Cheapest household energy plans hit £900 again

Householders are being urged to snap up a cheap online energy plan while they can as the average price creeps up to £900 a year today.

While standard prices remain steady at £1,194 a year on average, online prices have been creeping upwards as suppliers pull their most competitive deals and replace them with more costly plans.

The latest move comes today with ScottishPower pulling its Online Enery Reward (a fixed price online plan) and Online Energy Saver 9 plan, replacing with Online Energy Saver 10 which will cost £915 a year on average. However, even at an average of £900 a year, online plans still offer great value coming in at £294 a year cheaper than the average standard plan.

Emma Bush, energy expert at uSwitch.com, says: "This is the warning sign we've been waiting for. Online plans are always competitive, but they have represented particularly good value over the last 10 months after the average price fell below £1,000 in September last year. However, because they are so keenly priced they are also the first to reflect any volatility in the market, which is why we have started to see online prices creeping up.

"The good news for consumers is that online plans still offer a £294 saving on standard prices. But what it does mean is that now is the right time to be snapping up one of these deals as we could see online prices climbing higher.

"The biggest question on everyone's lips is what this upward trend in the online market means for general household energy prices. The truth is that it is too soon to say - while wholesale prices have increased they are still comparatively low compared with 2008 when household energy prices rocketed by 42%, plus we don't yet know whether we are looking at a short-term blip or an ongoing trend. The fact is that suppliers would need to see a consistent trend in substantially higher wholesale prices before they could justify a general price hike."