The cheapest energy tariffs around

by Mark Vickery on 13 January 2012  |  5 comments
Tweet

Energy prices are being cut but they’re not being cut enough to beat the cheap fixes around at the minute.

There may finally be some light at the end of the tunnel for our gas and electricity bills, with price cuts from EDF, British Gas, SSE and npower this week.

Smaller supplier Ovo had already reduced the cost of its cheap fixed tariffs. Its New Energy Fixed is now the 2nd cheapest fixed tariff and only £30 a year more than the cheapest available tariff, first:utility’s iSave 9. For an extra £30 a year, it could well be worth the peace of mind that your prices can’t go up for a year. What’s more, its 100% green energy tariff is now the fourth cheapest – and given that green tariffs usually come at a premium, this could be a great chance for those who want to go green but are worried about the cost.

Co-op Energy is another smaller supplier to recently reduce its prices, while E.ON and npower have also recently launched new versions of their fixed tariffs that are actually cheaper than their predecessors. When suppliers pull cheap tariffs and replace them with new versions, they are almost inevitably more expensive, but these have bucked the trend which could be a sign of things to come.

However, given that these cheap fixed tariffs are over £200 less than the typical bill, suppliers would have to cut their rates by nearly 20% to make a significant difference. The cheapest fixed tariffs are all approximately a year long and, given that the cheapest variable tariffs are around the same price, it’s highly unlikely you’d lose out on price cuts by opting for one of these.

* Against average bill of £1,345 p.a. as estimated by Ofgem. All costs are for a yearly average usage dual fuel household paying by monthly direct debit. Average usage defined by Ofgem as 16,500 kWh p.a. of gas and 3,300 kWh p.a. of electricity.

** Presuming that it takes 6-8 weeks for the switch to go live

Compare energy tariffs at lovemoney.com | The best and worst energy suppliers