Energy Prices

[Honest_Man#1]

2 minutes ago, HEY_SIDNEY said:

Dependant if any company will take you on of course. However by that time the switching market would hopefully be fully opened by then allowing for free trade between companies.

I come out fixed month before actually so fingers crossed

I haven’t seen anything at all that would suggest that other companies would not be taking on new customers? On what basis is that statement coming from?

[HEY_SIDNEY]

2 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

I haven’t seen anything at all that would suggest that other companies would not be taking on new customers? On what basis is that statement coming from?

On the basis that if you try to sign up online with other companies the majority if not all are turning you away. Same for telephone.
Comparethemarket right now.....

[HEY_SIDNEY]

The cost to take a new customer far outweighs the 'profits' of retaining existing.
Some companies may do it but you will have to go on to a fixed rate higher than the price cap.

[Honest_Man#1]

1 minute ago, HEY_SIDNEY said:

On the basis that if you try to sign up online with other companies the majority if not all are turning you away. Same for telephone.
Comparethemarket right now.....

Interesting, wasn’t aware of that. Thanks.

[Aufc]

I currently pay £230 a month on a deal until October 23. Was considering upping this to £280 a month and seeing how I get on. I have two log burners in my house which will be getting lots of action over the winter!

[RiG]

Jesus wept.

"Warning energy prices to hit over £4,200 in January."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62475171

Edited August 9, 2022 by RiG

[The Minertaur]

Just a great time for me to be trying to get a Gas/elec contract just now.  No websites actually allowing you to get a quote as it's cheaper to stay with your current provider.

I've been at my in-laws for 9 months and now have a new home.  I take it all I can do is phone around?  Anybody else had a similar situation where they could sort it online?

[DA Baracus]

4 minutes ago, RiG said:

Jesus wept.

"Warning energy prices to hit over £4,200 in January."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62475171

We'll be getting more of these articles. Will probably be over £5000 by the time January arrives.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

6 minutes ago, The Minertaur said:

Just a great time for me to be trying to get a Gas/elec contract just now.  No websites actually allowing you to get a quote as it's cheaper to stay with your current provider.

I've been at my in-laws for 9 months and now have a new home.  I take it all I can do is phone around?  Anybody else had a similar situation where they could sort it online?

Mentioned a little earlier about not being able to switch, specially to something cheaper than what you are probably already on. Sorry if you have missed it.

The new home will have an incumbent supplier - id suggest staying with them on the SVT for the moment (dependant on what fixed price they may have for 'returning' households. You would have to do the maths on it.

Changing to another supplier will put you on their highest plan - to recover the cost of them taking your supply on.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

1 hour ago, HEY_SIDNEY said:

Perhaps not.

From October it's suggested that it cant get any higher than it is, peak price and can only come down. However if it sticks at that then your turnover in price will be, as you say, wild.
Coming from lower price than original market cap to 100%+ above it is going to be tough.
Perhaps start the increase of your payments (if you pay by DD) maybe by £20 per fuel if you can afford it and start to put the account in credit for future. Apologies if not sustainable or you already do this.

Lots of factors of course. People dont like hearing it but theres so many little things that make up wholesale market cost. Can expand if anyones interested lol.

I keep seeing this group telling people to stop paying their Direct debits - please dont do this.
Just have it in place - dont stop paying it, even if you need to reduce it then do so but leave the payment plan in place - stop any potential collections actions starting and effect on the credit file.
an active payment plan is better than no payment plan.

Comms 30 min ago about the post earlier form Cornwall Insight. Some F**king laugh

[Left Back]

1 hour ago, HEY_SIDNEY said:

Perhaps not.

From October it's suggested that it cant get any higher than it is, peak price and can only come down. However if it sticks at that then your turnover in price will be, as you say, wild.
Coming from lower price than original market cap to 100%+ above it is going to be tough.
Perhaps start the increase of your payments (if you pay by DD) maybe by £20 per fuel if you can afford it and start to put the account in credit for future. Apologies if not sustainable or you already do this.

Lots of factors of course. People dont like hearing it but theres so many little things that make up wholesale market cost. Can expand if anyones interested lol.

I keep seeing this group telling people to stop paying their Direct debits - please dont do this.
Just have it in place - dont stop paying it, even if you need to reduce it then do so but leave the payment plan in place - stop any potential collections actions starting and effect on the credit file.
an active payment plan is better than no payment plan.

The problem a lot of people will have with this is it will be jacked up to an unaffordable level and there's pretty much sod all you can do about it with some companies.  As long as they give you enough notice they can change the amount.  I'm lucky with my provider that I can go into my online account and set the amount to be whatever I deem is appropriate.  A lot of people can't do that so to stop their energy company taking £300/£400 out their bank every month there only option is to cancel the DD.  Even leaving aside providers taking the piss and using customers as a credit card what would be a "fair" direct debit if the typical bill gets to £4k per annum is simply out of reach for some people.

[Granny Danger]

Moved to Lanzarote in January.  We are paying the equivalent of about £100 each month for electricity for a three bedroom property.  We do a reasonable of indoor cooking, have the pool filter running six hours a day and the air con on every evening and all night.  Mrs Granny also seems to have the washing machine on constantly.

There have been no price increases or notification of price increases.

[Dons_1988]

Numbers being quoted for winter are genuinely frightening. 

This is not normal and not a case of folk just tightening their belts to get through it. It is outrageous that we’re basically just running without a government while this fucking circus of a leadership race goes on. 

