Get Gas Price Info Three Weeks Early!

Three weeks ago we foretold rising gas prices. The first of those happened last Friday.

In the early morning of 14 December I predicted rising gas and electricity prices. (Beat January's 13% Gas Bill Rise.) I had seen that British Gas' wholesale-prices tracker had gone up, which I took as a strong indication that regular tariffs from all suppliers would shortly follow.

Minutes after my article was published, npower announced price increases and Centrica (which owns British Gas) noted rising gas prices in its trading statement. Three weeks later the press has caught up and has been writing about npower's price increases, which came into effect last Friday. The gas price is up 17% and electricity up 13%.

In the article, I mentioned some attractive fix-and-fall tariffs. Surprisingly, despite rising prices, these are still available. Scottish Power's PriceFall is still competitive in all the tests I did this morning on our comparison tool, using several different post codes and energy usage figures. In all my tests PriceFall was merely a few pounds off the top of the table (although it probably won't be competitive everywhere).

This tariff is fixed and even offers the potential for lower prices. However, the 'Fall' part of PriceFall is a bit of a gimmick, because in reality the tariff isn't likely to go down. Still, considering that prices across the board are set to rise, the fix seems attractive.

Scottish and Southern's Price Fix 2008 still exists according to its website, but it didn't show up anywhere near the top in any of my searches. Even so, there's a chance that it'll be better in your area.

Both these tariffs fix the price till the end of October 2008. If one of them shows up high in your search results, it's worth considering.

If you don't want to fix, my guidance is the same as it was this time last year, when prices were changing once again. Back then (in Is It Time To Switch Gas And Electricity?) I suggested that you should wait till a few more suppliers, including your existing one, have announced their price changes. Then compare and see if you can get a better deal. Only those who have never ever switched from British Gas' standard tariff might consider switching to another regular tariff now, because you'll make huge savings even without waiting.

One thing to bear in mind with the waiting strategy is that it can take ages for all the suppliers to change their prices. Looking at the past three times the energy market has gone through a round of changes, on each occasion it has taken two to four months. So in two months you may want to compare prices after the majority have announced their prices, if not all.

We'll keep you updated on prices. I'll also continue to keep my eyes open for more advance warnings of price changes!

> Compare gas and electricity through The Motley Fool.