Martin Lewis is warning customers on certain tariffs (Image: ITVX)
Martin Lewis has warned customers of seven big name price capped energy tariffs where customers should come off their tariffs and move on to a fixed deal as soon as possible.
The returned to the Money Show Live on and ITVX, where he urged customers on tariffs from firms including British Gas, OVO, E.ON, Octopus, Outfox The Market, and EDF to switch to a new deal to avoid overpaying on their direct debits.
This week, announced it is increasing its price capped tariffs by 6.4%, or £111 for an average household, pushing the annual bill for a typical use dual fuel home to £1,849.
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But the cap only applies to certain ‘standard variable tariffs’, Martin explained in his show on February 25, and you can save a lot of money by switching to a deal which will cost less than the current price cap, let alone the April one.
By switching now, you could save as much as 12% against the April price cap, thanks to some tariffs being 5% lower than the January to April cap and another 6% lower than the April cap.
said: “It’s a pants cap! Get off it, if you can.
“The cap applies to firms’ bog standard, their default domestic tariffs. Two thirds of homes in England, Scotland and Wales are on a capped tariff, and about a month ago it was 80%, four million have fixed, probably because certain people have been pushing it out there that you should get off the pants cap.
“Now just to be very clear, you’re on a capped tariff if you’ve never switched, or if your fix or special deal ended and you haven’t done anything since – you’re NOT on a capped tariff and it doesn’t affect you if you have a fix deal and you’re still on it, or you’re on a specialist tariff.
“But if you’re on a fix, when that ends, you would move automatically if you did nothing, onto the price cap.
“So just to be very plain about this, I’ve picked the biggest firms in the country and I’m going to give you the names of their price cap tariffs. So if you’re on one of these, you’re on the price, brackets the pants, cap.”
Martin said that these tariffs are price cap tariffs which you should get off: British Gas Standard Variable, EDF Standard Variable, Next Flex, OVO Simpler Energy, Outfox the Market Fox Standard, Octopus Flexible Octopus, Scottish Power Standard.
Martin warned: “If you’re on one of those, get off it!”
Right now, British Gas is offering a fix called British Gas Fixed Tariff v32 which will save 4.4% off the current price cap (January to April), which will be a 10.1% saving by April, because prices will rise another 6.4% in April but your price will be locked in position and unable to increase for 16 months.
Other firms’ offerings include E.On Next Fixed 15M v1, which saves 6% against the current cap, rising to 12% from April.