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I wonder how long it'll be before being an energy customer becomes within the Gamble Aware remit (?)
Apparently, from January, my electricity bill is estimated to rise by £40 a year, and gas by £100.
The cheapest Octopus tariff is fixed for 12 months and would apparently save me £180.
I think I’ll stay with their variable tariff, and take a punt that later in the year prices will fall, wiping out the savings of the fixed tariff.
As always, YMMV.
As noted in the thread "OVO Plan Offers", you choose what you want, but nobody can tell what the future will hold. OVO are offering me savings of £1 or £2 per month (Cor!), but with strings and carrots. Will the base price drop? Who knows? How good is your Lottery record?
Whatever your choice, I wish you the best of luck with it. Nobody can tell you right now that it is the right or wrong decision.
The price cap is going up by 5%, which is £100pa on the average bill:
I think they have a £75 exit penalty per fuel, so a bit of a lottery as to whether it's worth getting out of a fixed tariff if prices fall. On a £2k pa usage, you'd need a 7.5% fall to cover the exit penalty. The predictions on the page above suggest a 6% fall in April which implies it won't cover it, especially if most of your consumption is in the winter.
Theo
It appears to be on the length of the fixed price contract https://octopus.energy/blog/affordable-energy-during-a-crisis/ A 36 month fixed price contract will have an exit fee of £150 per fuel BUT reducing by £50 for every year you stay with that contract.
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk
Some 40% of my gas usage occurs in the three month period of Dec-Jan-Feb. Yearly cost estimate is £2700, so a 6% fall would mean the exit fee would just be covered. My conclusion is that it isn’t worth going for a fix right now.
In the supermarket foyer, Mr Octopus told me no exit charges ...
Flexible doesn't, the fixed tariffs do. Don't think Agile and the others do.
Theo
I think that’s only true for their smart tariffs. If you sign up to a fixed rate you’re entering a contract so not too surprising that there might be penalties for exiting the contract period early.
Tim
That is what I have gabled upon too.
Probably controvertial, but I think this fixed-or-variable price plan scam should be outlawed. Basically, they're asking Joanne public to bet against professionals on the future of the energy market. Yes, occasionally something happens that means prices rocket up and the fixed plans actually end up being a good bet, but I'm pretty sure that on average the fixed prices are set higher than the predicted maximum, and the energy market professionals have a much better view (or even control of) that. The fact that someone wins the lottery every week doesn't make it a good investment. I don't want to gamble for our energy, just pay a fair price (ha!).
You could say the same about mortgages. Why doesn't everyone have a variable rate mortgage so they don't have to bet against the future of interest rates? Because it makes it easier to budget, that's why. I presume you are paying something extra for a fixed mortgage over a tracker, but people reckon it's worth it for the certainty.
(in the US thry have 30 year fixed mortgages, so they really like their certainty)
Theo
The futures market exists for the same reason.
With the additional asymmetry that if *they* get it wrong we taxpayers will bail them out anyway.
I see that Octopus have honoured their widely-toted promise to reduce Standing Charges.
For me this means three-quarters of a penny saved ...
per annum.
PA
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