Octopus Tracker

Officer_Dibble

jasonwatkins said:

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

I think there's a limit on how low they'll allow the monthly DD to be, they'll want a decent amount of credit to be built up before next autumn/winter. Certainly when I switched to them originally the lowest DD they'd accept was too high (our usage had reduced massively after having solar installed but the changes hadn't worked through to the annual usage figures). For peace of mind (if you can cope with the amount) I'd stay with a DD level that assumes that prices stay around the current EPG rate - so not increased to allow for the rises coming in April, but not decreased to allow for the lower tracker rates. Then hopefully there might be a nice shock to come in the form of lower payments at some stage rather than a nasty shock.

bristolleedsfan

Officer_Dibble said:

jasonwatkins said:

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

I think there's a limit on how low they'll allow the monthly DD to be,

Min monthly DD is £1 if ask them to set that amount or sometimes can be changed to that amount via online dashboard, account can be topped up by other methods

jasonwatkins

Officer_Dibble said:

jasonwatkins said:

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

I think there's a limit on how low they'll allow the monthly DD to be, they'll want a decent amount of credit to be built up before next autumn/winter. Certainly when I switched to them originally the lowest DD they'd accept was too high (our usage had reduced massively after having solar installed but the changes hadn't worked through to the annual usage figures). For peace of mind (if you can cope with the amount) I'd stay with a DD level that assumes that prices stay around the current EPG rate - so not increased to allow for the rises coming in April, but not decreased to allow for the lower tracker rates. Then hopefully there might be a nice shock to come in the form of lower payments at some stage rather than a nasty shock.

Thanks for the reply.

I do still qualify for a couple more payments from the government and will likely qualify for further assistance due to some long term medical issues, so I assume that will mitigate some of the monthly cost at least.

I did also snag a referral code from someone as well which is handy ..

I'm currently supposed to be paying EON £66 a month for Gas and Electric and my monthly statements have confirmed that I'm usually within that limit as well so I'm thinking at the moment that I could set a fixed DD at around the £40 mark and then add to that each month as and when it's needed.

The woman I spoke to on the phone at Octopus actually asked me to repeat my annual gas usage twice though as it was low enough that she thought it was wrong !

Alnat1

If you are currently paying £66 and are managing to afford that, I'd go with the same payment once you're with Octopus.

Energy prices are due to increase in April, so that £66 might need to go higher quite soon. The government payments end in March which will also affect how much you need to pay.

Don't try and pay so little that you end up struggling at the end of the year when the bigger bills arrive.

Chrysalis

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Officer_Dibble said:

Some of the posters on HUKD really haven't got a clue. If there's a sudden spike in wholesale prices they won't spot and 6 months later will be screaming about mis-selling.

By that time the dips will have cancelled it out again anyway


Just done the sums and having been on Tracker for 5½ months, overall we've saved just over £165 so far - and that's *after* overpaying by ~£130 before the EPG kicked in.  The last two months each have been over £100 cheaper than if we'd been on the SVT - granted, that's only been possible because of the EPG, but without the EPG everyone else would have been paying a lot more all the time too.  

Read the hduk post supplied with warnings and graphs.

To be fair the dude is right over the last 5 months or so, gas has barely been at the cap, and its interesting to see electric only peaked at 37p.

Probably worth the gamble for those on a smart meter, but with the caveat keep an eye on things.  Dont assume it will always be cheaper than EPG.

Chrysalis

jasonwatkins said:

I've just made the switch to Octopus based on that thread on HUKD.  A little nervous about it I suppose even though I like to think i'm fairly pro-active with things like this.

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

Probably down to me being autistic but I'm pretty obsessive about what goes out of my account each month and I prefer it to be fixed amounts so I know exactly how much my outgoings are.   I'm also on UC and PIP so that's probably why I'm fretting over a potential variable direct debit catching me out and being huge one month.

It can be fixed, mine is fixed.

Tracker doesnt force variable rate DD.

