We had some good news this week about our energy bills – or did we?
Ofgem’s price cap is coming down – saving households around £400 a year on average.
The last 18 months have been horrendous for households, so bad the Government had to step in in October and introduce a price freeze – but that was still double what the typical bill payer would have had to fork out a year previously.
And although the cap is coming down, the removal of Government grants means most people will actually only be saving about £19 per month, or £225 per year.
So what will we have to pay when the new cap starts in July, will bills keep going down, and when will energy companies start under-cutting the price cap with fixed tariffs again?
On this podcast, Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert discuss when energy bills might go back to ‘normal’ and whether we should jump on fixed deals when they return, or treat them with caution.
We also got the latest UK inflation figures this week. Despite a not insignificant drop from 10.1 per cent to 8.7 per cent in April, experts are pricing in another interest rate rise – and that is partly down to a surprise jump in something called core inflation.
We explain what that is, and discuss just how high the base rate might go.
Mortgage rates have also been on the rise, with major lender Nationwide hiking its fixed and tracker mortgage rates by up to 0.45 per cent among others.
We look at why that is happening, and take in some advice from brokers on what those with a remortgage deadline coming up should do.
But with bad news for mortgage holders comes good news for savers, with easy-access rates edging ever closer to 4 per cent. We list the best buys.
The US debt ceiling has also been in the news this week, as the two main parties have so far failed to strike a deal for it to be raised.
If that doesn’t happen quickly enough, the world’s biggest economy could default on its debts – but what exactly would that mean, and how big is the risk?
Finally, with warmer weather on the way we discuss ‘campervanflation’ and why the younger generation can’t seem to get enough of the classic VW Camper.
