Cost of living increases

[Medway Blue]

Need some advice. Moved into a new property on 31st July and switched from the previous owners' British Gas prepayment tariff to a Utility Warehouse standard variable for £170 per month on 5th August. They got in touch yesterday to offer their fixed tariff for £296 per month, for a year. Would beat my likely variable charges of c.£307 p/m from October and c.£366 p/m from January should the OFGEM projections come true.....not to mention the probable April increase on top.

Feels like a gamble either way. Without wanting to turn it into a political discussion, you'd think the government will need to intervene with something stronger than the £400 at some point otherwise people will take to the streets. If they do intervene more strongly, will fixing now mean that I won't feel the benefit of anything that they do? Or is it worth it because it's only for a year?

Real 50/50 decision, and UW have said that they are revising their fixed tariff prices tomorrow at 9am, so the £296 p/m will almost certainly be gone.

Ball ache is that it's difficult to get an idea of our consumption as we've only just moved in and onto the UW variable tariff. UW can't communicate properly with the older generation British Gas smart meters that we have, so I manually entered the opening meter readings on 5th August and will enter them again on 31st so that UW can see our August consumption.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Isn't this just jingoism posing as economic analysis?

No.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

No.

In your opinion, not in mine.At least when MG makes some occasional anti-French remarks he's quite tranparent about it .You're not.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

In your opinion, not in mine.At least when MG makes some occasional anti-French remarks he's quite tranparent about it .You're not.

I’m not sure what is jingoistic about saying France is in a better position to withstand increases in gas prices

 

[southendkid]

Need some advice. Moved into a new property on 31st July and switched from the previous owners' British Gas prepayment tariff to a Utility Warehouse standard variable for £170 per month on 5th August. They got in touch yesterday to offer their fixed tariff for £296 per month, for a year. Would beat my likely variable charges of c.£307 p/m from October and c.£366 p/m from January should the OFGEM projections come true.....not to mention the probable April increase on top.

Feels like a gamble either way. Without wanting to turn it into a political discussion, you'd think the government will need to intervene with something stronger than the £400 at some point otherwise people will take to the streets. If they do intervene more strongly, will fixing now mean that I won't feel the benefit of anything that they do? Or is it worth it because it's only for a year?

Real 50/50 decision, and UW have said that they are revising their fixed tariff prices tomorrow at 9am, so the £296 p/m will almost certainly be gone.

Ball ache is that it's difficult to get an idea of our consumption as we've only just moved in and onto the UW variable tariff. UW can't communicate properly with the older generation British Gas smart meters that we have, so I manually entered the opening meter readings on 5th August and will enter them again on 31st so that UW can see our August consumption.

You're probably better off reading Martin Lewis' advice than asking on here, there's a calculator at the bottom that can give you an idea if it's a good deal as well.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/

As for any government measures the only way I could see a fixed rate meaning you miss out if is the measures are about reducing the energy cap. I think this is unlikely though given that Truss has been critcising a proposed windfall tax for "bashing business" and that profit isn't evil, and reducing the cap would probably come under the "bashing business" category. If she does implement anything (I'm still not convinced she will) it will probably be similar to the £400 rebate. Obviously I'm not a policy expert though.

 

[RobM]

Cheese spread. £1 to £1.19 -that's taking the bung.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Feels like a gamble either way. Without wanting to turn it into a political discussion, you'd think the government will need to intervene with something stronger than the £400 at some point otherwise people will take to the streets. If they do intervene more strongly, will fixing now mean that I won't feel the benefit of anything that they do? Or is it worth it because it's only for a year?

.

The energy companies are saying the price of electricity and gas has risen so much at retail cost to them at the same time as posting profits in the billions.

The govt isn't doing anywhere near enough to put things right. Something fishy is going on

 

[southendkid]

Apaprently 70% of pubs don't think they can survive winter due to the energy costs, I suspect this means the pubs that do survive will be hiking prices up to make ends meet.

