Homes and Property

Get clever over fuel bills

By Lucy Tobin
It might not feel like it when another hefty energy bill drops on your hall mat, but wholesale gas and electricity prices have been falling steadily for two years. Now, however, they have started to creep up again and it is unlikely to be long before suppliers decided to pass on these extra costs to householders.

Which means it’s a good time to consider a fixed-rate gas and electricity tariff, which will give you some certainly over future bills - at least for the length of the contract.

“Energy prices are at a low point so switching now is a good idea,” says Mark Todd, of comparison website Energyhelpline.

The cheapest standard gas and electricity tariff at the moment is npower’s Sign Online 18 deal, which will cost an average household £876 a year. By contrast, the cheapest fixed-rate deal, E.ON’s Fix Online V8, would cost that same home £883. So for £7 more a year, homeowners would be protected against any price rises for 12 months.

“Switch now,” Todd advises. “There are still very cheap tariffs about, but as the world economy recovers and wholesale prices rise, these will get pulled.”




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