Energy bill price hike: actions you can take now to prepare

Energy costs go up on 1st October! Here are 4 tips for taking action now.

The ‘energy price guarantee’ will be valid from Saturday 1st October – this means that the rise in energy prices due to happen on that date will be ‘capped’ at a maximum rate. 

This means that the ‘unit price’ for energy will stay at a fixed amount, saving most people money on what were going to be astronomically high energy bills (but are still very expensive for nearly all of us).

The Money Course team have put together a few suggested actions you can take to get equipped for the upcoming changes (ideally today – Friday 30th September – but any time soon would be good!).

1)     SUBMIT A METER READING OR TOP UP YOUR PRE-PAY

Do you pay bills for your energy? If so, take a meter reading over the next few days and submit it to your energy company – it doesn’t have to be done on 1st October exactly; you may have up to a fortnight to backdate your reading.  See Martin Lewis’s helpful article about this here.

If you have a smart meter, you don’t need to do anything as your readings are automatically transmitted to your energy supplier.

Are you on a prepayment meter? Top up today if possible (only if you can afford to do so), as unit prices are cheaper until 1st October. Only some kinds of meters will allow you to do this. Again, useful details from Martin Lewis can be found here.

2)     BEWARE SCAMMERS!
Ofgem, or your energy company, will never contact you to ask for your bank details (as the ‘Energy Bill Support Scheme Payment’ of £400 will be paid to you automatically), so ignore suspicious texts or emails.  You can find more information about what to look out for, and what to do if you encounter a scammer, here.

And the BBC has a helpful article on the different payments that the government are making to address the cost of living crisis, to help you understand what you should be getting.

3)     CONTACT YOUR ENERGY COMPANY IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING

Do this as soon as possible, as they are obliged to help you if you tell them you can’t afford to pay for your energy. Most have their own grant schemes you can apply to, and British Gas’s Energy Fund is open to all. Our article on the support available from different energy companies gives further details.

4)     REMEMBER, USE MORE = PAY MORE – THERE’S NO CAP ON YOUR BILL TOTALS!

The term ‘price cap’ is misleading – it’s only the unit price for fuel that is capped.  If you use more, you’ll pay more, and there’s no limit on that, so be thrifty with your energy usage!

Find out more from Ofgem who have summarised what it all means in simple language.