Octopus Tracker

Telegraph_Sam

@ hubb: It seems to me that it's a case of horses for courses but minus the crystal ball. If the consumer is risk averse he will go for a fix and possibly forfeit gains in return. At the other end of the scale you will opt for Octopus Agile with the risks and rewards that that entails. In the middle sits Tracker which under most conditions offers the best of both worlds IMHO. Not least considering the no lock-in get out of jail free lifeline clause.
Once a month I manually "override" my smart meter distrustful as I am. (I can't see how that would be possible with Agile however). But the entry fee for both tariffs is the smart meter. You could argue that Flexible Octopus without the smart meter is the worst of both worlds. Or not.
Risk vs rewards - you pays your money and ..

QrizB

Qyburn said:

hubb said:

Also, usage times of the day/night seem to be of essence factoring rates. 

It doesn't. Does that article you keep linking say that it does?

To be fair, I've yet to see a "This Is Money" article about a subject I'm familiar with that is accurate. Octopus Tracker is no exception in this respect.

hubb

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

northernstar007

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

if you put your credit of £272 into your octopus acc that would bring down your £164 price

masonic

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

It is impossible to get an accurate quote for a tariff where the price is not known in advance. Octopus doesn't know what the price will be beyond tomorrow. Also you can change your direct debit if it is too high (the fact it is suggests Octopus isn't accurately estimating your usage). But I think you are right that this tariff is an absolute no no for you. You should never sign up to something you don't understand.

hubb

masonic said:

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

It is impossible to get an accurate quote for a tariff where the price is not known in advance. Octopus doesn't know what the price will be beyond tomorrow. Also you can change your direct debit if it is too high (the fact it is suggests Octopus isn't accurately estimating your usage). But I think you are right that this tariff is an absolute no no for you. You should never sign up to something you don't understand.

I understand it thanks but as I am already a customer for 2 years they should know my stats. If they can't get an accurate tariff after giving them end of month readings every month then its a poor show. 

hubb

northernstar007 said:

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

if you put your credit of £272 into your octopus acc that would bring down your £164 price

But that doesn't make any sense. It might bring it down but as I am presently on a much lower tariff it would bring that down even more. 

masonic

hubb said:

masonic said:

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

It is impossible to get an accurate quote for a tariff where the price is not known in advance. Octopus doesn't know what the price will be beyond tomorrow. Also you can change your direct debit if it is too high (the fact it is suggests Octopus isn't accurately estimating your usage). But I think you are right that this tariff is an absolute no no for you. You should never sign up to something you don't understand.

I understand it thanks but as I am already a customer for 2 years they should know my stats. If they can't get an accurate tariff after giving them end of month readings every month then its a poor show.

In my experience, suppliers always build margins into customer's direct debits, so the direct debit isn't intended to be 'accurate'. From when I joined Octopus a few years ago my recommended DD was £65, but my actual average spend was about half that. I moved over to variable direct debit early this year, so now just pay for what I use. If you think that Octopus should be able to give you an accurate quote for what you will be billed on the Tracker tariff, then you are mistaken about understanding it, because the most fundamental aspect of the tariff is the price uncertainty.

peter3hg

hubb said:

northernstar007 said:

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

if you put your credit of £272 into your octopus acc that would bring down your £164 price

But that doesn't make any sense. It might bring it down but as I am presently on a much lower tariff it would bring that down even more. 

You are currently on a much higher tariff (based on wholesale prices over the last few months).
The fact is however that the tracker price cannot be accurately estimated going forward so any proposed monthly payment is an estimate of future prices.
I expect that Octopus are very conservative with the estimate hence the higher monthly direct debit. This will also weed out those who don't understand the tariff as is the case with you.

Spoonie_Turtle

hubb said:

masonic said:

hubb said:

To be fair I have just gone to the Octopus site and got a quote for their tracker tariff after giving a meter reading. "Your quote is accurate as of the time of sending" 

£164.60 a month

Currently paying £130 per month and still £272 in credit so it's an absolute no no for me.

It is impossible to get an accurate quote for a tariff where the price is not known in advance. Octopus doesn't know what the price will be beyond tomorrow. Also you can change your direct debit if it is too high (the fact it is suggests Octopus isn't accurately estimating your usage). But I think you are right that this tariff is an absolute no no for you. You should never sign up to something you don't understand.

I understand it thanks but as I am already a customer for 2 years they should know my stats. If they can't get an accurate tariff after giving them end of month readings every month then its a poor show. 

Contradicted by the fact you don't appear to understand that they literally cannot forecast a price for Tracker.

The only thing they should be expected to get right is the annual usage in kWh, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be the same as your actual usage for any one year, because weather changes even if everything else in your life and your habits stay the same.  This is completely separate from estimating how much your known energy usage would cost on a tariff with an unknown future price that changes every day.

(Anyway I'm out now.)