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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Ruby Flanagan

Households could miss out on £200 by switching to fixed-rate energy deal now

Energy customers have been warned of fixing onto new energy deals too early as they could risk losing out on a potential saving of £200.

Since last year, the price of energy from providers has been dictated by the Government to prevent bills from soaring too high.

This meant every energy supplier had to offer the Energy Price Guarantee which is a bill of £2,500 for someone with an average use - this was extended until July in the recent Budget.

However, as the cost of wholesale gas has dropped - switching incentives have started to come back onto the market.

Two providers, OVO Energy and SSE have been offering fixed deals since March which are currently lower than the guarantee.

The fixed rate deal offers a tariff of £2,275 a year for energy costs depending on your usage - this is for both suppliers as OVO owns SSE.

However, Future Energy Associates have warned people against switching to one of these fixed tariffs now as prices are predicted to drop even further in July.

This means if you switch now and are locked onto the new rate for 12 months - then you could be paying much more than you need to be as the wholesale price continues to drop.

Future Energy Associates say customers who fixed with OVO from March could lose out on roughly £212 in savings for that year.

Those who went with SSE could lose out by around £197 compared to sticking with the Government's guarantee rate and then moving to a variable tariff based on Ofgem's price cap from July 1.

The group predicted that Ovo and SSE, would then rake in an average of £484 and £469 respectively in profit on each customer who switched.

Cornwall Insight has predicted that energy prices could drop to £2,060 a year from July, down from the current price guarantee.

However, Ofgem has said that the energy market still remains "uncertain" so things could still change.

Clement Attwood, direct and data scientist from Future Energy Associates, said that suppliers would be looking to "exploit consumer desires" to fix at lower rate tariffs.

They said: "After record breaking power prices of last winter we are now seeing forward electricity prices come down, meaning suppliers are now paying less for power than accounted for by Ofgem's price cap.

“While costs continue to come down, suppliers will look to exploit consumer desires to move onto lower rate tariffs by trying to fix customers at close to current rates.

"Our analysis of costs shows that recent fixed tariffs are likely to make suppliers around 20% profit, whilst fixing customers at unit rates above the forecasted Ofgem price cap.”

An OVO spokesperson told The Mirror that Future Energy Associates had misrepresented the value of its fixed tariff.

They said: "We believe that the calculations materially underestimate forecast Supplier Costs and the future level of the Price Cap, and therefore significantly misrepresent the value offered by our Fixed Tariff.

“We are proud to be the only supplier that is giving its customer the option to fix their energy costs for the next 12 months, providing peace of mind and protection against the risk of future Price Cap increases.

"From speaking to our customers, we know that many want the security of a long term fix and this is what this provides.”

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