Price Hikes
Something we all know is that gas and electricity prices are soaring. Only recently Scottish Power, one of the ‘big six’ companies, announced a serious price hike. The price increase will see customers paying 19% more for gas and 10% more for electricity from 1st August 2011. Although Scottish Power has made the first move, it is expected that the other suppliers will soon follow suit, making it even harder to find cheap energy deals.
In the UK, we have had advice from all sorts of sources telling us to compare gas and electric prices and switch energy providers in order to take advantage of their introductory offers. This will see one of the biggest u-turns in gas and electricity history, as the advice in the current market is to fix your energy tariff, not switch.
Pro-switching
One of the biggest gas and electricity pro-switching site, Moneysavingexpert, is now telling consumers to consider locking in to a fixed tariff if they are concerned about the expected boom in gas and electricity prices. This is of course dependent on your situation – if you are currently on an high-paying tariff, you need to compare gas and electric prices and consider switching before locking in.
Over-subscribing
The best cheap energy deals can be found with some of the online billing or green tariffs, rather than the standard ones. These tariffs are fast becoming oversubscribed as the providers start pulling people in.
Some small risk involved
The advice from pretty much everywhere, including Moneysavingexpert and energyhelpline.com, is to get yourself on a cheap energy deal and fix that price as soon as possible. There is a premium associated with getting your bill fixed, and this is a gamble that consumers will have to consider, but it is a risk that could end up paying off. Should the experts prove to be wrong, and gas and electricity prices fall, you will pay the price as you will be locked in to a more-expensive monthly payment for at least 12 months.
Comparing gas & electricity prices
If you are unsure about the cost your utility bills, it is essential that you get online and compare your gas and electric prices before the summer price hikes.
There are plenty of companies offering cheap energy deals at the moment, for example, the British Gas Websaver 12 is currently the cheapest online tariff and, for the average family and household, will cost £955 per year.
At the moment, the best fixed tariff is with EDF, the Fixed S@ver v2 which gives an annual fixed price of £1,009 until September 2012.
If you are considering locking in for the long term, the best available tariff is the EDF Fixed Price 2014, which will provide you with a fixed bill of £1,084 per yearuntil March 2014.
The future for cheap energy deals
It is possible that things could change in the market at some point in the future, especially considering Ofgem, the energy market regulator, has announced a pending transformation of energy market rules. Some of the tariffs that are currently available will be scrapped, pricing will be simplified for consumers, and suppliers will be far more accountable.
