[Joanie]

Our tariff ends on 24th April. I have started to look around for a deal, ok, there are no 'deals' but am concerned that I am supposed to be able to renew/get a new tariff through my online account. When I ask for a quote through my online account I am not made any offers, all I get is 'Fix again 1 year v6' 24.4.22. which is what I am on now. Really do not understand what is going on and what to do next. Any advice would be welcomed.

[Malificent]

I also wish to renew but to no avail, HELP!

[meldrewreborn]

I imagine that eon think its too early to fix again. if you were to fix again now the new rate would start immediately and you'd be paying much more than you need to for7 weeks. Current 1 year fix (V12) is 15% above price cap April - October 2022 so its not all that attractive.

[Joanie]

I am just so confused, I know Martin Lewis is saying 'don't fix' right now but I really don't understand what happens when my current fix ends on 24th March. I am assuming we go on to the 'price cap rate' whatever that might be? Will different suppliers have different 'price cap' rates ... told you I was confused! The price rises that are being talked about are really scary! We are both on basic state pension and have to be very frugal with the gas and electric already, goodness only knows what we will be reduced to over the next few months. Thanks for your input meldrewreborn (love the username!)

[meldrewreborn]

I watched the latest Martin Lewis video yesterday. Apparently only Eon of all the suppliers are offering any kind of fix at present, and I'm not sure if that covers gas as well as electricity (elec is certainly covered). Eon have been contacting customers advising them of the tariff available.

If I explain my own situation it might help. I used to have electricity with Symbio and Gas with Zog. These were really the best deals out there when i took them out. Both suppliers went bust, Zog because its wholesale supplier went bust first. My bills last year totalled £841. At the new variable price capped rates from Apr2022 my bills would total just over £2400 for a 12 month period, using the same consumption.

Energy companies are probably losing money on their supplies both under the current price cap and the new price cap from April 2022 and a further increase in the price cap seems likely from October 2022. Any fixes out there at present are very expensive - there are no reasonable fixes out there for customers to switch to. Any supplier offering a good deal would soon be swamped, because the majority of customers are now on the price capped tariffs because (1) they always were , (2) have been switched onto one when their previous supplier failed, or (3) like you their previous fix has ended or is ending soon.

There is no good news in all this. I think people should use the summer period (when heating costs are lower because of reduced consumption) to plan for dealing with next winter when the problems will be considerably magnified. I'm a pensioner too so i recognise your problem.

I suggest you review all your energy consuming devices and determine whether they are really necessary. Check your lighting and change the bulbs to LED lamps if you haven't already (LED lamps save you more than they cost) - start with the rooms you use most. Decide whether you need to heat all rooms in your home. Turning the heat off in those less important rooms and keeping the door closed will help. Reducing the thermostat by just 1 degree will help much more than you think.

The energy saving trust has good advice. But make sure you keep as warm as you can.

Glad the moniker amused you. Its in my email address too!

On the energy companies. If we think of the electricity suppliers as having two hat, the biggest have both generating hats and supply hats. On the supply side they all buy their power from the wholesale market so face similar costs. But if they are generators they are selling into the wholesale market too. If that generation is from Nuclear, wind, solar, hydro or biomass sources, their costs have not gone up much, if anything. Gas generation though has become hugely expensive. Later we will learn how these generating sides of the business are doing out of this situation. My suspicion is that some will have made windfall profits.

[Joanie]

Hi, sorry for the late reply, I didn't get a notification. Interesting what you say about 'generators' how do we know which companies are generators? No doubt though, that their prices will be exactly the same as the non-generators?!

We are about as careful as we can get with our energy. We live in a terraced house, the people either side have small children/grandchildren being minded, so we get borrowed heat from them! Our garden faces south, we have a lean-to greenhouse on the back which gets really hot and is great for drying washing and heat comes into the kitchen that way too. We have a ton of insulation in the loft. I only put the oven on if I have more than one thing to cook, and use a slow cooker a lot of the time. All our lighting is LED as we did major renovations when we moved here 3 years ago. We put the heating on when it gets a bit too chilly, anywhere between 5 and 7pm and it gets turned off about 9 as then the house then stays warm for quite a while. It has not been on during the daytime at all this year. We also make full use of fleeces and if sitting in front of the TV I have a furry blanket over my lap (the cat likes that too!) We have reduced showering to alternate days and I go to the pool 2 or 3 times a week so make the most of the showers there as I have paid for it! lol...

So I think like most of us, I will be sticking with Eon for the time being and watching developments closely.

Thank you for your input :)