Surely this post will resonate with all my readers. I bet all of us wish we'd acted when we had the opportunity.
On 15th October 2021 - only five months ago - I was coming close to the end of my two-year fixed deal with SSE for gas and electricity. I'd been paying £117 each month. Or £1,404 a year.
What new fixed deals could SSE now offer me? Energy prices were already rising sharply, and I expected to pay more, but not anything exorbitant.
Well, SSE had two fixed deals. One was for two years, at £223 per month. That was £2,676 a year. I took a screenshot on my phone:
Crikey! Almost double what I was paying at the time under the deal that was coming to an end. No, £223 every month seemed way too much.
There was also a three year fixed deal, at £162 a month, or £1,944 a year:
That was certainly a better price - but quite a hike from the £117 per month I was presently paying. Did I really want to pay £45 a month more, for three years, just on the off-chance that the standard variable rate for gas and electricity would go even higher, and stay higher, for that long? My savings would suffer. I'd save £1,620 less than planned over those three years. That much less to spend on the all-electric car I wanted to buy in 2026 or 2027.
I decided to pass these deals up, and just move onto SSE's standard variable rate, and absorb the payment changes as they occurred. It wouldn't be so bad: the variable rate was capped.
If only I'd had a crystal ball! Had I been able to see what was coming so soon, I'd have leapt at that three year fixed deal.
Currently I'm paying SSE £213 a month - £1,632 a year, which reflects the April 2022 capped increase. Who knows what it will be when the variable rate is changed next October.
For a while after October, SSE offered no fixed deals at all. Was this still so? I fired up their app today, to see whether a fixed deal was now being offered again. To my surprise, one was:
£338 a month - £4,056 a year! That's positively stratospheric. And it's only a one-year fix. I don't think I'll be taking that one up.
Would I agree to this deal if it were for three years? Basically to have certainty for that long? Well, I might consider it. But I can't see myself paying anywhere near £338 a month on the standard variable rate during the next twelve months. So it makes no sense to have this deal if it lasts only one year.
But I might be wrong. Just as I was mistaken last October about that three-year fix costing £162 a month. It's all a gamble.
