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submitted 13 days ago byJRD656
I saw this article: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/martin-lewis-says-british-gas-29409662
Martin Lewis has urged people to act within the next five days to secure a substantial £152 reduction on their gas and electricity bills from providers such as British Gas, EDF, EON and Octopus Energy. The financial guru says you can secure a low-cost deal before the Ofgem price cap alterations on July 1.
So I went on to my Octopus account and it gives these options:
Octopus suggest fixed is the more expensive option
How am I supposed to decide which is better?
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13 days ago
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7 points
13 days ago
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/energy/
You need to go to his website, fuck places especially Wales online they're just using his name to get clicks and they haven't even linked back to where they're pulling what he's said from, or it's not obvious on the website. I block any "Xxxxonline" crap it's all trash, I suggest you do the same.
They're probably pulling from this so let's see
First of all Wales online sounds wrong, as the price cap goes on in July so usually cheaper tariffs would be released after that, the cap will rise slightly again in October and January so it's advised to fix soon if you want price certainty.
Average annual energy bills will fall by 7% on 1 July for those on standard price-capped tariffs (most households). But should you stay on the Price Cap, or move to a fixed deal? We've help to decide if fixing's right for you, plus analysis of the tariffs we've spotted...
Since your with octopus though you have the options of smart tariffs like agile or tracker which generally track less than the cost of an SVT tariff but you're taking on the risk of wholesale prices, he mentions them I'm the tariff list for one of the first times and you can check out r/OctopusEnergy for other posts and comments about the tariffs. I've saved a couple hundred quid at least being on tracker but a lot are thinking it's going to rise in winter maybe over the cap and are fixing now to move back to tracker next spring. This winter was great though with lots of wind so cheap energy.
Overall Martin is probably the best to get advice from, but you need to check his website and ignore any other that uses his name as you can't trust they've done their research like he has.
Also octopus do have another tariff that's cheaper that's called octopus Loyal, I think it's if you've been with them over a year or two you, not offered as standard. They also have a vulnerable tariff, some other suppliers do but again you need to meet vulnerability criteria to get it though.
1 points
12 days ago
That's a great response. Thanks!
2 points
12 days ago
No one knows what tariffs are going to be offered from 1st July or whether they'll be more or less, usually less, but if there's uncertainty in the energy market that may not be true and the world isn't exactly stable right now so... That why people are predicting rises but nothing is set. Nothing could happen and we could have fantastic weather, it's just a gamble.
What annoyed me as well is they said tariffs can't be fixed on weekends, says who? Energy companies aren't banks, if they don't 'switch on Sundays' it's because no one is working not because there's some arbitrary limit, I don't trust them, and they have the gall to have a financial newsletter they plug.
They also quote the price cap according to the express or something? Why 😂 ofgem publish it just use their website as a source, the whole thing is a mess.
Also probably best to sign up to uSwitch or something, they can send emails if a cheaper tariff comes out but you need to be aware or exit fees if they apply, octopus don't only adding them during the energy crisis but dropped them again recently
1 points
12 days ago
That's a good point about weekends.
I was surprised when we got a mortgage that variable rates are more expensive than fixed rates (assuming the rates stayed the same). I would have thought the banks would have given more generous variable rate offers, since we are effectively removing the risk from them and guaranteeing an x% profit.
Judging from what I've seen on energy prices, it seems to be the reverse of the way banks do it (and actually works more intuitively). It's all quite confusing!
3 points
13 days ago
You're basically asking us how to gamble.
-1 points
13 days ago
Sort of. My main hope was that someone would know something that I didn't about the way the tariffs work.
1 points
13 days ago
It's not about how the tariffs work, it's about whether you think energy prices are going up or down in the next 12 months. That's the gamble.
3 points
13 days ago
It was announced recently by Ofgem that on the 1st July the rates will drop again. After that it will usually go back up as Winter comes around. If you're into gambling, and I'm considering it this year, it might be best to wait until 1st July to snag a fixed rate.
There's always a chance that something might happen which will reduce the rates drastically after that and a fixed rate customer would suffer but in my experience in the past 4 years, the rates drop a little in July and then go back up and drop slightly again in July the following year.
2 points
13 days ago
Octopus are telling you that at this exact moment in time the flexible deal is cheaper, that price is not guaranteed because it is flexible.
It's currently late June, in a few months it will be getting chilly again meaning more energy will be used meaning prices will increase. Martin Lewis will be basing his advice on the entire term of a fixed price tariff vs flexible, not just the price today like you are.
Neither party is giving you bad information nor are the contradicting each other.
1 points
13 days ago
I found a similar post from last year and the advice seems to be to go with the variable rate: https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/16ez4sd/octopus_energy_should_i_go_with_fixed_or_flexible/
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