Martin Lewis warns Outfox, EDF and Octopus deals ‘beat’ October rise | Personal Finance | Finance
Martin Lewis has today spoken out about the incoming energy price cap rise in four days – and said there’s a key tip which avoids the 10 per cent increase. Ofgem’s new energy price cap for October to December comes into effect on October 1.
Regulator Ofgem has already announced that the average household energy bill will increase by £149 from October. The price cap will rise by 10% from the current £1,568 for a typical household in England, Scotland and Wales to £1,717.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain today financial expert Mr Lewis said that in fact wholesale rates were coming down with energy firms offering cheaper tariffs than even weeks ago. He explained that while if you stay on the price cap rate prices are on the up – but people can save virtually the whole 10 per cent rise.
He told host Susanna Reid: “So as we’ve just seen, energy is going up. It’s not coming down. It’s going up on the first of October. It’s likely to come down a tiny bit in January, but it will be a lot more than it is right now.”
“Now these wholesale rates coming down, the price energy firms pay coming down means they’re offering cheaper tariffs now than they were a couple of weeks ago. So bizarrely energy prices are going up if you’re on the price cap. But the cheapest rates available if you’re going to switch, are coming down.”
He advised people to use a comparison site to find the best deal. He said: “Outfox The market is the cheapest fix. Right now it is 9.4% cheaper than the October price cap on average. So on the new price cap and 0.8% cheaper than what you’re paying. So you could drop a tiny bit now, But from next week, you’re going to be paying 9.8 percent less than the new price cap.
“EDF has a that basically says you can fix now at the current rate. So you just simply don’t get that price, right? That’s it. You just don’t stop the price rise. So you’re asking me, should I fix?
“I would say for the vast majority of people who are risk averse and don’t want to see prices going up, fixing now is the safe option.
“This is not about getting a fix. This is about getting a cheap fix. If you’re going to lock in a price, you want to lock in on the cheapest fix you can get. So if I just run through. I mean head and shoulders above the road. It’s outfox. The market and EDF are substantially cheaper than any others than the Octopus 15 months fix that you talked about is 7% below the October price.”
Last month, Labour’s energy consumers minister Miatta Fahnbulleh held talks with suppliers including Octopus, asking for help with a marketing campaign to alert customers to bills support that is already available.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said ministers also asked firms about longer term market reforms for energy bills, including a social tariff, something campaign groups have proposed for several years.
The measure would likely take the form of a targeted discount energy deal for poorer customers, and could be below the price of the cheapest available standard energy tariff.
