Advice - parents fixed energy deal ending

WDW2010

Hi all

Just looking for a bit of advice, my parents fixed price energy deal is ending in March and they have been sent various options about what tariff they can move onto. They currently pay £116 and are with Octopus Energy. The options are as follows:

Fix for 12 months - £311.19
Do nothing and go onto flexible octopus variable tariff - £148.16  (electricity daily charge 23.76 p/day unit rate 20.12 p/kWh gas daily charge 26.11 p/day unit rate 3.94 p/kWh)
Fix for 12 month with loyal octopus - £276.16

The fixed rates are considerable higher than what they are currently paying and a lot for them as pensioners. Any advice would be great.

Thank you 

BUFF

How good is your crystal ball?

Is that for their electricity or gas usage, or both? Per month/year? Annual usage figures?
The Flexible Octopus Variable Tariff (particularly gas) will jump massively on 1st April & then potentially go up again at the start of October too so don't base your decision on current prices. 
What rates are stated for Loyal Octopus?

Luckily by April we are approaching the end of this main heating season but I suggest that they start putting away their pennies now to pay for the next one.

molerat

You need to take into account that on 1st April the flex will go up to something like electric 28p kWh / 45p per day and gas 7.5p kWh / 27p per day (will vary by region but those are ballpark).

What are the unit rates for the fix ?

QrizB

Octopus helpfully put all their tariffs on-line here:

https://octopus.energy/tariffs/

They do vary a bit from region to region so you'll need to IGNORE THE BIG PURPLE "GET A QUOTE" BUTTON then type your parents' postcode in.

When I check I see they're still offering "Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed January 2022 V1" which wasn't particularly good in January and still isn't very good now we're 3/4 of the way through February.

WDW2010

BUFF said:

How good is your crystal ball?

Is that for their electricity or gas usage, or both? Per month/year? Annual usage figures?
The Flexible Octopus Variable Tariff (particularly gas) will jump massively on 1st April & then potentially go up again at the start of October too so don't base your decision on current prices. 
What rates are stated for Loyal Octopus?

Luckily by April we are approaching the end of this main heating season but I suggest that they start putting away their pennies now to pay for the next one.

Hi

Its for both electricity and gas, they currently pay £116 per month for both. Their annual usage figures are 3407kWh for electricity and 23, 121 kWh for gas so about £1395. The rates for loyal octopus are as follows: electricity daily 23.76p/day unit 32.42p/kwh, gas daily 26.10p/day and unit 8.77p/kwh.

Thank you

QrizB

WDW2010 said:

The rates for loyal octopus are as follows: electricity daily 23.76p/day unit 32.42p/kwh, gas daily 26.10p/day and unit 8.77p/kwh.

Those rates are above the April cap and I'd guess they will prove to be above the October 2022 cap, too - although it's far too soon to say with any confidence.