GEUK newbie customers - What are you doing?

northernsparky

@jefferson89  - I jumped onto the GEUK sparkling 6 fix just before it was taken down , since it looked like being cheaper than the forecast SVR costs - with hindsight I was wrong 

As soon as they announced the energy price guarantee, I asked to join Octopus ( and yes I phoned them as @[Deleted User] said), and 2 days later I was an Octopus customer 

The reason I changed was twofold - why pay above the existing price cap prices for 3 weeks, and secondly it would now be cheaper for me to get onto the Octopus Go tariff for electricity 

seanfos

Interested to see this thread as I am also wondering what to do. I emailed GEUK early last week and was told they are finalising details with Ofgem and would be in touch by the end of the week. The only thing I have heard from them since is the £400 over the coming months. I have emailed Octopus to see if they will accept a switch onto their Standard Variable, so will wait and see

Sean

jefferson89

seanfos said:

Interested to see this thread as I am also wondering what to do. I emailed GEUK early last week and was told they are finalising details with Ofgem and would be in touch by the end of the week. The only thing I have heard from them since is the £400 over the coming months. I have emailed Octopus to see if they will accept a switch onto their Standard Variable, so will wait and see

Sean

Hey @s@seanfos @n@northernsparky @s@SparkyGrad, some information for you all but maybe different as prices vary every day and are subject to change at 12pm each day (words from the octopus customer service rep i spoke with today).

So I called GEUK and Octopus today.  I called GEUK to ask them what are they doing regarding the new cap for customers on fixed tariffs. Meghan said (along these lines) " Customers on fixed will be changed to the new October 1st price cap rate and should hear about this either tomorrow (friday 23rd) or monday 26th.  When i asked will the new rates GEUK give to customers be exactly the same as the rates stated by government / martin lewis' october for the october 1st price cap rates, she said they will be "inline" with them.

I then called octopus to see what they could offer they offered me (based off postcode and usage: Usage is 8000kwh for Gas & 1976 for electric.)
Octopus Flexible until 30th September (which i believe is just their name for SVR):
Gas: SC = 27.22p / Unit rate = 7.36p.
Elec: SC = 47.86p / Unit rate = 27.86p.
____________________
Then I asked for their rates of what it will be from Oct 1st 2022: on the same Octopus Flexible (1st phone call with Phil)
Gas: SC = 26.84p / Unit rate = 14.76p.
Elec: SC = 47.50p / Unit rate = 51.57p.
Now comparing these second set of numbers to my current fixed sparkle v6 GEUK tariff it appears for the sake of 8 days left before the 1st of October, I maybe better staying put with GEUK as i have my fixed rates as of:

GEUK Rates: Until September 2023
Gas: SC = 31.31p / Unit rate = 11.75p.
Elec: SC = 48.12p / Unit rate = 38.20p.

UPDATE: As i am typing this i decided to call octopus again and double check thing as the above rates seemed high, for anyone interested i have video the call in anyone wants know details, it asks all questions i could think of, so may help (see vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqXzpxh1ww4 ) .  But the rates the second octopus agent gave are as follows:

Octopus Flexible from Oct 1st 2022 (2nd phone call - with Annie):
Gas: SC = 28.49p / Unit rate = 10.30p.
Elec: SC = 46.36p / Unit rate = 34.00p.

So if anyone has anything to chip in with , as I am thinking to leave GEUK, I have emailed them again to see if they can give a more firm picture on what will be paying come october 1st, but will see...

[Deleted User]

The first set of rates that Octopus gave you for October are the old OFGEM cap rates.  The second set of rates are the correct EPG cap rates.

The GEUK rates will probably end up similar to the EPG cap rates, but as you say there is the vague word "inline" in their description and, for some other suppliers, that has meant something like 5-10% higher.

seanfos

Interesting information thank you. Annoying that you were not getting clear and correct information from Octopus @jefferson89. I have found GEUK very responsive, accurate and helpful over the past number of weeks. Shame we don’t yet have an answer on what “inline” will mean. I am probably prepared to pay a small amount more to stay with a company I am so far happy with and to avoid confusion on receiving the upcoming £66/£67 per month assistance.  I'll give it a couple of days and hope for an update from GEUK and some details from Octopus to compare with

Sean

[Deleted User]

seanfos said:

Interesting information thank you. Annoying that you were not getting clear and correct information from Octopus @jefferson89. I have found GEUK very responsive, accurate and helpful over the past number of weeks. Shame we don’t yet have an answer on what “inline” will mean. I am probably prepared to pay a small amount more to stay with a company I am so far happy with and to avoid confusion on receiving the upcoming £66/£67 per month assistance.  I'll give it a couple of days and hope for an update from GEUK and some details from Octopus to compare with

Sean

Octopus appear to be using the same terminology, "in line", to refer to being "no more than" - not sure that helps but it doesn't mean that GEUK's rates will definitely be higher. 

northernsparky

I have had my email from Octopus regarding my future gas tariff , and they are trying to keep the standing charges 4% cheaper than the Energy price Guarantee rates - not a lot I know, but at least they are trying to help where they can. Hope this helps

nekr0mantik

I called em about my IHD today and then asked about EPG and they said same thing. I will wait until Monday and then if nothing or its more then 1p higher then EPG SVR then I will call octopus 

EssexHebridean

I’d take “in line with” to mean “matching” to be honest - otherwise I’d think “similar” would be a better choice of words - however this could be wishful thinking… 😆

BUFF

seanfos said:

 I am probably prepared to pay a small amount more to stay with a company I am so far happy with and to avoid confusion on receiving the upcoming £66/£67 per month assistance.  I'll give it a couple of days and hope for an update from GEUK and some details from Octopus to compare with

Sean

I am similar, possibly would pay up to 10% but 5% would be much better (for me 5% would be ~£6/month).
Plus, as an environmentalist, I get to support  1 of the greenest suppliers.