On a phone call they allowed me to set DD level to match my summer usage.   I currently have a debit balance of £28.

jasonwatkins

Chrysalis said:

jasonwatkins said:

I've just made the switch to Octopus based on that thread on HUKD.  A little nervous about it I suppose even though I like to think i'm fairly pro-active with things like this.

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

Probably down to me being autistic but I'm pretty obsessive about what goes out of my account each month and I prefer it to be fixed amounts so I know exactly how much my outgoings are.   I'm also on UC and PIP so that's probably why I'm fretting over a potential variable direct debit catching me out and being huge one month.

It can be fixed, mine is fixed.

Tracker doesnt force variable rate DD.

On a phone call they allowed me to set DD level to match my summer usage.   I currently have a debit balance of £28.

Thankyou.  I think I'm going to stick to my original idea of fixing it at £40 per month going forward and I'll judge it on a monthly basis.   The government help is likely going to cover me until April anyway, so that could also help me judge my overall usage as well and I can have a better idea of what i'll need come April.

Griffindog

jasonwatkins said:

Chrysalis said:

jasonwatkins said:

I've just made the switch to Octopus based on that thread on HUKD.  A little nervous about it I suppose even though I like to think i'm fairly pro-active with things like this.

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

Probably down to me being autistic but I'm pretty obsessive about what goes out of my account each month and I prefer it to be fixed amounts so I know exactly how much my outgoings are.   I'm also on UC and PIP so that's probably why I'm fretting over a potential variable direct debit catching me out and being huge one month.

It can be fixed, mine is fixed.

Tracker doesnt force variable rate DD.

On a phone call they allowed me to set DD level to match my summer usage.   I currently have a debit balance of £28.

Thankyou.  I think I'm going to stick to my original idea of fixing it at £40 per month going forward and I'll judge it on a monthly basis.   The government help is likely going to cover me until April anyway, so that could also help me judge my overall usage as well and I can have a better idea of what i'll need come April.

If you get the app on your phone you should be able to reduce the DD amount but be aware that they may adjust it from time to time and just send an email to say it is going up. They like you to be in credit all the time.

Spoonie_Turtle

Griffindog said:

jasonwatkins said:

Chrysalis said:

jasonwatkins said:

I've just made the switch to Octopus based on that thread on HUKD.  A little nervous about it I suppose even though I like to think i'm fairly pro-active with things like this.

I'd appreciate some thoughts on the direct debit situation though.   I plan on switching to the tracker tariff as soon as I'm on supply with them, but is it better to set a low fixed amount for the direct debit and then manually pay the difference each month ?.

Probably down to me being autistic but I'm pretty obsessive about what goes out of my account each month and I prefer it to be fixed amounts so I know exactly how much my outgoings are.   I'm also on UC and PIP so that's probably why I'm fretting over a potential variable direct debit catching me out and being huge one month.

It can be fixed, mine is fixed.

Tracker doesnt force variable rate DD.

On a phone call they allowed me to set DD level to match my summer usage.   I currently have a debit balance of £28.

Thankyou.  I think I'm going to stick to my original idea of fixing it at £40 per month going forward and I'll judge it on a monthly basis.   The government help is likely going to cover me until April anyway, so that could also help me judge my overall usage as well and I can have a better idea of what i'll need come April.

If you get the app on your phone you should be able to reduce the DD amount but be aware that they may adjust it from time to time and just send an email to say it is going up. They like you to be in credit all the time.

Not necessary, you can do it through your account in a web browser.  I actually set mine to £3 recently because I get cashback for card payments, and just let them know my intentions when I did that for when they reviewed it.

PNELancs

When I asked a few questions of Octopus on Twitter, they put the following paragraph in their reply. Does this only apply if you don’t have a smart meter?

Market spikes can send Tracker prices up to 100p/kWh for electricity or 30p/KWh for gas – that’s three times higher than most customers are paying right now on variable tariffs like Flexible Octopus. Something to bear in mind as well is that you get charged for the monthly average of all the daily readings, not on a day-to-day basis.