Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

tlcgrantham

Flexible Octopus November 2022v1 rates have all increased especially the standing charges which are 10p/day higher than Agile or Tracker. Does anyone know why?

bristolleedsfan

tlcgrantham said:

Flexible Octopus November 2022v1 rates have all increased especially the standing charges which are 10p/day higher than Agile or Tracker. Does anyone know why?

Ofgem allowed suppliers to increase standing charges on 1 April, Octopus chose not to increase standing charge on tariffs you mentioned.

niktheguru

QrizB said:

There's something odd going on at Octopus this afternoon.

It looks like they've cancelled my Tracker gas bills from end-Nov to mid-Feb, have credited the previously-billed amounts to my account, and then re-billed for that same period at an extra cost to me of (it seems) about £25.

Sadly the billing page still contains the old bills for that period, not the new ones, so I can't see the details of what's changed. (Yes I have already downloaded copies of the old bills.)

I'm guessing it's related to their implementation of the EPG, but until they publish the revised bills I'm only guessing!

A similar thing happened to my parents electricity billing in the last few days.
They are on tracker for gas (since early last year, V3) and have been on tracker for electricity since mid jan this year. (I manage their tariffs for them, as they're getting old!)
Octopus in their wisdom decided to refund the period October to May, then then rebilled that same period on flexible octopus and changed their electricity tariff randomly to flexible.
I then had to contact them and within 24 hours they put them back on tracker and corrected the billing for tracker from mid jan, and flexible prior to that. Unforunately they billed incorrectly on a two rate meter (i.e. eco 7) when they were actually supposed to be single rate.....another phone call and now all is sorted.

I would say, for those not accustomed to looking at octopus bills, it can be rather confusing. Took me 10 minutes of looking through all the bills to work out exactly what they did......there is no explanation from octopus as to why this happened, but at least its sorted now.

TheKDs

Final check if Tracker is the right thing to do or which tariff might be best. Will switch out before winter, I think and am aware of the 9-month wait. I don't know why I am so stressed about making the wrong decision after waiting months to be added on!

Current tariff: Flexible Octopus November 2022 v1

Electricity use in highest quarter: 938kwh
Gas use in highest quarter: 175kwh
Estimated annual cost: £1322.86 a year for electricity £605.28 a year for gas

double_dutchy

Although Octopus say prices will probably be higher in winter that certainly wasn't the case last year. I've been on tracker for both gas and electric since last June. For the first 3 months I paid a bit more than the SVR, but since October unit rates have been lower than SVR, i.e for the whole of last winter and continuing until now

tlcgrantham

TheKDs said:

Final check if Tracker is the right thing to do or which tariff might be best. Will switch out before winter, I think and am aware of the 9-month wait. I don't know why I am so stressed about making the wrong decision after waiting months to be added on!

Current tariff: Flexible Octopus November 2022 v1

Electricity use in highest quarter: 938kwh
Gas use in highest quarter: 175kwh
Estimated annual cost: £1322.86 a year for electricity £605.28 a year for gas

If you get stressed easily Tracker May not be for you. In August and September last year Electric Tracker averaged over 40p and went to almost 80p. Gas was also averaging between 10p and 24p, yet has been well below 10 p all winter. Could you live with these variations?

Telegraph_Sam

The "strategic" decision soon to be facing me me is this: Using my present inputs and prices Tracker electric is £77 p.a. inc VAT cheaper than its nearest rival Intelligent [excluding Agile]. It is of course a gamble if this positive differential will be maintained in future. The point is that Tracker prices would have to rise by more than this amount before Tracker would begin to be uncompetitive. If this was just a short duration spike it would not change the calculations. The $ 64 K question is: How likely are the spot prices  to exceed the best non-Tracker tariffs by a meaningful amount for any significant length of time over the coming year??
I have to work through the same crystal ball calculations for [Tracker] gas also. Over an average year are the spot gas prices more volatile than the electrics?
I could do with some AI support with this but while this is happening is any forumite ahead of me with similar calculations (and if so with what conclusions?)

Xbigman

As Octopus have accidently put me on Gas Tracker as well as electric I have been looking at this again in case I decide to stick with it.
The last three years have been so atypical that no real answers can be gleamed from them. IE prices this time last year were 75% higher than now and went up steadily until the end of August, then fell back. 
My conclusions come down to this. A mild winter and I will save money. A normal winter and I should save a little bit. A harsh winter will cost me money. 
I am still leaning towards the SVT but its a close decision.



Darren

Telegraph_Sam

The other msjor consideration for both Tracker gas and electric is the get out of jail free / no exit fee card if the price differental should turn out to be negative enough and long enough to be significant.
I confess to not including the SVT in my comparisons. Are the terms etc competive with the various "innovative" tariffs?

Xbigman

Telegraph_Sam said:

The other msjor consideration for both Tracker gas and electric is the get out of jail free / no exit fee card if the price differental should turn out to be negative enough and long enough to be significant.
I confess to not including the SVT in my comparisons. Are the terms etc competive with the various "innovative" tariffs?

Ahh, OK. You're trying to decide 'which' alternative tariff to be on rather than 'if' you should be on one. That's a case of looking at your usage profile and trying to work out how much you can load shift to the cheap periods and not just out of the 4 to 7 slot. For many Tracker will be the answer and is a good default option if you are unsure. 

I'm also slightly wary of the get out of jail free card with the alternative tariff's. There is currently a potential two week lock in period with Tracker and I can see that being extended if the tariff becomes more mainstream. No doubt Octopus would give some notice of any changes but these are Beta tariff's and subject to significant tweaking if Octopus think its needed.



Darren