[McCoosie]

Hi all, I'm just posting here to get some advice from people who are in a similar situation or have been there and done it. I'm coming to the end of my fixed term contract on 31/7/22. I'm on Next online v6 currently and pay £88 a month for both gas and electric and have a smart meter installed.

According to my statements im only using between £50-60 worth of energy a month.
I am now being quoted £219.68 fixed 24month contract or a £159.32 Next Flex variable tariff.
Considering I only use £60 worth of energy on the higher end, what would be best for me to do. Go onto a fixed term which is just under £200 more or not renew and get put onto the default flex tariff?
I have seen on a few energy website that getting put onto the default flex tariff is the best thing to as ill be protected by the price cap in october?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

[meldrewreborn]

@McCoosie

You need to look at your energy costs over a whole year - summer consumption is usually much lower than that in the winter.

The price capped rates being quoted now are likely to increase sharply again in October -but just how much we don't know. The increase for Gas will i suspect be greater than that for electricity , which might benefit from the standing charge coming down a tad now that the costs from last years supplier failures might ease.

Fixing for 24 months might be a good idea - but who knows. At least if prices come down in the future you can exit the fix contract without penalty.

Anyone who says one is definitely better than the other (variable v fixed) clearly hasn't understood the question. We'll only know the answer properly in 2 years time.

[Andy65]

My fixed tariff also finishes at the end of July @McCoosie. In my case I'm only being offered a 1 year fixed tariff, not a 2 year option like you, but I'm leaning towards the variable tariff.

If I was presented with the same prices as you, then I'd look at it like this:

The variable is £60 per month cheaper and you'll probably get that for 3 months before the cap is increased, so that's £180.
If they were to increase the cap by 30% in October, the variable would still be about £12 a month cheaper, but then there's the next 6 month review after that etc.

My logic would be that you would be saving money on the variable tariff until next March at least, and if the variable was increased again next March, what you've saved by being on the variable would mean you're unlikely to lose out until at least this time next year. What the fixed tariffs would look like then though who only knows.

I reckon that the 24 month fixed option is nearly 8% more expensive than the 12 month tariff I'm being offered, so you have to ask yourself if you think prices are going to continually rise for 2 years.

It's a gamble, but with a £60 per month difference I think I'd go for the variable.