Martin Lewis has warned households not to 'just jump' at the first fixed-rate energy bill offered to them - because it may cost them more in the long run. Major UK energy supplier Ovo is offering its first deal below the Government’s £2,500 cap on typical household bills with a one-year fixed tariff of £2,275 to existing customers.
That deal undercuts the Government’s energy price guarantee (EPG), which reduces the amount people can be charged per unit of gas or electricity, to an annual equivalent of around £2,500 for a typical household in Britain.
Ovo, which has around four million customers, said it launched its new tariff because customers desired “the security of a long-term fix to protect them against the continuing energy price uncertainty”. But Mr Lewis, founder of MoneySaving Expert, said “people need to be very careful not to just jump on a fix because it costs less than they’re paying right now."
In a statement, he added: “If you’re on a standard tariff, the rates you pay are governed by a cap. That cap is currently set by the Energy Price Guarantee, and will stay roughly stable until the end of June.
“After that, because wholesale rates – the rates energy firms pay – have dropped, it’s likely the price cap will drop, and on current predictions that means you’ll start paying 20% lower rates than now.”
He said the price is predicted to “stay around that point” until the end of the year and into early 2024. Wholesale gas prices have fallen by around 80% since August last year, according to the Resolution Foundation, a living standards think tank.
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"So based on those predictions, unless a fix is more than 15 percent cheaper than your current standard tariff – and this one isn't – it's unlikely to be cheaper over the year," Mr Lewis told the Express.
"Having said that, these are just predictions, things can change rapidly, and the one advantage of a fix is you get price certainty. So if you really value that, you may decide to fix even at a higher rate."
In his Budget on March 15, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt committed to maintaining the EPG at its £2,500 level from April to June, after it had been due to rise to £3,000 in April.
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