What rates are you being offered by your provider at the moment?

dhokes

"those wanting price certainty shouldn't be fixing at a rate more than 40% over the current price cap."

How should that percentage rate be calculate btw? Does that just mean I should compare the current gas/electricity unit charge that I'm being charged against the new rates offered? Or compare the current annual amount against the new estimated annual amount based on the same usage?

I'm currently with Avro Flexible Avro October 2021 v1. According to my last bill, my estimated annual cost is £1146. The Loyal Customer 12M Fixed would be around £1582 which is around 38% which seems worthwhile to fix. However, I've also just got a quote from OVO Energy and their 2 Year Fixed would be around £1575 using the annual usage values from my Octopus Energy bill. That seems like worthwhile to fix if I want the certainty, right?

QrizB

dhokes said:

"those wanting price certainty shouldn't be fixing at a rate more than 40% over the current price cap."

How should that percentage rate be calculate btw? Does that just mean I should compare the current gas/electricity unit charge that I'm being charged against the new rates offered? Or compare the current annual amount against the new estimated annual amount based on the same usage?

Annual amount vs. annual amount. The individual kWh rates aren't helpful since that ignores the effect of the standing charge, and that the ratio of gasd to electric will vary from person to person.

I'm currently with Avro Flexible Avro October 2021 v1. According to my last bill, my estimated annual cost is £1146. The Loyal Customer 12M Fixed would be around £1582 which is around 38% which seems worthwhile to fix. However, I've also just got a quote from OVO Energy and their 2 Year Fixed would be around £1575 using the annual usage values from my Octopus Energy bill. That seems like worthwhile to fix if I want the certainty, right?

Octopus's current fixed-rate offers aren't great, although they do have some interesting smart tariffs if you are that way inclined.

According to MSE, Ovo have the a one-year fix that's the cheapest switching option at present. I'm slightly surprised that it's only £7/yr cheaper than Octopus.

For £7/yr it isn't going to make a huge difference whether you switch to Ovo or stay with the many-tentacled one.

dhokes

QrizB said:

For £7/yr it isn't going to make a huge difference whether you switch to Ovo or stay with the many-tentacled one.

Unless there are price increases within the year though, right?

QrizB

dhokes said:

QrizB said:

For £7/yr it isn't going to make a huge difference whether you switch to Ovo or stay with the many-tentacled one.

Unless there are price increases within the year though, right?

You're comparing fixes, though? Loyal Octopus 12m £1582 vs. Ovo 2-yr Fixed £1575?

dhokes

QrizB said:

dhokes said:

QrizB said:

For £7/yr it isn't going to make a huge difference whether you switch to Ovo or stay with the many-tentacled one.

Unless there are price increases within the year though, right?

You're comparing fixes, though? Loyal Octopus 12m £1582 vs. Ovo 2-yr Fixed £1575?

Yes, 12 months fixed vs 24 months fixed.

PierreLeSol

Just asked Octopus Energy to justify the massive increase in the standing charge. This is their response received today:

The electricity standing charge increase is driven by two changes to how much it costs us to supply your electricity. The first is the cost of failed suppliers (sadly its more than usual this year because half the retail market went bust in 2021).

The industry has also changed how customers use the distribution network – the cables take that deliver electricity to your home. The costs of these networks have been moved from the unit charge to the standing charge.

Some of the increase in electricity standing charge is also due to the increase in the rollout of the Warm Home Discount which is set to be available to more people this year.

Gas standing charges have increased slightly, but not as much as electricity. This is because although the cost to cover failed suppliers is split nearly equally between the fuels, for gas this cost is added to the unit charge. The increase in gas standing charge is primarily due to extra Warm Home Discount costs.

bristolleedsfan

PierreLeSol said:

Just asked Octopus Energy to justify the massive increase in the standing charge. This is their response received today:

Existing Octopus customers of 8 months standing who have electricity on flexible tariff have been getting £4 a month loyalty credit since April which equates to 13.3p ish per day reduction off standing charge.

Thanks for relaying detailed information as to all the reasons for standing charge huge increase.

danielgwkent

I am currently with Octopus for Electricity only (no gas in my home) on Flexible Octopus variable rate:

Unit rates Electricity: 29.63p per kWh
Standing charges Electricity: 31.88p per day
Current annual amount: £914.30

I am being offered the following fix: 

Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed

Daily standing charge	31.88p /day
Unit rate	41.40p /kWh

New annual amount: £1,231.42

However - I am about to move house in a couple of months, to a larger property that has both gas and electricity.

Should I:

1. Stay on my current Variable rate for electricity, and wait until I have moved into the new property before deciding what to do
2. Switch to the offered Fix from Octopus for electricity (in order to lock in the rate before it goes up), then add them as my gas supplier at the new property once i move in

Mstty

danielgwkent said:

I am currently with Octopus for Electricity only (no gas in my home) on Flexible Octopus variable rate:

Unit rates Electricity: 29.63p per kWh
Standing charges Electricity: 31.88p per day
Current annual amount: £914.30

I am being offered the following fix: 

Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed

Daily standing charge	31.88p /day
Unit rate	41.40p /kWh

New annual amount: £1,231.42

However - I am about to move house in a couple of months, to a larger property that has both gas and electricity.

Should I:

1. Stay on my current Variable rate for electricity, and wait until I have moved into the new property before deciding what to do
2. Switch to the offered Fix from Octopus for electricity (in order to lock in the rate before it goes up), then add them as my gas supplier at the new property once i move in

Have you considered the Octopus tracker? I think (needs confirming) that fixed rate for electricity is above the top price they will every charge on tracker.

SuperHans1

dhokes said:

"those wanting price certainty shouldn't be fixing at a rate more than 40% over the current price cap."

How should that percentage rate be calculate btw? Does that just mean I should compare the current gas/electricity unit charge that I'm being charged against the new rates offered? Or compare the current annual amount against the new estimated annual amount based on the same usage?

I'm currently with Avro Flexible Avro October 2021 v1. According to my last bill, my estimated annual cost is £1146. The Loyal Customer 12M Fixed would be around £1582 which is around 38% which seems worthwhile to fix. However, I've also just got a quote from OVO Energy and their 2 Year Fixed would be around £1575 using the annual usage values from my Octopus Energy bill. That seems like worthwhile to fix if I want the certainty, right?

I'm also on the same tariff having been moved to Octopus after Avro collapsed. Make sure to check the annual unit estimate that Octopus are basing their figures on. When we moved to Octopus we had a mild winter and their estimated annual usage looks to have a far lower gas usage compared to what I estimate that I will use based on previous years.

Flexible Avro

Electricity

Standing charge 43.12p /day

Unit 28.46p /kWh

Gas

Standing charge 27.22p /day

Unit 7.48p /kWh

Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed

Electricity

Standing charge 43.12p /day

Unit 40.32p /kWh

Early exit fee £0

Gas

Standing charge 27.22p /day

Unit rate 11.38p /kWh

Early exit fee £0

The standing charges are the same for both tariffs but the new unit rates are over 50% higher.

I am finding this all very confusing, the Octopus comparison suggests that my annual estimated charge is only an increase of 32.5% between the two tariffs but this is based on 33.4% lower gas usage then the previous year. I can't work out if it is worth switching to the new tariff or not.