I've chosen a Fixed plan but might be better switching to Simpler Energy - Am I able to cancel my renewal and fix in again at a later date?

@Corgimajor

Cancellation fee depends on the fixed plan

These are two recent plans. Only some fixed plans waive the fee.

It can be confusing with ovo sometimes. Just be careful to check the terms of any contract you sign up to if you want the flexibility to cancel.

Hi @Jeffus ,  The customer support administrator was quite clear when I asked the direct question (I was keen to establish the facts) and he advised I would be charged the £75 penalty fee even if I did transfer to another Fixed Priced agreement with OVO.  So either he interpreted my terms incorrectly or the terms of the deal I did last October were different.

Either way thanks for the heads up, but given I didn't want to switch to a new Fixed Price contract this was not an issue for me.

Sounds like the latter to me - the newer contracts are the ones more likely to waive the fee if you’re moving between plans. And the Simpler Energy tariff never carries any exit fee regardless of what you do.

The current two year plan on my renewal page doesn't waive the fee

The one year plan does 

It’s good that the change of tariff has been resolved with the accounts team in such a satisfactorily straightforward way, and many thanks for keeping us so well posted on what is a very relevant tariff-juggling conundrum for all us consumers these days.

Of course paying an exit fee of £75 to save between, say, 5p and 9p per kWh (depending on what happens in the next few Price Cap reviews) until decision-time, say, around Autumn at contract-end would imply a “payback” requirement of anything up to around 1500 kWh over the six or seven upcoming less demanding summer months.

It’s clear from the precise figures discussed by @Corgimajor that they’ll have done all the pertinent calculations, but the necessary consumption to justify the exit fee (especially given the 7 week grace cancellation period) could well be a trip hazard for some, depending on the accuracy of their projected usage and, in my case at any rate, degree of impetuosity! My own contract finishes in May, so I’ve been following all this with a degree of personal interest!

Hi @waltyboy,  thanks for the comments.  As our property only consumes electricity (via ASHP for UFH and an internal recycled air heat exchanger for DHW) the calculation based on now historically typical (i.e. since Aug 2020) monthly consumption figures gives a pretty accurate forecast.  If I'd left the switch any later then the net payback would start to fall away quite quickly as we entered the late spring/early summer months when our electricity demand for heating drops off. 

As stated earlier however some of that payback is based on an expectation that the 3Q Ofgem cap will not increase from the 2Q's.

These effects of price changes however seem muted when the overall gross costs of energy these days are so high (relative to the past).

With this in mind my return to Fixed Price contracts this year is likely to be cautious and (like last year) based on concerns of further disruption to global energy supply chains.

Thanks @Corgimajor, and for all your illuminating and thought-provoking posts on this topic.

Going slightly sideways for a moment, since you mentioned ASHP installed in August 2020, I’ve reminded myself to dip in again to your former posts on that subject…very interesting stuff indeed.

All the very best in your journey to highlight green options in practice, I’m constantly re-discovering what a great forum this is…

Hi @Corgimajor, 

Amazing news! I am glad that you are happy with how things have settled for you.

I agree with @waltyboy you did such a great job of giving solid supporting reasoning behind your decision why you made this choice. I think anyone reading this will benefit from your wisdom and experience.

Keep us updated with your progress and findings. I would be interesting to see a comparison of how much you saved vs staying on the fixed plan 🙂