Bulb to Octopus - First Octopus bill just arrived and its much more...

Disneyfuel

Hey everyone

I was originally a Bulb customer and we were all migrated to Octopus automatically a month ago. I have just received my first Octopus bill and it's more than I was expecting.

For extra info:
I'm based in the North West
We get both electric/gas and pay by DD
I'm pretty sure both my Bulb/Octopus were/are variable tarriffs
Manual meter readings which I pretty much kept up to date with

Electric specifically is what has gone up.

Bulb were pretty consistent around 31p per UNIT, and 41p per STANDING between August 2022 - Feb 2023

This new Octopus bill is showing 63p UNIT and 41p STANDING from Feb 2023 - March 2023

The unit charge is double! Which has obviously made my bill double the price of the last one and has wiped out any credit we were in. Our 'usage' is showing at it's highest this month (446kwh) out of all previous months despite not changing anything in the house.
I thought there was a cap on unit price?

Anyone else seen a jump in theirs from Bulb to Octopus? Is this correct? What can be done here LOL!? help!

MattMattMattUK

Disneyfuel said:

Hey everyone

I was originally a Bulb customer and we were all migrated to Octopus automatically a month ago. I have just received my first Octopus bill and it's more than I was expecting.

For extra info:
I'm based in the North West
We get both electric/gas and pay by DD
I'm pretty sure both my Bulb/Octopus were/are variable tarriffs
Manual meter readings which I pretty much kept up to date with

Electric specifically is what has gone up.

Bulb were pretty consistent around 31p per UNIT, and 41p per STANDING between August 2022 - Feb 2023

This new Octopus bill is showing 63p UNIT and 41p STANDING from Feb 2023 - March 2023

The unit charge is double! Which has obviously made my bill double the price of the last one and has wiped out any credit we were in. Our 'usage' is showing at it's highest this month (446kwh) out of all previous months despite not changing anything in the house.
I thought there was a cap on unit price?

Anyone else seen a jump in theirs from Bulb to Octopus? Is this correct? What can be done here LOL!? help!

They will still be charging you the same (or virtually the same) EPG rate, they just show the the costs as a discount instead of a reduced headline rate, you need to read the rest of your bill.

EssexHebridean

Have a look at the second page of the bill - that should show subtractions to account for the EPG rates.

If you confirm what the readings were at the start and end of the period and what charge has been raised then we can check whether what you have been charged is correct. 

Clarendon58

Hi, I’m with Octopus and this is their current variable rate tariff that I had to go on to when my fixed rate tariff ended last year.  I note though on my account that the rate is only until 1st April so wondering if the rate is changing after that, perhaps downwards with the lower prices for gas and electricity (here’s hoping!).  I am also managing the bills for my late mother’s property and she was with E.on next and their rates are identical to Octopus energy.  What you were paying at Bulb looks as though it was great tariff but perhaps that’s why they went under.

Alnat1

IIRC Bulb never had fixed tariffs, everyone was on SVT.

Spoonie_Turtle

Clarendon58 said:

What you were paying at Bulb looks as though it was great tariff but perhaps that’s why they went under.

No, that was just the standard EPG rate that everyone pays unless they're on a specifically different type of tariff (Economy 7, EV tariff, Tracker, Agile, etc.).

Disneyfuel

Thanks,
Yes I'm looking at the second page for Octopus - our electric/gas total with EPG reductions is £409 total for Feb-March
Our last Bulb one Jan - Feb was £357

The price for gas is similar, the price difference for electric was £88 with bulb, £163 with Octopus.
I checked the unit prices on each bill and saw that Octopus was 63p vs Bulb 31p which is the only thing I can think of for the price difference.

2nd Feb: 57867.0
30th March elec reading: 58559.0

(I'm sure there was a reading in between that octopus asked for before the migration but can't find where it has been recorded)

Spoonie_Turtle

What are the amounts of electric kWh billed on the Bulb one and the Octopus one?

Disneyfuel

On the bulb one it says: 'The Energy Price Guarantee has been applied to your bill.'
So it doesn't specifically come off as a discount in the breakdown, its already at 31p

The Octopus one breaks it down further and reduces it to the ECP....but can't wrap my head around why the bill is much more when we haven't done anything differently than normal regarding electric.

I used to pay a DD of £175 pre-cost of living so to see it costing £400 today when it landed in my inbox I nearly spat my tea out haha its wiped my credit down

MSE_James

I'm also a Bulb customer recently moved to Octopus

Octopus has a blog post here setting out the differences in how bills are set out etc:

https://octopus.energy/bulb/common-questions-answered-for-our-new-bulb-customers/ 

EssexHebridean

Disneyfuel said:

Thanks,
Yes I'm looking at the second page for Octopus - our electric/gas total with EPG reductions is £409 total for Feb-March
Our last Bulb one Jan - Feb was £357

The price for gas is similar, the price difference for electric was £88 with bulb, £163 with Octopus.
I checked the unit prices on each bill and saw that Octopus was 63p vs Bulb 31p which is the only thing I can think of for the price difference.

2nd Feb: 57867.0
30th March elec reading: 58559.0

(I'm sure there was a reading in between that octopus asked for before the migration but can't find where it has been recorded)

OK - so that is pretty much 2 months electric use there - and by my maths at least the cost for that at EPG rate is going to  be around £235 - plus standing charge for the period too of course. 

Was the Bulb bill you are looking at just from the beginning of January > beginning of Feb? If so then this one seems about as expected allowing for it being for a longer period?