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Gas and Electricity Prices

The whole 'energy market' is a pure political construct. It's always been clear (to me and many others, that is) that national infrastructure for essential utilities should be in public ownership.
 
It's always been clear (to me and many others, that is) that national infrastructure for essential utilities should be in public ownership.

In principle I agree, Simon, but having lived through many years of utilities, transport etc. in inefficient and erratic public ownership, this is unlikely to improve things. The only caveat here is that union hegemony is different today, but can't say that governmental control would be anything other that wasteful and hopeless, as it is in most aspects.

I read yesterday that a quarter of electricity prices is made up of government green (or not so green; e.g. smart meters) initiatives. This penalty is much less for gas but that could change. In effect, therefore, at least the prices we pay are in partial governmental control, even if distribution isn't and it's not distribution which is the main problem here.
 
In principle I agree, Simon, but having lived through many years of utilities, transport etc. in inefficient and erratic public ownership, this is unlikely to improve things. The only caveat here is that union hegemony is different today, but can't say that governmental control would be anything other that wasteful and hopeless, as it is in most aspects.

I read yesterday that a quarter of electricity prices is made up of government green (or not so green; e.g. smart meters) initiatives. This penalty is much less for gas but that could change. In effect, therefore, at least the prices we pay are in partial governmental control, even if distribution isn't and it's not distribution which is the main problem here.

I hear you. However, the energy 'market', is not 'real' The individual supply companies 'manufacture' nothing, in general. They just compete primarily on who is the cheapest. This trader type model is obviously very common in the economy, but we're talking here of essential public services, not who has the cheapest Hovis.This might seem attractive but a side effect is that thin margins mean that proper investment is not possible and resilience is poor (very evident right now). Many other countries run efficient, publicly owned utilities. It is certainly possible, given the political will.
 
Many other countries run efficient, publicly owned utilities. It is certainly possible, given the political will.

Like Taiwan, e.g. (my wife is Taiwanese). Somehow, they manage to be a low tax, low (utilities) cost and efficient government, whoever is in charge. However, with such an industrial and technical base and only 44 million inhabitants and fewer benefits (though an exc. free medical service), comparisons start to fade. They even have a national free and automatic monthly (?) lottery based upon taxes paid !

Downsides are living with increasingly bellicose CCP incursions and less certain western security support.
 
We've always opted to pay on receipt of a bill so as not to have a pile of cash sitting in the provider's account.

Unfortunately after being repeatedly messed around by our previous provider we switched to bulb at the end of July (doh!) who only accept direct debit (doh!).

My bill for July was £55. I'm somehow already £150 in credit with another £78 due to be paid to them in a few days so I'll have paid almost £300!

If I try to change the monthly payment amount it tells me the minimum payment allowed is £91. Hmm.

Kind of wishing I'd stuck to just paying when I got the bill...

Seems I'm not alone - Bulb are rinsing customers because the firm is broke. Time to ditch them I think.

Karen Constable, a single parent with a four-year-old and a six-year-old, who was shocked to be told that Bulb wants to increase her monthly payment from £104.84 to £187.58 – a 79% hike. The company told her this would be her new monthly payment from 20 October and would apply for the next seven months. Constable, who lives in Glasgow and works part-time, said her account was £317 in credit and her last bill was £70. She said that she had “never even had a monthly bill as much as my usual agreed monthly payment of £105”.

Another customer, Ralph Worby, received an email saying Bulb wants to hike his monthly payment by 61%, from £52.70 to £85.06. Worby tweeted: “I’m £152 in credit and September’s statement was £36. I’d like to know the logic in increasing it to £85.”


https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...under-fire-for-monthly-bill-rises-of-up-to-80
 
Our 1Yr fix finishes at the end of January, but out of curiosity I went onto our provider's website last week to see how much a new 1Yr fix would be. Our annual bill would jump from £2.9k/yr to £6.8k/yr! :eek: Once February comes I think we'll take our chances with the standard Price Cap tariff...
 
Our 1Yr fix finishes at the end of January, but out of curiosity I went onto our provider's website last week to see how much a new 1Yr fix would be. Our annual bill would jump from £2.9k/yr to £6.8k/yr! :eek: Once February comes I think we'll take our chances with the standard Price Cap tariff...

Standard Variable Rate is the least expensive available these days, due to the cap, and is, in effect, a 6 month fix (unless they tear up the rule book, and increase the current cap before it's due on April 1st... :eek:).

I'll be rolling onto SVR when my current fixed contract ends, too - significant increase, but much less than any 'proper' fixed deals. The latter are so expensive, that even with the guesstimated 14% increase in April, SVR would still be cheaper (which presumably means that 14% may/will prove to be 'pie in the sky'...:().
 
Our 1Yr fix finishes at the end of January, but out of curiosity I went onto our provider's website last week to see how much a new 1Yr fix would be. Our annual bill would jump from £2.9k/yr to £6.8k/yr! :eek: Once February comes I think we'll take our chances with the standard Price Cap tariff...

Where do you live, Blenheim Palace?!
 
Where do you live, Blenheim Palace?!
Not quite. We live in Glasgow, in an old house that swallows heat. And before you ask, the thermostat remains at or below 18C as I can't stand the sensation of central heating. From Oct-Apr we basically wear our full outdoor clothing INSIDE the house! :D I hate to think what our bills would be if we were the kind of folk who liked to walk around the house in our undies with the thermostat set to 25C! :eek:
 
Not quite. We live in Glasgow, in an old house that swallows heat. And before you ask, the thermostat remains at or below 18C as I can't stand the sensation of central heating. From Oct-Apr we basically wear our full outdoor clothing INSIDE the house! :D I hate to think what our bills would be if we were the kind of folk who liked to walk around the house in our undies with the thermostat set to 25C! :eek:

Yeah, old places eat heat. My place is 600 years old and stone, fine once you have heat into the walls but go away for a week and you’re back to square one. In winter we pretty much live in the new part of the house which is 12 years old and consequently stuffed full of insulation. The difference in being able to keep it warm easily is incredible.
 
SSE just put the monthly direct debit for our cottage up from £65 to £82, to start from mid November although we're already in credit by about a months worth despite only having been in the house for about 3 months. Having said that I expect no-one, including me, knows how much electricity we're actually going to use (especially given the smart meter isn't talking to SSE and hasn't been since we moved in) although from my tracking so far I think their estimate could well be a lot higher than we'll actually use. While I am expecting our electricity use to go up in the winter I'm not really sure by how much as we have oil fired heating.

Since moving in we've averaged £1.14 per day for electricity but the SSE annual estimate is more than 3 times that.
 
Our 1Yr fix finishes at the end of January, but out of curiosity I went onto our provider's website last week to see how much a new 1Yr fix would be. Our annual bill would jump from £2.9k/yr to £6.8k/yr! :eek: Once February comes I think we'll take our chances with the standard Price Cap tariff...
Similar situation here. We're currently paying dual fuel £2.5k but our fix ends 1st Dec. A new fix comes in at £6k or £4k for Standard Variable. Standard Variable with price cap it is then....
 


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