The renewal email had been in my junk folder for eleven days when Matt found it. He was hunting for a parcel notification on Monday 2 February and announced, in the voice of a man reading out football results, that we had an energy email from 22 January. I chase people for missing forms for a living. I had no defence.
Our first fix, taken on 10 March 2025 with no exit fees, was due to end on 9 March 2026. The email was the supplier's offer to roll us onto a new one, sent 46 days before the end date. Nothing was lost, but I'd lost eleven of the days I wanted for thinking about it.
What happens if you do nothing
I wanted this straight before I opened a spreadsheet. If a fix ends and you haven't chosen anything, you drift onto the supplier's standard variable tariff, and that is the tariff the Ofgem price cap applies to. Ofgem resets the cap every quarter, so the rate can change on 1 April, 1 July, 1 October and 1 January. After a year of a steady direct debit, I didn't fancy that.
I'd also had the cap wrong for ages. It isn't a cap on your bill. It limits the price per unit of gas and electricity, and the daily standing charge, for people on those variable tariffs. Use more and you pay more. It's closer to a tax rate than a tax bill, which is a comparison I can only make because of my job.
Three offers, one set of numbers
I took our first full year (10,420 kWh of gas and 2,310 kWh of electricity) and ran it through each option on a fresh tab. Standing charges were roughly 50p a day for electricity and 30p for gas on all three, and the unit rates were within a penny or so of what we'd been paying. Over twelve months the three landed within about £30 of each other.
- The renewal offer: a 12-month fix with no exit fee, priced at about the cap level.
- A 12-month fix from a different supplier, found on a comparison site: a few pounds a year cheaper on paper, with an exit fee of £50 per fuel.
- The variable tariff at the cap: no commitment, but no certainty either.
The exit fee decided it more than the price did. I can't tell you where the cap will sit in July, and nobody I read could either. A fix with no exit fee means that if rates fall we can leave without paying for the privilege, and if they rise we're sitting on the old price. The other supplier's deal only worked if we guessed the next twelve months right, and being wrong would have cost £100 in fees. Switching itself didn't put me off. Last March it took about a week and nobody came to the house.
What we picked
We accepted the renewal offer on Friday 20 February: another 12-month fix, no exit fees, at about the cap level. The new price began on 10 March and the direct debit dropped from £119 to £108 a month. The old figure had been set a year earlier from the supplier's guess at our use, and we ended the fix about £96 in credit, so I asked them to keep the credit and lower the payment rather than send it back.
The confirmation email arrived within a minute. I checked the junk folder anyway. It was in the inbox, where it belonged. The smart meter carried on sending readings, so there were no photos in the cold at the gas box this time.
The change I've made is dull. There's a reminder in my calendar for 19 January 2027, seven weeks before this fix ends on 9 March 2027, with "check junk folder" in the title. Matt has added his own, labelled "Chloe: check junk folder". Neither of us thinks that's unfair. I'm no energy adviser, so if you want to see how the cap works for your own tariff, Ofgem and Citizens Advice both explain it in plain English, and your supplier's notice will have your own end date on it.
