Octopus Flexible

ChrisSanders578

I appreciate there are many posts out there but with everything changing so much, I am a little confused.

My current Octopus Go tariff ends on 28 October (super cheap one from pre pricing madness) and they have just emailed me to say I can continue on the same tariff at 39p a KWH in the day and 7.5p overnight (we don't have electric car) with a standing charge of 43.12p.  They reckon this will cost us £2.2k per annum based on usage.  They have also mentioned their Flexible tariff at 30.78p day, 21.21p night and s/c of 43.22p with an estimated annual bill of £1.3k.  Clearly the flexible is a lot cheaper but what do I go on??  Presume any fixed price deals available now factor in the price cap changes?  Will the flexible cost more when the energy price cap changes?  Any help greatly appreciated.

Oh and we're Electricity only as we have oil heating.

t0rt0ise

What is your total annual electricity use. Day and night?

ChrisSanders578

About 5,500kwh total

t0rt0ise

Can't work out the cost unless you say the split of day and night.

ChrisSanders578

To be honest, I'm not trying to work out the cost.  I'm trying to decide principle wise whether waiting it out on current tariff and seeing what happens when fine print announced on price cap changes.  Feels like that's a better option than signing up for a fixed tariff now as my current tariff doesn't end until 28 October.

MWT

ChrisSanders578 said:

To be honest, I'm not trying to work out the cost.  I'm trying to decide principle wise whether waiting it out on current tariff and seeing what happens when fine print announced on price cap changes.  Feels like that's a better option than signing up for a fixed tariff now as my current tariff doesn't end until 28 October.

Nothing on the Octopus site is factoring in the new revised cap changes yet, but we should know more in the next few days.

If you do agree to stay on your current tariff, it will be set to change at the end of the current fix, it will not be immediate.

... and yes, the flexible tariff will increase on 1st Oct.

ChrisSanders578

So what's your view?  Wait and see or lock in a fixed deal?

QrizB

If you accept the new Go offer, it will be applied from the end of your current one. You can leave at no penalty at any time and revert to Flexible.

niktheguru

ChrisSanders578 said:

So what's your view?  Wait and see or lock in a fixed deal?

Its quite a difficult question to answer unless we know your usage patterns.
On the old go and go faster rates it was a no brainer as often the peak tariff was less than or competitive with the standard variable tariffs available.

Now though, the peak octopus go rate is higher than the variable rate tariffs offered.
If you dont have an electric car this makes justifying being on octopus go that little bit more difficult, especially given the government guarantees now on the variable rate, suggesting it will be approx 35p a unit for a couple of years. This will be better than the current 40p on go (unless octopus decide to reduce that peak rate in the next week, i'm sceptical if they will for octopus go though)

So it looks like it may be cheaper for you to be on flexible, especially if you take the dual rate (economy day and night) tariff.