Octopus Energy. Wrong, wrong, wrong

Scot_39

bristolleedsfan said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

That is because they estimate tracker costs for 12 months based on previous 12 months, best ignored as no 12 month period tends to be the same as previous 12 month period.

kWh rate estimate issued today for electricity tracker tariff would look like this subject to regional differences.

Am I missing something - or does that look like a raw tariff rate without 16.6p + vat EPG discount ?

bristolleedsfan

Tariff kWh rate changes daily, method they use to provide estimate for 12 months is as you describe  "raw tariff rate", whilst they seem to think EPG applies to that tariff they have not changed estimate calculations to reflect.

As I mentioned being as estimated kWh is based on average of previous 12 months which is unlikely to be repeated the following 12 months estimate rate as well as estimated costs is best ignored.

Today electricity tracker rate is IRO 18p/kWh

Scot_39

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

[It's currently set at £70, and I wanted to change it back to £3 to pay the rest on a card and get cashback.]

At £3 DD wouldn't cover a weeks typical SC in most regions, let alone a months.

Why just on SC let alone your usage - would you expect them to allow that ?

At sub 1% paid via DD  - why would / should they then offer you DDs cheaper rates ?

Even at £70 - as that's sub 20% of their estimate - it's a stretch - that most suppliers would not tolerate.

[Deleted User]

Scot_39 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

[It's currently set at £70, and I wanted to change it back to £3 to pay the rest on a card and get cashback.]

At £3 DD wouldn't cover a weeks typical SC in most regions, let alone a months.

Why just on SC let alone your usage - would you expect them to allow that ?

At sub 1% paid via DD  - why would / should they then offer you DDs cheaper rates ?

Even at £70 - as that's sub 20% of their estimate - it's a stretch - that most suppliers would not tolerate.

My Octopus DD payment is set at £10 per month. I agreed with Octopus 4 years ago that provided there is enough credit in My Account to cover the next due bill in full, then I should be free to change my monthly DD at will. Octopus has yet to cry foul when I drop my reduce my DD payment.

Scot_39

OK - so maybe £3 isn't such a stretch.

Spoonie_Turtle

Scot_39 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

[It's currently set at £70, and I wanted to change it back to £3 to pay the rest on a card and get cashback.]

At £3 DD wouldn't cover a weeks typical SC in most regions, let alone a months.

Why just on SC let alone your usage - would you expect them to allow that ?

At sub 1% paid via DD  - why would / should they then offer you DDs cheaper rates ?

Even at £70 - as that's sub 20% of their estimate - it's a stretch - that most suppliers would not tolerate.

Note the wording of my post: change it back to £3. 
That's where it was set, then once the EBSS finished they automatically increased it by £67.  I e-mailed them at the time to explain why I'd put the amount at £3 (wasn't sure if they'd allow it with the explanation, but thought it worth a try) and they accepted that straight away.

Incidentally our actual costs have been more in the region of £200 per month since February, thanks to Tracker; on EPG would have been more like £300.  [I didn't know where their estimate came from as it made no sense with our usage and the EPG.]

Had no intention of derailing the thread, my apologies to the OP.

Chrysalis

How well fixed DD works is how well they estimate your usage, I know its not just based on previous 12 months, as my current estimated usage is nowhere near reality for my previous 12 months.

I think its more likely to fall down when a customer falls outside of the typical usage pattern such as e.g. not having increased winter usage over summer.

There is billions in excess credit (even in winter periods) and people who are been quoted unrealistic DD amounts, so clearly the software that estimates has issues, so my advice is if you one of those people either get Octopus to manually set what you consider a reasonable fixed DD (but be prepared to make manual payments if too low) or switch to variable DD, which ensures you only pay for what you billed for, never more or never less.  (if your bills arent estimated then you only paying for what you use).

In addition if you have a lot of estimated bills, try to send readings regularly or get a smart meter to automate the readings.