Octopus Tracker

mac.d

 I'm just switching back to Octopus (got referral thanks), and thinking of trying the tracker tariff. Don't have a smart gas meter (and my SMETS1 has been very erratic and hasn't recorded a full week of readings since it suddenly stopped sending readings back in November), how often should I submit readings?

KTF

PM sent

For tracker you need to submit at least once a month. 

Or more often if you want more accurate costs. 

Alnat1

@SJMALBA That is how Octopus show the estimates, I can tell because your use always goes up each day of the month. Maybe coming into warmer months it starts high and goes down? Not been on it long enough to know yet.

BarbaraG2000

Re being charged the right price for each day if you have a smart meter:

If even one 30-minute reading is missing, they will use the industry formula technique to spread your total usage across the month.  I’ve been on gas Tracker since last April and my gas meter routinely misses one 30 minute reading most days.  Electric never misses a beat - just as well as I am on Go Faster with more than 80% of my import in the cheap period and I would not fancy paying Flexible rates.

Apparently it is not a high priority for Octopus to fix things for missing readings on Tracker. They have analysed it, and the difference in cost is marginal - a few tens of pence per month at worst. And it could be in your favour anyway, so it balances out.

SJMALBA

Alnat1 said:

@SJMALBA That is how Octopus show the estimates, I can tell because your use always goes up each day of the month. Maybe coming into warmer months it starts high and goes down? Not been on it long enough to know yet.

Yes, there is a generally increasing trend as you move into/through autumn, winter, and a generally falling trend going into/through spring and summer, but they still can/do have (some) daily variation within that at times (though more so with electricity rather than gas, of course).

The point I was trying to make was that they don't simply use an average. as the CSA claimed in their response to @page3 ('Something to bear in mind as well is that you get charged for the monthly average of all the daily readings'), when they actually apportion the monthly usage to each day (using industry data), then apply the actual URs for each day.

in_my_bumble_opinion

Has anyone got average unit prices from the last 6 months or so? Just to give an idea how this tariff has been performing?

We're on 29.5p for electric, fixed till June 2024 with a £150 exit fee (EDF). Obviously future prices can't be predicted on this tariff but it would be good to know how it's been working out over the last 6 months or so.

Alnat1

Octopus aren't showing my gas usage for 4th Jan on the graphs (Bright have it though) but when I got this months statement on 20th Jan the tracker gas bill was correct for every day, including the 4th, and hadn't been averaged.

savings37

I switched over this week, it only took 2 days. I'm looking forward to checking these prices daily. I see gas and electric have both gone up slightly from yesterday. Now to persuade my family to switch over 👍

RavingMad

So I'm guessing everyone switched to their flexible rate over the summer and back onto tracker late autumn? I can imagine their groans from all the calls they get for this lol

k_man

RavingMad said:

So I'm guessing everyone switched to their flexible rate over the summer and back onto tracker late autumn? I can imagine their groans from all the calls they get for this lol

For most/all of the last 12 months Tracker has been lower than flexible (averaged over a month)

Each new Tracker version tends to be worse than the previous ones (e.g the original version is capped at less than EPG), so anyone switching away as soon as wholesale costs rise, and hoping to switch back later in the year may well be switching back to a version with higher SC and caps.

Riding out a few scary peaks can be worthwhile.

ETA: the EPG applied by Octopus over the winter meant that Tracker was protected during the highest wholesale prices.
This could change at the next EPG update.