standing/rates to be able to see if the deal is very good. I expect BG have some people who know more than you about the open gas market and they're unlikely to be doing you a favour

Well, this the best EDF are offering me at the moment.

Dual Fuel, £1104 current, £1584 varaible, £2436 fixed.

BG is £300 a year more for "the fixed one v10"

Stopping on variable here - fixed rate ends shortly, and anything other than variable is £400 more a year. Variable currently the same as my outgoing current deal.

On Octopus' variable rate here, will stay on that.

Looks like my current energy supplier is about to go bust so I just got an estimate from BG for their fixed rate gas and elec combined - £485 per month (yes , per month), lolz.

I've just checked MSE today (as we come off our fixed rate at the end of the month) and the advice remains to go on the capped variable rate.

Looks like my current energy supplier is about to go bust so I just got an estimate from BG for their fixed rate gas and elec combined – £485 per month (yes , per month), lolz.

Mine is also about to go bust by the looks of it (PurePlanet). Doesn't seem worth it to fix, so will see what happends when I am transferred...

Mine is also about to go bust by the looks of it (PurePlanet)

yes, pure planet here as well.

Does anyone know what british gas domestic deemed contract rates are? I can find info on their business deemed contract rates, but nothing for their domestic.

It would appear that if pure planet does go bust I will get moved to one of the big suppliers 'deemed contract' plans, but cant seem to find out anything about what the costs actually are under these deemed contracts.

Just trying to work out how screwed I am going to be......

All the quotes I'm getting are £1000 and upwards, so the £760 doesn't seem too bad.

wonder how much bojo's new green legislation tax on gas will cost us on top of surging prices.

is an apocolypse coming

has anyone else (on fixed rates) had their supplier massively whack up their direct debits? I'm fixed till end of feb, paying £90 a month and ~£200 in credit - By end of feb I'll probably be broadly events. e.On have just emailed me saying they're DOUBLING my direct debit. I don't doubt that my bills will go up in feb, but given that the worst of winter is over by then, my current rate isn't half the cost of the cap anyway, and gas prices may get cheaper by then (or may not) - it seems that putting my bills up to £180 a month is just a predatory way of shoring up their own coffers..

I find it annoying that the price cap is never quoted in price per unit alongside the annual cost for an average user. THe Ofgem website says contact your supplier. I went onto my supplier, Octopus' website to try and find out. No joy so far. I did get a laugh at their fixed price tariffs.

1 year fix. Electricity 35p per Kwh. Standinh charge 25p per day.
Gas 10p per Kwh 26p standing

For comparison my current fix until March is 16p per Kwh and 20p a day standing charge.
Gas 3p per Kwh and 1p standing charge.

So Electricity doubled, gas trebled. Although if you want a greener tariff there are more expensive ones.

Presumably energy companies are not advertising their capped rate tariffs as they are not taking on any new customers at the capped rate.

@5lab
Never had that. With Octopus I can choose my direct debit level on the website. Currently going with their suggested £94 per month which has me a couple of hundred in credit going into the winter. I also have the option of taking cash out via the website which I did a few months ago when the balance was higher than I thought I needed to smooth out winter/summer bills.

No need to have a DD set at a level which wil have a surplus in Spring. I'm sure you can get that reduced if you contqct them.

Octopus haven't changed our DD in years, still in credit by £200 before going into winter.

I guess the big difference is Octopus was well funded so probably not feeling the pinch right now if they've got long term supply contracts still running.

OP, I got a new offer from British Gas for a year that was, (when I managed to find the figures) only marginally more expensive than the OFGEM cap cost, I suspect it's a special tariff to try and retain existing customers. Thing is that this fixed offer will run a year whereas the OFGEM cap will almost certainly be going dead expensive in 6 months, and if it does then the fixed deals will also be costly.

So to answer your question, yeah, in this specific case I reckon it's no brainer.

I’m sure you can get that reduced if you contqct them.

yeah thats a bit of a longshot - premium rate phone numbers, web chat is down so I've dropped them an email. If they don't respond I'll just refuse the direct debit on principle 🙂

has anyone else (on fixed rates) had their supplier massively whack up their direct debits? I’m fixed till end of feb, paying £90 a month and ~£200 in credit – By end of feb I’ll probably be broadly events. e.On have just emailed me saying they’re DOUBLING my direct debit. I don’t doubt that my bills will go up in feb, but given that the worst of winter is over by then, my current rate isn’t half the cost of the cap anyway, and gas prices may get cheaper by then (or may not) – it seems that putting my bills up to £180 a month is just a predatory way of shoring up their own coffers..

EDF pull shit like that, but then they also have a simply stupid billing system. They Told us we should be paying £45 a month, then 6 months later said, "oh shit, sorry, we meant £120" It was supposed to be coming down next month.

Technically I'm £400 in credit, but as they haven't actually billed us since April, I suspect, I'm not.

I find it annoying that the price cap is never quoted in price per unit alongside the annual cost for an average user. THe Ofgem website says contact your supplier.

It's frustrating isn't it. They base on 'average consumption' which is pretty misleading.

The providers are allowed to mix unit cost and standing charge to their hearts content to reach the exact same cost.

As for fixing. You won't find a fixed cost lower than the current cap. Yes the cap will be revised and likely to rise again in April, but that's April, when Gas consumption drops massively for most people.

Really we're all just buying time, if the supply issue is resolved then the suppliers will be offering lower fixed rates again, if it's not, we'll all have to adjust.

Frankly, the way it's going and with a relatively old boiler at home, we're not far off the point when moving to a heat pump not only become financially viable, but the cheaper option.

I'm doing monthly readings and logging them on the suppliers website to keep an eye on stuff. Gas currently around 3p, elec 18p. It's elec that costs us about £6 a day as we have a hot tub.

Our gas averages less than £40 a month and thats with a gas hob. 25 year old Baxi Solo thats super efficient. Pointless changing it. The house is well insulated.

Likewise. Gas average under £40 per month for heating , hob and oven. With a Baxi boiler over 30 years old. Doubt replacing it with a modern gas boiler would pay for itself in efficiency savings.
Long past the point where it owes me anything.

is an apocolypse coming

No more gas for new builds in 4 years is one apocalypse, not sure what happens after that, presumably the wind down for gas, the other is that gas prices have already risen but they are capped for domestic users, if they lift the cap...as they just did with electricity I believe....then it's a 6 jumpers type of apocalypse.