SEB / Ovo Energy Tariffs

Still_surviving

Ive been with SEB for nigh on 20 years and up until about a year ago used to praise them. Decent prices and you could get through on the phone up to 8pm without much of a wait. Nowadays its a 45 min wait on hold and pray they dont decide to just cut you off

My question is

All over their website they parade the fact they are part of the 'Ovo family' but their daytime energy rates are vastly different

Myself and my dear old mum are both a standard variable tariffs only she is with Ovo and Im with SEB (having not yet been ported over). She pays 37.09p for daytime units and I pay 50.5p (both after 01.10.22 increase)

How can this be correct? If it is then obviously I want to switch but SEB say there may be a problem (presumably the same one that makes them say UI cant have a smart meter yet).

Sorry for the ramble but does anyone have similiar experience or opinions?? Ive just tried to ring SEB but after another hour on hold I had to give up

[Deleted User]

Different suppliers/brands are free to choose their own ratio between day/night rates. The numbers suggest that they have chosen differently in this case.  Nothing wrong with that.

Still_surviving

Sorry - no offence intended but having got the old calculator out I cant go along with that

SEB Increased their day rate by 35.7% and off peak by 10%

Ovo Increased the day rate by 26% and kept off peak the same

Considering SEB had a higher pre 01.10.22 price to start with they are now 29.7% higher on day rate and 29.2% higher off peak.

For two companies in the same group the difference is amazing and would suggest a switch to Ovo is a no brainer. Trouble is they wont let me

In my case being a higher daytime user the difference would be around £45 a month, so could somesone point out any glaring errors in my maths?

[Deleted User]

Your calculator says that two brands aren’t allowed to offer different prices? What an unusual example.

Work out the time-weighted average price based on 58:42 day:night - you might find that one of the tariffs just hasn’t been updated yet.  If they both come out similar, well that’s just how it works.

As to why they won’t switch you, I don’t know - suppliers have been reluctant to take new customers but have been told they should be more open to it, and you would be sort of an internal transfer anyway.

Still_surviving

We'll have to disagree then....the two companies are part of the same group so I cannot accept a 29% difference would be normal.

Both tariffs have been updated and are defo post 01.10.22 prices

[Deleted User]

How much difference would you accept between brands? Is there some special threshold that makes it acceptable?

QrizB

Still_surviving said:

We'll have to disagree then....the two companies are part of the same group so I cannot accept a 29% difference would be normal.

Both tariffs have been updated and are defo post 01.10.22 prices

I don't know which region you're in but the average E7 cap is around 32p/kWh.

• Your mum's daytime rate of 37.09p/kWh would suggest a nighttime rate of about 25p/kWh.
• Your daytime rate of 50.5p/kWh would suggest a lower nighttime rate of about 6.45p/kWh.

The total cost for an average customer will be identical. The cost to you personally will depend on your actual split of day vs. night use. If you use much more daytime electricity than nighttime, your mum's tariff will work out cheaper. If the reverse is true, yours is cheaper.

Still_surviving

Thanks QrziB

Contrary to what had been said to me, Im not naive enought to think two separate companies have to have identical pricing policies - especially as they are in the same 'family'

Re what you posted above:  Ovo Off-peak is actually 19.94p so not a million miles off, but SEB Night/Stored Heat rate is way different at around 26p

The reason im this bothered is that I work from home a lot during the day and so my peak usage is around 70%. I just wanted to see if my reasoning was flawed before I try an switch over. However even contacting SEB is impossible currently - gave up after an hour last evening and again today after about 50 mins

[Deleted User]

30% night use is in the realm where single rate tariffs become cheaper - have you considered that?

QrizB - you know these tariffs better than I, but that SEB night rate sounds high to me?

QrizB

Deleted_User said:

QrizB - you know these tariffs better than I, but that SEB night rate sounds high to me?

Agreed; the night rate is a lot higher than I'd expect from an EPG-capped E7 tariff. 50.5p day and 26p night would give a weighted average of just over 40p.

Still_surviving said:

The reason im this bothered is that I work from home a lot during the day and so my peak usage is around 70%. I just wanted to see if my reasoning was flawed before I try an switch over. However even contacting SEB is impossible currently - gave up after an hour last evening and again today after about 50 mins

Do you have E7 or do you have one of the obsolete three-rate tariffs?

Are you free to switch suppliers? If you are, with a 70/30 day/night split you might be better off with Octopus, or even single-rate. See this post.

If you can tell us your supply region (one of the Scottish ones?) we can look up your regional E7 tariffs.

MWT

QrizB said:

Deleted_User said:

QrizB - you know these tariffs better than I, but that SEB night rate sounds high to me?

Agreed; the night rate is a lot higher than I'd expect from an EPG-capped E7 tariff. 50.5p day and 26p night would give a weighted average of just over 40p.

If it is over 40p then it isn't a compliant E7 SVT, so it is either not yet adjusted, or perhaps it was a fixed tariff, or as you suggest something else entirely...