Octopus Energy - Electric only - Should I now change to a fixed tariff?

Yellymar

Hi, We are on a Flexible Octopus Tariff (Electric only, as use oil for heating), paying around 21p per kWh, and our monthly cost was around £82 per month, but I've just upped it to £95 as prices have slowly gone up. I know the price cap is increasing in April, to who knows what, so our monthly costs are going to increase even more. I can switch now to an Octopus fixed tariff for 12m which is 27.92 per kWh. Standing charge is still 25.7p per day. We use about 400 kWh per month, roughly averaged out. Estimate from Octopus is going to be around £125 p/m.
Now, is it worth switching or hold fire and see what happens to the price cap? Any advice is appreciated.Thanks

QrizB

It's a bit of a guessing game. Fortunately Octopus let you switch tariff whenever you want, and none of their tariffs have exit fees.

Yellymar said:

... I've just upped it to £95 as prices have slowly gone up.

Flexible Octopus hasn't changed for four months or so. If you're finding that you need to pay more, it's likely that your consumption has increased (it is winter after all).

I know the price cap is increasing in April, to who knows what, so our monthly costs are going to increase even more.

Ofgem will announce the new April cap in about a fortnight (around the 7th of Feb). Most of us are waiting until then before making any decisions. Octopus will also have to give you notice before increasing Flexible Octopus.

Now, is it worth switching or hold fire and see what happens to the price cap? Any advice is appreciated.Thanks

It's likely that there will be a Loyal Octopus tariff on offer in February, March, April and later. It is likely to change from the current rates; it could get more expensive, or it could get cheaper. Whether or not to take the one currently on offer is a decision for you.