Price cap increases- To fix or not to fix?

Just checked my mother’s gas and electricity tariffs (she is with British Gas). She fixed about 9 months ago so fixed at a high rate. BG allow you to swap to another fixed tariff without incurring the exit fee. So no brainer really. Fix again and if it goes down fix yet again, if it goes up she is quid's in.

Maybe OVO should consider something similar? 

Maybe they should consider that. if it goes up we can change our mind and if it comes down do the same without paying an exit fee. that sounds like a good idea.

@Firedog the variation across the country is amazing. For me a fixed deal gives a penny less on peak rate which we rarely use (solar and batteries), 0.3p cheaper overnight, and 4.4p more per day which more than offsets the savings. For gas it's 0.3p per unit and 2.7p per day CHEAPER than variable. Where is the sense in making gas cheaper when the world needs us to get off it. 

Am I correct that OVO is already offering this? There are no exit fees if you switch to another upcoming OVO fixed tariff, right?

Found this in the help section

If you're on a fixed plan

You must be in your ‘renewal window’ (which starts 53 days before the end of your contract) to change, or you may incur exit fees. Once renewed, the new plan will start when your current one ends.

Change from fixed to fixed:

• Change from Better Energy to 2 Year Fixed Energy anytime – no exit fees.

• Change from 2 Year Fixed Energy to Better Energy – £30 exit fee on each fuel if you change before the renewal window.

Change from fixed to variable:

• Change from Better Energy to Simpler Energy – £30 exit fee on each fuel if you change before the renewal window.

• Change from 2 Year Fixed to Simpler Energy – £30 exit fee on each fuel if you change before the renewal window.

So only if you are on certain tariffs.

I’m just looking into this for myself, and did an online quote.
https://products.ovoenergy.com/journey/switch/get-quote

I'm currently on a "1 Year Fixed Loyalty" started on 21 Dec 2023.
(I believe that I've also seen it referred to as '1 Year Fixed Loyalty 14/12/2023'?)

Having the same name plan with different dates and different rates does raise interesting questions.

Can you switch/renew to a newer "1 Year Fixed Loyalty" plan part way through your existing "1 Year Fixed Loyalty" plan? ie. Effectively extending your end date at the new tariff rates.

Firstly the question of exit fees:
The 1 Year Fixed Loyalty Terms & Conditions (from the same quote), #6 says that no exit fee would apply if you “change to another OVO fixed tariff”:

The one question that I have there is would switching from one ‘Fixed Loyalty’ plan to a later version of the same named plan still count as "another OVO fixed tariff"?
I believe that it would because although having the same ‘basic’ name the tariffs are indeed different and the plans have different dates in their ‘full’ names when you include the date*

So if it works out cheaper for you and you decide to do it then how would you go about that as they both have the same plan name?
It looks to be as simple as getting the online quote and then simply clicking the "Choose plan" button on the quote.

*That button was shown to me, suggesting that I can indeed switch/renew at the new rates.

I haven't done that yet as I still want to do some number crunching, if I am going to do it then I'll probably do it on the same day as my current billing period ends - Or should that be the day after when the new billing period starts?

I found that, too, but it’s sadly out of date. I don’t thing OVO offer a plan called Better Energy now. The exit fee is given on the Tariff Information Label and - I think - everywhere else that plan rates are quoted, e.g. 
Energy Renewal (ovoenergy.com) 
Our prices | OVO Energy 
Get an energy quote (ovoenergy.com).

It’s currently £75 per fuel for the one-year fixed rates and £95 for two-year fixed rates that I can see.

The principle still applies as far as I’m aware, though: simply put, unless you’re within 7 weeks of the end of the contract, any plan downgrade (e.g. 2-year fixed > 1-year fixed, fixed > variable) triggers an exit fee, but upgrades don’t.
  

@ChristopherS_OVO et al: are there plans afoot to review and update help articles like this? 
Changing to another OVO plan | OVO Energy 

Which still leaves the question about changing mid-term from a 1 Year Fixed to a newer 1 Year Fixed?

Although the current Fixed Loyalty T&Cs that I screenshotted above do suggest that no exit fee applies as long as you are already on a Fixed Loyalty plan and are ‘renewing’ to any other OVO fixed plan is that correct, and is it also correct for all current fixed plans?

@ChristopherS_OVO any chance that you could get that clarified as well?
The current guidance seems vague - and contradictory in places.

My guess would be ‘No’. If this were possible without invoking an exit fee, there would be no point in calling it ‘fixed’ and there would be no gamble involved. OVO have ostensibly already bought the fuel you intended to use when you fixed at the forward price prevailing then. I don’t suppose they can sell it back at the same price, which has presumably fallen in the interim. The exit fee is to indemnify them against that potential loss.

Your sums might show that fixing again at the new lower rate could save you more than the amount of the exit fee. Then again, they might not. 

Yes. I had already considered those points and they are of course valid.

Always remembering that you are extending your fixed term too, and they are now ostensibly buying fuel at a forward price for that extended term and setting new fixed tariffs accordingly..
And for that new term anyone new fixing now would be using exactly the same fuel as you, coming from the same sources at the same cost.
(It’s not as if it’s already been supplied to OVO and is sat in a big pile somewhere).

However there does not (Currently) seem to be anything in the published T&C’s to prevent you from doing it.

That may be why it’s difficult to find it stated clearly anywhere one way or the other, the hope/expectation that people won’t notice the ‘loophole’ and so will just stick with their current full term?

In effect it may be a small gamble on OVOs part that fixers won’t notice that they might still fix again early, as long as they stay with OVO - a small part of the bigger ‘game’.

Personally I see the exit fees more as a disincentive to jumping ship to a different supplier offering a slightly lower fixed rate.