March 2023- Simpler Energy Variable Plan VS Fixed

Hey @Geoff Dickson,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

It’s completely up to you whether you choose to be on Fixed or Variable, a Fixed plan may be cheaper than current Variable rates and the main benefit of a Fixed Tariff is customers with fixed prices have peace of mind that their costs won’t change for the duration of the tariff. Whether it would be beneficial or not depends on what happens in the market.

Energy rates are significantly higher currently than they were pre energy crisis, Ofgem have announced that although there’s a decrease to the overall price cap, standing charges will increase. The average household price cap level for a Pay Monthly (PAYM) customer on a Standard Variable Tariff paying by direct debit is now £3,280, previously it was set to £4,279 per year. This means an overall decrease of £999. For Standard Variable Tariff PAYM on demand will go from £4,533 to £3,482. For prepayment customers the cap will go from £4,358 to £3,325. 

Currently energy bills are protected by the Energy Price Guarantee and capped at £2500. 

When the Energy Crisis hit, customers who were on Fixed contracts were paying significantly less than those on Variable contracts. 

It’s a really interesting conversation, thank you for bringing it to the Forum! 😊

Dear Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

Thank you for the reply, but all you are saying is what the OVO email has already told me, the energy price Cap does not protect you from from price increases if you use more than the price cap you still have to pay more IT IS NOT A CAP. What happens when the prices reduce as they should, as I mentioned Gas is now £44.50 per Megawatt, in August 2022 it was £320.00 per Megawatt, if I sign up for a Fixed Contract and the prices reduce (as they should) I will be tied into the exorbitant prices as they are today, (based on the wholesale price of Energy in November 2022).

I also do not understand why the “Standing Charges will increase significantly” the infrastructure for the system is already in place nothing has changed or is it pure profiteering.

Hi Jeffus. Thank you for your very comprehensive reply, I was on a fixed rate which finished in February 2023 and was transferred to the “Simpler Energy Variable rate” which didn’t look to bad to me by todays standards, not been on it a month and they are putting it up, and I am trying to understand why when wholesale prices are plummeting unless Mr Fitzpatrick is feeling the Pinch.

In actual fact my electric kWh price has come down by 0.64p but Standing has increased by 5.76p per day, Gas kWh price stays the same but Standing has increased by 0.63p per day.

I think I will stick with the variable and see where it goes, it should plummet but we will see Mr Fitzpatrick may need another Billion in the bank.

Certainly Martin Lewis seems to share @Geoff Dickson’s scepticism about the Ovo Fixed Rate offer: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2023/03/ovo-fixed-deal-after-months-with-no-deals/  Then again, I guess there is no love lost between him and Mr Fitzpatrick after their ‘fat cat’ spat.

The high ‘early-exit’ penalty of £150 (2.5 times more than previous schemes) does raise the question whether Ovo have gone early to stop customers switching easily from Simpler Energy Variable to more competitive fix offers that may be in the pipeline from other suppliers.

 
I think you’ll find that there’s no exit fee for OVO customers on their standard variable tariff, so no disincentive to switch to another supplier. The fees you quote are for those who opt for the fixed-rate tariffs.

Sorry @Firedog, perhaps I wasn't clear. It was the exit penalty for the new Fix that I was talking about.

If I sign up for the fixed slightly lower rate, I would have to pay £150 to switch to any even lower fixed rate schemes which may be offered by other suppliers in the months ahead. That is, if wholesale prices continue to fall...

Hi @Geoff Dickson 

Just thought I’d let you know that I received email notifications that you had tried to reply to me, but your replies have disappeared from the forum. From the email summary, the only thing I can imagine could have led to a block was your self-description as “boring old...” Then again, maybe the forum filter is over-sensitive to the innocuous word that followed 😂

Having used the same phrase of myself on many occasions, I sympathise.

Just so you know, the forum is designed so that email notifications don’t go out for anything that was blocked by the AutoMod system. It is more likely that some comments got removed reactively by a moderator.

I can definitely say that it wasn’t me who removed the comments however. Forum volunteers such as myself don’t have that power.

'Thank you for that kopweb I was not aware of the “fat cat spat” and what you say does make sense particularly the early exit penalty, which is one of the reasons I am sticking with the variable rate at the moment.

I have been with OVO since at least 2010 with a year out using another company which went bust, I enjoy being an OVO customer just wish they would simplify the monthly bills, I do believe that they complicate them deliberately along with other suppliers, making them difficult to check, especially for an old PERSON like me.'