 

[Holy Joe]

Apaprently 70% of pubs don't think they can survive winter due to the energy costs, I suspect this means the pubs that do survive will be hiking prices up to make ends meet.

Not just pubs - restaurants, takeaways, bakers will all struggle unless they can pass on cost increases, even if they can pass on the cost increase, they may well see revenues and profits fall due to lower volumes if customers cut back due to the higher prices.

Looked at what the 'market' was pricing for Bank of England rate increases this afternoon - now expected to be peaking at around 4.25% in first half of next year - this was 'only' expected to be 3.75% a few days ago.

Going to be a tough winter

 

[blueblueblue]

Not just pubs - restaurants, takeaways, bakers will all struggle unless they can pass on cost increases, even if they can pass on the cost increase, they may well see revenues and profits fall due to lower volumes if customers cut back due to the higher prices.

Looked at what the 'market' was pricing for Bank of England rate increases this afternoon - now expected to be peaking at around 4.25% in first half of next year - this was 'only' expected to be 3.75% a few days ago.

Going to be a tough winter

The only thing that's more powerful than any Government around the World and that's the people. People in the UK will rise up.

I'm not looking forward to this Winter. I normally like the Winter nights and days, candles (cosiness). This Winter is going to be ****e on many levels.

 

[Cockle43]

Need some advice. Moved into a new property on 31st July and switched from the previous owners' British Gas prepayment tariff to a Utility Warehouse standard variable for £170 per month on 5th August. They got in touch yesterday to offer their fixed tariff for £296 per month, for a year. Would beat my likely variable charges of c.£307 p/m from October and c.£366 p/m from January should the OFGEM projections come true.....not to mention the probable April increase on top.

Feels like a gamble either way. Without wanting to turn it into a political discussion, you'd think the government will need to intervene with something stronger than the £400 at some point otherwise people will take to the streets. If they do intervene more strongly, will fixing now mean that I won't feel the benefit of anything that they do? Or is it worth it because it's only for a year?

Real 50/50 decision, and UW have said that they are revising their fixed tariff prices tomorrow at 9am, so the £296 p/m will almost certainly be gone.

Ball ache is that it's difficult to get an idea of our consumption as we've only just moved in and onto the UW variable tariff. UW can't communicate properly with the older generation British Gas smart meters that we have, so I manually entered the opening meter readings on 5th August and will enter them again on 31st so that UW can see our August consumption.

The real question for you is around the unit prices.

If the unit price is reasonable then a fix is possibly a reasonable option.
In your case, as you have just moved in and have nothing historic to go on then the unit price is all you really have to inform your decision. A fix only offers a fix of a unit price not your monthly DD's, they will/can still be reviewed depending on your usage. Your DD may be initially fixed at, say £100 per month at 20p per unit but if you then use £300 per month worth at 20p per unit then, rightly, your DD amount will get a revisit...

 

[RobM]

I reckon the whole leisure industry will suffer. It's an easy cost to reduce in a family (or solo!) budget.

 

[Tinks]

Need some advice. Moved into a new property on 31st July and switched from the previous owners' British Gas prepayment tariff to a Utility Warehouse standard variable for £170 per month on 5th August. They got in touch yesterday to offer their fixed tariff for £296 per month, for a year. Would beat my likely variable charges of c.£307 p/m from October and c.£366 p/m from January should the OFGEM projections come true.....not to mention the probable April increase on top.

Feels like a gamble either way. Without wanting to turn it into a political discussion, you'd think the government will need to intervene with something stronger than the £400 at some point otherwise people will take to the streets. If they do intervene more strongly, will fixing now mean that I won't feel the benefit of anything that they do? Or is it worth it because it's only for a year?

Real 50/50 decision, and UW have said that they are revising their fixed tariff prices tomorrow at 9am, so the £296 p/m will almost certainly be gone.

