Loyal Octopus 10M Fixed March 2022 v1

MWT

westv said:

At the moment the new fix offers too many months at a higher price and not enough after the October rise for my liking.

That is true if you are switching to it with effect from now, but if you had just got your notice that your current fix is expiring in 45 days the new fix will start from around May 1st, which would cover you until the end of February next year.

Not perfect for sure, but it would cover the worst of the winter.

However

I have just calculated that my breakeven point is the October Price Cap rising by 23%. If it rises by more than that, Loyalty Fixed is better than Flexible Octopus.

The figures are based on the latest usage predictions Octopus has provided me.

Also, that I switch on 2nd April and it's 10 months from switch (rather than 10 months from Octopus's announcement of the tariff).

This also assumes my 10 months consumption is pro-rata my 12 months consumption. But it isn't - it's skewed towards summer usage. My electricity usage is pretty level year round. But for gas, iIt's difficult to be precise but assuming summer consumption is Apr-Sep=6m and winter consumption is Oct-Jan=4m and winter consumption is eight times summer consumption (based on Jan 2021 and Jul 2021 snapshots), I recalculated the figures to find much the same threshold of 23% (bit surprised - I thought the skewing would have made more of an impact).

Anyway, that's the gamble I'm being asked to take: that the October uplift will be greater than 23%.

szam_

For me personally the "loyalty" name and telling people they are saving money feels misleading.

If you're on electricity only, then fair enough, you would be better off, however the gas rates make it far too expensive to consider for our house.

It's 2p per kWh more expensive than the variable will be, and on current average usage, which is honestly at a bare minimum recently, would be about £1 more expensive a day than sticking with variable (granted, summer is coming up, but still).

If the cap is going to be the rumoured 20%, the variable would by my estimation (and by my house usage) still be cheaper than the fix rate.

westv

The other thing we don't know is how long the latest Octopus fix will remain open for.

QrizB

szam_ said:

For me personally the "loyalty" name and telling people they are saving money feels misleading.

It's cheaper than the regular fixed rate that's on offer to new customers, and that's how you should look at it.

bristolleedsfan

However said:

I have just calculated that my breakeven point is the October Price Cap rising by 23%. If it rises by more than that, Loyalty Fixed is better than Flexible Octopus.

Anyway, that's the gamble I'm being asked to take: that the October uplift will be greater than 23%.

% difference might vary from consumer to consumer, however an earlier Loyal 12 month fix version was widely considered to be 21% above April cap, current version is a lot more expensive

SallySunshine

Just spent ages trying to get my head around variable new April price rise and 10month Loyalty fix.
had to ferret around a bit on their site finding the actual  breakdown prices of gas and electric 10month fix
 Present rate variable 4.00, unit, my new variable rate for gas 7.33 unit,  rate for 10month fix 12.33!
I know the price cap is going up in October but surely not to that percentage rise?
even Martin said it wasn’t worth fixing if it was over 25% the April rate.

the other thing I’m trying to fathom out, without ringing Octopus, is their reduction of electric standing charge, this has  nearly doubled on variable April rise, but on 10month fix it has stayed at same price as before April rise. So is it just the Loyalty fix that is showing that reduction?
cant say the same about Electric unit rate from old19.95 to new variable  41.9   And 40.26 on 10 month fix

My brain hurts now so off for a snifter, purely medicinal.

MWT

SallySunshine said:

the other thing I’m trying to fathom out, without ringing Octopus, is their reduction of electric standing charge, this has  nearly doubled on variable April rise, but on 10month fix it has stayed at same price as before April rise. So is it just the Loyalty fix that is showing that reduction?

It is the other way around, the reduction will only be applied to the standard variable tariff for existing customers, it plays no part in the fixed tariffs.

The published variable tariff from April does not show the reduction, it will be applied at the time it is billed.

SallySunshine

Yes, that’s what I read earlier on in this thread, but it is confusing because on my e- mail from them it stated - 

Today, we're introducing a temporary Loyal Octopus support to help customers like you keep your bills as low as possible in this difficult time. The reward automatically reduces your electricity charges by £48 per year compared to our standard tariff (that's £50 below the price cap). 

so mentioning Loyal Octopus threw me!
so in effect the reduction in my new April standing charge variable works out the same price as the 10month Loyal fix standing charge.


back to the drawing board!

oliverbrown

Yes, it was unnecessarily confusing of Octopus to use the "Loyal Octopus" moniker to refer to both a reward and a tariff, within the very same email no less.