Octopus Tracker

Chrysalis

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

KTF said:

Mstty said:

SAC2334 said:

My friend who applied to Octopus two weeks ago to change from Flexible Octopus to Octopus Tracker got switched over to the gas tracker ok ijn a couple of days  but was told there would be up to 6 months to move onto the electric tracker ..up to six months ! looks like HotdealsUK has flooded Octopus .

Which has cost Octopus a huge amount of money

How has it cost them money? Its the market rate and they add a bit on top to cover their costs. You can see it in the dashboard.

This is a bit worrying lets say e.g. existing customers on tracker/agile expire and Octopus dont just renew, the option of then just jumping on the new tracker looks like it might be gone, Is the Agile tariff still closed? in which case potentially there would be just a move back to SVR and then a waiting list to get on the tracker if they refuse to renew.

Agile is still freely available, and subject to EPG (until that disappears).

Yeah I have noticed after my post they have relisted it.  Still I will chance trying to the older version of it renewed   Also hopeful my gas tracker gets auto renewed at its existing cap given the previous few pages of posts.

Apparently there isnt many people on the older trackers so I wouldnt be surprised those on the newer ones might not get the same treatment, so kind of a early adopter bonus.

bristolleedsfan

Chrysalis said:

KTF said:

Mstty said:

SAC2334 said:

My friend who applied to Octopus two weeks ago to change from Flexible Octopus to Octopus Tracker got switched over to the gas tracker ok ijn a couple of days  but was told there would be up to 6 months to move onto the electric tracker ..up to six months ! looks like HotdealsUK has flooded Octopus .

Which has cost Octopus a huge amount of money

How has it cost them money? Its the market rate and they add a bit on top to cover their costs. You can see it in the dashboard.

This is a bit worrying lets say e.g. existing customers on tracker/agile expire and Octopus dont just renew, the option of then just jumping on the new tracker looks like it might be gone, Is the Agile tariff still closed? in which case potentially there would be just a move back to SVR and then a waiting list to get on the tracker if they refuse to renew.

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

KTF said:

Mstty said:

SAC2334 said:

My friend who applied to Octopus two weeks ago to change from Flexible Octopus to Octopus Tracker got switched over to the gas tracker ok ijn a couple of days  but was told there would be up to 6 months to move onto the electric tracker ..up to six months ! looks like HotdealsUK has flooded Octopus .

Which has cost Octopus a huge amount of money

How has it cost them money? Its the market rate and they add a bit on top to cover their costs. You can see it in the dashboard.

This is a bit worrying lets say e.g. existing customers on tracker/agile expire and Octopus dont just renew, the option of then just jumping on the new tracker looks like it might be gone, Is the Agile tariff still closed? in which case potentially there would be just a move back to SVR and then a waiting list to get on the tracker if they refuse to renew.

Agile is still freely available, and subject to EPG (until that disappears).

Octopus Tracker v3 customers have been getting renewal notices saying if want to stay on Tracker tariff to contact Octopus, do nothing option is flexible tariff.

Chrysalis

You heard of anything similar for Agile customers? @bristolleedsfan

bristolleedsfan

Chrysalis said:

You heard of anything similar for Agile customers? @bristolleedsfan

Someone with Agile March renewal answered me that he is now on November 2022 version, no discussion about renewal email options, tracker v3 i have seen renewal notice as previous post.

masonic

It's worth giving it a try IMHO, though hopefully we won't see standard tariffs above 55p/kWh next winter, and it usually makes sense to bail on Agile when prices spike.

Qyburn

KTF said:.

Which has cost Octopus a huge amount of money

How has it cost them money? Its the market rate and they add a bit on top to cover their costs. You can see it in the dashboard.

This is what I don't get, meaning I keep thinking there's a catch somewhere.

Take today. They're charging me 22.61p per kWh.  If i was on SVR they'd be getting 32.77p from me, and an additional 33p from the government for selling the exact same kWh. 

masonic

Qyburn said:

KTF said:.

Which has cost Octopus a huge amount of money

How has it cost them money? Its the market rate and they add a bit on top to cover their costs. You can see it in the dashboard.

This is what I don't get, meaning I keep thinking there's a catch somewhere.

Take today. They're charging me 22.61p per kWh.  If i was on SVR they'd be getting 32.77p from me, and an additional 33p from the government for selling the exact same kWh. 

SVR is (or should be) hedged, so the price of the energy being supplied was agreed when prices were considerably higher, and sufficient volumes were secured to meet anticipated customer usage at that time. Whereas Tracker is not hedged, and is priced according to the current wholesale price of the energy.

Tracker costs Octopus money when the prices are above the tariff's price cap. The newest Tracker tariff is no longer fixed, so benefits from EPG, but earlier versions do not.

The danger to Octopus of carrying too many customers on unhedged tariffs like Tracker and Agile, as I understand it, is that they are free to switch to a price-capped tariff at any time, and if they do, the energy they then use has to be purchased ahead at the prevailing prices at that time. When the EPG ends, Octopus won't be compensated if they have to buy energy at a loss to sell it at the price cap on their SVR tariffs. So amassing a large proportion of savvy customers on Tracker, who are likely to switch when it becomes expensive, is a bit of a ticking timebomb for them. Hopefully they can forward plan and mitigate against that, but to some extent the price cap prevents them from doing so.

Spoonie_Turtle

Just like to point out that the original point about costing Octopus money, which I didn't realise either, is the market stabilisation charge they've had to pay for customers switching to them. 

The actual tariff is not costing them, at the moment, but the hoardes of people switching since Tracker was promoted on whichever deal site have meant a lot of market stabilisation charges for Octopus.

bristolleedsfan

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Just like to point out that the original point about costing Octopus money, which I didn't realise either, is the market stabilisation charge they've had to pay for customers switching to them. 

The actual tariff is not costing them, at the moment, but the hoardes of people switching since Tracker was promoted on whichever deal site have meant a lot of market stabilisation charges for Octopus.

https://twitter.com/OctopusEnergy/status/1626574735973965825

https://twitter.com/OctopusEnergy/status/1626574776071294976

Spoonie_Turtle

Okay but I questioned the comment initially a while ago because the unit rate for Tracker is calculated at wholesale price plus costs plus some profit.  If the URs go above the Octopus caps then it's making a loss, but for the past few months they've been not just under the caps but under the EPG, so the government aren't having to subsidise anything AND Octopus are getting the full retail price for those tariffs.

We were told, backed up by messages with Greg Jackson, that the current reason it was costing them money was the MSC.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79885382/#Comment_79885382

Have I understood the unit rates wrong?  Or is the tariff a loss-maker in the long term rather than the short term?

I get that you didn't personally post those tweets, but if anyone here can explain where I've misunderstood I would be grateful.