Martin Lewis warns British Gas, OVO, Octopus, EDF customers 'if you don't'

The BBC Sounds podcaster and Martin Lewis Money Show star  issued the advice on Good Morning Britain with ITV co-host Susanna Reid.
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Martin Lewis has urged energy customers to take action immediately with the new energy price cap launching on Tuesday. The BBC Sounds podcaster and Martin Lewis Money Show star issued the advice on Good Morning Britain with ITV co-host Susanna Reid.

The energy price cap will rise to an average annual £1,717 from October, the industry regulator has confirmed. The new figure represents a 10% a year - or £12 per month - leap in the typical sum households face paying for gas and electricity when using direct debit.

Mr Lewis said: "If you don’t have a working smart meter, you should be doing a meter reading at some point around next Tuesday. You could do it now, you could do it a few days after. Here’s why. There is the old price and the new price (of energy)."

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The warning relates to all of the biggest energy firm's customers, including British Gas, OVO, EDF, EON and Octopus. MSE founder Mr Lewis said: "If you don’t do a meter reading, they are assuming how much of your usage was on the cheap price, and how much of the usage was on the more expensive price, so they could assume more of it was on the more expensive price than it was.

"If you do a meter reading, you draw a line and you are going to get the correct amount billed to you, not too much at the higher level. You could do it a few days before, a few days after, you just want to make sure you are not running a few weeks over because they will be able to assume you have used more at the higher rate.

"I’m not suggesting they do it deliberately but it is done by algorithm and the algorithm could work against you." Between 1 October and 31 December, gas prices will be capped at 6.24p per kilowatt hour (kWh), and electricity at 24.50p per kWh.

That means a dual-fuel direct debit household using a typical amount of energy, external will pay £1,717 per year, a rise of £149.