[Granny Danger]

6 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Numbers being quoted for winter are genuinely frightening. 

This is not normal and not a case of folk just tightening their belts to get through it. It is outrageous that we’re basically just running without a government while this fucking circus of a leadership race goes on. 

Yip.  One of the worst domestic financial crises in decades and the U.K. government is AWOL.

[HEY_SIDNEY]

29 minutes ago, Left Back said:

The problem a lot of people will have with this is it will be jacked up to an unaffordable level and there's pretty much sod all you can do about it with some companies.  As long as they give you enough notice they can change the amount.  I'm lucky with my provider that I can go into my online account and set the amount to be whatever I deem is appropriate.  A lot of people can't do that so to stop their energy company taking £300/£400 out their bank every month there only option is to cancel the DD.  Even leaving aside providers taking the piss and using customers as a credit card what would be a "fair" direct debit if the typical bill gets to £4k per annum is simply out of reach for some people.

Companies have internal 'policies' in place where consumers cannot reduce by say 10/15/20% as per their guidelines etc. Some companies will have an escalation process where if you get to the correct 'level' of person then you can set it at what is affordable. Key word is affordable.

There will be that company who just flat refuse to change it. There is an element of future planning within that reasoning but unfortunately these advisors are not trained well enough to understand empathy or sympathy. So understanding a customers needs or wants and are beyond their skill set. They read verbatim from the policy and have no wiggle room to do the right thing.

Thats where escalation process usually comes in handy, or a retentions department type thing.

Anyway, the increase announced is a nonsense and extremely worrying for the winter.

[Clown Job]

 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

2 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:

Numbers being quoted for winter are genuinely frightening. 

This is not normal and not a case of folk just tightening their belts to get through it. It is outrageous that we’re basically just running without a government while this fucking circus of a leadership race goes on. 

It's mental. An average household cost of £355 per month or thereabouts. Folk in low wage jobs/zero hour contracts are basically going to be seeing their income be swallowed up just on fuel bills, before we even get to food costs, other utilities etc, and yet we have that fucking cretin Truss saying NO MORE HANDOUTS, even if she becomes PM, next month, THEN has to form a cabinet to THEN put policies in place. The UK is an utter fucking binfire. 

 

[Dons_1988]

7 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

It's mental. An average household cost of £355 per month or thereabouts. Folk in low wage jobs/zero hour contracts are basically going to be seeing their income be swallowed up just on fuel bills, before we even get to food costs, other utilities etc, and yet we have that fucking cretin Truss saying NO MORE HANDOUTS, even if she becomes PM, next month, THEN has to form a cabinet to THEN put policies in place. The UK is an utter fucking binfire. 

 

Yep, and you’ve got Boris who fought tooth and nail to stay on as PM while this went on doing absolutely f**k all and saying ‘not my problem’ when asked about it. He should’ve been forcibly removed immediately. 

[Todd_is_God]

59 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

It's mental. An average household cost of £355 per month or thereabouts. Folk in low wage jobs/zero hour contracts are basically going to be seeing their income be swallowed up just on fuel bills, before we even get to food costs, other utilities etc, and yet we have that fucking cretin Truss saying NO MORE HANDOUTS, even if she becomes PM, next month, THEN has to form a cabinet to THEN put policies in place. The UK is an utter fucking binfire. 

Further handouts will only mask the problem, though, aren't sustainable, and almost certainly will do nothing to support those who do not currently receive any other benefits.

They need to be coming up with a way to claw back money from the massive profits that are currently being made by companies involved in Gas supply to allow the Price Cap to be forced down to lower bills across the board. Alternatively, they could achieve similar by dictating that the price cap cannot rise above a certain amount. Ultimately, given their recent profit press releases, these energy companies are not going to fail if their profits increase by less.

Otherwise all we are going to end up with a situation where millions simply cannot pay their bills, and millions more can just about keep themselves afloat for the next 18-24 months but in doing so will have no money left to do anything else meaning those businesses that aren't forced to close because of their own energy bills fail anyway because few people can afford to use them.

The problem is far too complex to be solved during a party leadership contest, and certainly isn't as black and white as Handouts vs Tax Cuts. And, similiarly, staunchly relying on something which wasn't really designed to deal with the current landscape makes no sense.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Todd_is_God

[Shadow Play]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Further handouts will only mask the problem, though, aren't sustainable, and almost certainly will do nothing to support those who do not currently receive any other benefits.

They need to be coming up with a way to claw back money from the massive profits that are currently being made by companies involved in Gas supply to allow the Price Cap to be forced down to lower bills across the board.

Otherwise all we are going to end up with a situation where millions simply cannot pay their bills, and millions more can just about keep themselves afloat for the next 18-24 months but in doing so will have no money left to do anything else meaning those businesses that aren't forced to close because of their own energy bills fail anyway because few people can afford to use them.

The problem is far too complex to be solved during a party leadership contest, and certainly isn't as black and white as Handouts vs Tax Cuts.

Fair points, well made TiG.

What are you thoughts with how this will develop beyond the 2 years or so of publicly anticipated high prices?

I reckon the high price of gas will last an awful lot longer than they are willing to admit.  The increase in the world’s population and a higher % of the world’s population now wanting to live in the relative comfort we have grown accustomed to will mean the demand for gas will probably increase.

In addition certain governments appear determined to prevent new gas fields being developed which will mean less gas being available over time.

Will green energy develop fast enough to make the above points irrelevant?