Households and Businesses Warned Of Energy Price Rise – So Fix Now
Over the last few weeks energy companies and brokers have been warning households and businesses that energy prices are set to increase further over the next few months and are advising consumers to fix gas and electricity tariffs now.
As energy suppliers warn of rising energy prices due to the unrest in the Middle East and the nuclear crisis in Japan, experts are advising consumers to switch to a fixed price electricity or gas deal.
Utility Exchange reported last week that Centrica, the owner of British Gas had warned that wholesale energy prices were around 25% higher than consumers were currently paying. This was likely to be reflected in higher prices over the next few months and particularly over the next winter.
Already energy companies have started to withdraw their cheapest deals. For example, npower has withdrawn its cheapest fixed tariff for new customers (Go Fix 5) which has been replaced with Go Fix 6 – just over 4% more expensive for gas and 8.5% more expensive for electricity. British Gas has also withdrawn its cheapest online deals while smaller providers such as First Utility, Ovo and Green Energy have all raised their standard tariffs over the last few weeks.
The same can be said of business gas prices and business electricity tariffs. Over the last few months E.ON, British Gas, Scottish Power and CNG have all raised their prices.
Only this week, there are warnings that energy prices are set to increase by 50% over the next four years and the Bank of England warned last week that energy prices could push up inflation to 5% this year.
While it can never be predicted with any certainty, the likelihood is that prices will increase before the winter and it therefore makes sense to switch to a cheaper deal sooner rather than later. It’s never been easier to compare domestic energy prices, business electricity prices or business gas tariffs. And there’s a new domestic energy supplier entered the market – Co-Operative Energy, as reported by Utility Exchange last week.