Ball ache is that it's difficult to get an idea of our consumption as we've only just moved in and onto the UW variable tariff. UW can't communicate properly with the older generation British Gas smart meters that we have, so I manually entered the opening meter readings on 5th August and will enter them again on 31st so that UW can see our August consumption.

I was in the similar predicament as you with my company offering me a fixed price.
When I crunched the numbers (and yes I did use Martin Lewis guidance) it worked out that actually payments were double what they are now and put me on the maximum cap of around £4,300.
I did not sign up and am going to take my chances.
Ifnthe company puts up the DD too much I may well cancel it am djust pay the bill as a d when it comes in.
I would suggest you crunch the numbers

 

[Floval Flyer]

Re: Energy fixed deals
I wouldn’t personally fix anything right now. Energy companies are speculating worst case scenario and passing the costs onto the consumer. The current wholesale market price is at the highest ever level, day ahead is extremely volatile and city traders are talking prices up.

My supplier Scottish Power, just quoted me £9k a year, based on current annual usage.

How the hell do they think this is acceptable?



In reality all energy companies will have hedged years ahead, Meaning their margins are potentially huge, which was seen in the recent BP profit declaration. I’ve been to one of the major energy traders offices, they have teams of dozens of highly paid analysts and traders buying and selling tranches of energy. Believe me they are making a killing right now. The UK gov needs to come clean and cap their profits and install some serious capital gains taxes on these suppliers. They need to share the pain. Can’t really accept that there is a plan to pay us all extra out of taxes to give back to the energy firms. According to a financial expert it could cost the tax payer £100billion (furlough cost £70 billion) - and we are already heading for a deep recession. I feel dread just thinking about it.

I’m sticking with the capped rate for now, as there is no way that the cap can become as unaffordable as the current fixed rates that are being offered.

It’s surely in the best interest of the energy companies to absorb increases otherwise people will just stop paying, and the process to cut people off is time consuming and complicated. If you have elderly or children under 17 cannot legally disconnect your utilities.

I would strongly advise anyone to check both the kWh unit rate and standing daily rate and calculate the cost of any deal yourself as getting a company saying we’ll only charge you £150 or £200 a month is likely under calculating your usage to draw you in and you’ll pay a whole lot more in reality.

I managed energy contracts for a job for 8
Years, glad it isn’t my responsibility any longer.

Off to buy some warm tops and hot water bottles…

 

[RobM]

@Floval Flyer Hot water bottles are great! Cost about 3p to fill.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I’m not sure what is jingoistic about saying France is in a better position to withstand increases in gas prices

You might ant to compare Germany's indebtness to Russia over gas prices even more so than France's, while smugly implying that the UK is somehow exempt (it's not).We're all in this together.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Cheese spread. £1 to £1.19 -that's taking the bung.

The laughing cow is taking the ****.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

You might ant to compare Germany's indebtness to Russia over gas prices even more so than France's, while smugly implying that the UK is somehow exempt (it's not).We're all in this together.

I have no idea what you are wibbling on about. I haven’t remotely said or implied that the UK is exempt. The only comparison I made was that France was in a better position than the UK to avoid/limit price increases. There doesn’t seem much point in continuing to discuss this so I’m out.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I have no idea what you are wibbling on about. I haven’t remotely said or implied that the UK is exempt. The only comparison I made was that France was in a better position than the UK to avoid/limit price increases. There doesn’t seem much point in continuing to discuss this so I’m out.

What I'm wibbliing on about (your term) is that you didn't seem to like my suggestion that Macron might have been able to limit the full impact of prices increases in the French electricity industry being passed onto the French consumer because the GDF company (which provides France's electricity ) is state owned.You suggested this might be somehow because France generates a lot more nuclear power than the UK.While the latter claim is certainly true, It hasn't stopped the French economy being greatly more reliant on the import of Russian gas to cover France's energy needs than the UK is.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

I have read reports of heating costs at homes and business properties AND is 21C really a normal temperature setting?

My home is 18C max.