Martin Lewis offered advice to Good Morning Britain viewers on Monday morning, as he appeared on the show to discuss the rising cost of energy bills.
Following the announced hike in the energy price cap last month by Ofgem by up to 80%, Martin offered a warning of worrying further hikes, including one in January.
After repeating concern that there could be a 52% increase at the start of 2023, he revealed that the huge hike being faced by schools and businesses could be a forecast for homes too.
Speaking with co-host Susanna Reid, Martin warned that the amount paid by many where the price cap doesn't apply has tripled and could go up, and that consumers could also see their bills at home tripling in the near future.
Susanna had said: "We're going to be speaking shortly to Steve Chalke who is head of a network of schools, who says they are facing a bill of nearly £10million, previously £3million, going up to almost £10million."
Martin then replied: "It's also portentous, I need to be honest. A school is a business in this sense, there is no price cap on business energy.
"Businesses across the country, all the price cap really does is delay price rises... so if you look at what businesses are getting when their last contract ends, that foreshadows what we're likely to get and that's why what you're hearing from that school, 'we're trebling'.
"I'm hearing bigger rises than trebling, a trebling is a shadow of what is likely to come to all homes unless more help comes through."
Earlier in the show, Martin repeated his fears over more frequent price hikes where energy bills are concerned.
He said: "In January we are expecting to see a 52 percent rise on top of the 80 percent rise.
"I have been attacked for calling this a catastrophe. For many of the poorest and most vulnerable if there is no help, it it catastrophic."
Martin also offered advice to viewers regarding their bills, as customers asked about putting loads of credit on prepaid meters to buy energy at the current cost level.
He said: "Gas metre? no... an electric meter if you have a smart meter, pre-topping up won't work.
"But on other electric meters, if the time you top up is when you pay for the energy so if you top up before the price cap goes up, you'll be topping up at this rate.
"Many have a limit of £250 that you can top up, so you could buy energy to use in October at the September price, but it will be firm by firm."
He added: "For those on direct debit saying could I give a much higher meter reading than the amount I've actually used now so I can stock up in advance for October, well that would be fraud so that's my answer."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
