Octopus Tracker

Telegraph_Sam

At the risk of using hindsight you could say that the / a winter political-economic crisis is not the ideal time to start playing around with different tariffs. You would expect life for Agile people to be particularly exciting at present, followed by Tracker, with hopefully the Fixed as a "safe" haven.

Tks for drawing my attention to the Octopus reversal of policy on exit fees. I would have gone stumbling along without knowing till it was too late. Is this a universal change or one that affects only selected (fixed?) tariffs? New ones since they shouldn't want to change the T 's and C's of existing tariffs.

Slinky

Crikey, I've just checked fixed prices, and they've gone up again! I fixed gas at 5.27p yesterday morning, it was 5.83p with a £50 exit fee by the evening, and now it's 6.25p with £75 exit fee.

Doc_N

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81909167#Comment_81909167

The fixes have gone up a lot - unsurprisingly - although there are one or two around worth considering, depending on your view of how long the chaos in the Middle East and its knock-on effects are going to last. The best ones have gone, but if you get the timing right you can save a fortune as against Tracker - Tracker would have cost me hugely more this winter, even leaving aside the current rates.

The mistake some make is comparing Tracker with the capped price and calculating the savings on that. The correct comparison is against the other (fixed price) options and Tracker has not compared well. These prices come and go, of course - timing is everything.

TH71

Tracker September 2025 v1 Electricity tariff in the East Midlands tomorrow fallen to 28.56p/kWh

Mon 02/03/26	22.50p/kWh
Tue 03/03/26	26.20p/kWh
Wed 04/03/26	29.61p/kWh
Thu 05/03/26	28.56p/kWh

Stevie1

Anyone on Tracker and is choosing to stay on it? Currently trying to decide if to gamble on the Tracker as I believe things will cool down over the next few weeks, or if to jump on a fixed despite all the good deals pretty much gone. Octopus' own Fixed tariff (NW/G MCR) is insanely high, so I'll be ditching them for another supplier.

oldandwizend

Due to length of time it takes to revert back to Tracker, I am staying put.

I look to the long term rather than short term volatility and whilst we do not know how long the current political situation will last, one would hope it will not be prolonged. If it is then the price of gas and electricity will probably be the least of our worries!

There is also the prospect of there being an impact on the price cap to recover lost revenue as otherwise some those companies

oldandwizend

i'll just finish what i was going to say.

…some companies may end up in financial difficulties and the last thing OFGEN want is more companies going to thee wall.

Bendo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81911722#Comment_81911722

i got off tracker gas before it all became silly as mine was due to end anyway next month anyway and the current tracker forumula makes it pretty much unattractive even without Trump bombing Iraq.

Doc_N

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81911722#Comment_81911722

It's pure crystal ball gazing, I'm afraid, because it all depends how long the current Middle East situation is going to last. There are apparently a small number of fixes still available below the price cap (according to Martin Lewis) and they might prove an absolute bargain - or an expensive commitment, depending on how long this goes on. For large users the fixed penalties for coming out of a fix might not be too much of a problem, but for small users they can hit hard.

If Tracker remained the bargain it used to be I'd be sticking with it, but that's not the case with the later versions, which add a much bigger profit margin onto the wholesale price. It's been very easy to beat Tracker with a fix - even before the recent price spikes - and I can't see Tracker ever becoming worth the risk again because the lower prices are usually in the summer when the usage is so small that they don't amount to much.

Stevie1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81911820#Comment_81911820

Yeah, I think you're right. Looking at the costs quoted the Tracker is no longer a bargain and we're heavy-ish users, or at least we can be at times.

I think what it comes down to is that Octopus are not very attractive across the board at the moment, on any tariff. Their Fixed tariff costs are significantly higher than other suppliers, and the Eon Next Fixed 15m v7 tariff on the CEC beats Octopus' Flexible/price cap tariff so I'm finding less and less reasons to stick with them, and I say that as a long standing customer. At the end of the day more money in my pocket is worth more to me than a cheap Gregg's coffee or Vue cinema ticket. The only thing I'm hesitant over are exit costs, but even Octopus added now so…