Energy bills: British consumers quoted up to £3,500 a year for fixed rates

theguardian.com:

Households in Great Britain hoping to fix their gas and electricity bills in a desperate attempt to avoid the worst of the price rises are facing quotes as high as £3,500 a year – with the exception of E.ON customers.

In the face of market turmoil and soaring wholesale gas prices, most of the UK’s domestic energy suppliers have either stopped offering customers the chance to move to a fixed-price tariff or have priced them at £3,000 and above.

Scottish Power’s Fixed Price May 2023 M2 tariff now costs an astonishing £3,500 a year for average use – compared with the current cap of £1,277 a year. A host of other suppliers are quoting at least £3,000 a year to customers looking to fix.

British Gas said this week it had pulled its fixed-price tariffs, adding it would not be fair to offer customers “fixed prices based on this price volatility right now”.

However, there is one ray of hope, provided you are an existing E.ON customer. On Monday the supplier pulled the last remaining fixed-price tariff to compete with the variable rates on offer after it was highlighted by the MoneySavingExpert founder, Martin Lewis, and swiftly sold out.

However, E.ON is still offering existing customers a one-year fixed tariff – Fix 1 Year v 12 – which costs £2,270 a year for average consumption. This is £299 more than the new price cap, which comes in on 1 April, but considerably less than tariffs available on the open market.

It is probably a good bet if you qualify, not least as there are no exit fees to pay, meaning customers can leave in the unlikely event that prices start falling again. It is also unlikely to be around for long. Customers new to E.ON would have to pay £3,158 for a one-year fix.

Octopus Energy has a similar but slightly less