Martin Lewis hosted an hour-long special of his award-winning Money Show Live on Tuesday offering crucial advice for energy customers across the country in the wake of Ofgem’s announcement that the price cap is expected to increase by a further £830 to £2,800 in October.
If Ofgem's prediction comes true, the Resolution Foundation warns some 9.6 million households could find themselves in ‘fuel stress’ this winter - defined as spending at least a tenth of their total budgets on energy bills alone.
However, Martin Lewis may have a solution for existing British Gas and E.On customers and urged them to check if they can fix to a tariff that is less than the projected price cap of 42% and no more than 35% of the current one.
Andrew in Teeside is with Ovo and asked the consumer champion if he should move to a variable tariff now that his fixed deal has ended.
Martin explained that there are currently no deals on the open market that are below the price cap, but there are reportedly two deals for existing British Gas and E.On customers.
Because these fixes are for existing energy customers, Martin explained that firms are under no obligation to publish them in the public domain, but customers have contacted him to let him know about the offers.
He said: “I believe there’s an E.On two-year fix some people are being offered and there’s a British gas one-year fix some people are being offered that are within less than 30% of the price cap.”
Martin also explained how even though the price cap is predicted to go up 42% in October and only lasts three months, the latest estimate he has been given by analysts is that the January price cap for the next three months, which come into effect in April, is going to be “roughly the same”.
He said: “So we’re expecting it to be around £2,800 until next April and then it is going to drop a little bit, so when you plug all that in to where we are now - we’ve got four months on this price cap, then you’ve got at least six months on the next price cap - effectively, if you can find a fix below around 30% more than the current price cap, then it’s probably worth doing.”
But he added: “You can add 5% on top of that because you get price assurity of knowing what your prices are.”
For everyone else with a different supplier, it’s always worthwhile contacting them to ask if there are any tariff offers available - just remember to take into account Martin’s advice about how much you should be expecting to pay to get a deal which beats the October price cap.
If you missed the programme, you can watch The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on the STV or ITV Player.
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