Martin Lewis urges Brits to act and cut energy bills by up to 7% | Personal Finance | Finance
As the energy price cap rise is just around the corner, Martin Lewis has pointed out that some households might need to pay more now to ensure a significantly smaller bill in the future.
The energy price cap increase by Ofgem, set to take effect on 1st October, will see countless households across the nation seeing a 10% surge in their energy bills right before winter.
However, a timely switch could potentially ease the financial strain for those on certain energy tariffs.
On his podcast, Martin Lewis revealed that some of the UK’s largest providers have actually slashed their prices this week.
This means that switching tariffs just days before the price cap hike could result in greater savings than those who made the switch earlier.
The Money-Saving Expert disclosed: “If you fix at the moment, all the cheapest fixes are more expensive than the current price cap but up to 7% cheaper than the incoming price cap. Which is effectively only 10 days away.”
“This week we’ve had 3 new fixes launched that are cheaper than they were and are the cheapest stand-alone fixes on the market.
“One is from E.On, one from British Gas and one from Outfox The Market. The cheapest of those is 7% less than the October price cap.”
A whopping 80% of homes in England, Scotland and Wales are on standard tariffs. These tariffs are directly affected by the price cap increase and these are the very homes that could reap the benefits of switching to a fixed tariff before 1st October.
These fixed tariffs will lock in a household’s monthly energy bills for typically a year, and Martin hinted that they probably won’t miss any significant price cap reductions during that period.
Acknowledging he was doing “a bit of crystal ball gazing” based on current forecasts, he asserted that being on a fixed tariff for the coming year “looks like it will be a winner”.
He then advised listeners to refer to his in-depth analysis of energy tariffs in his previous podcast episodes for more insights on this switch.
