New to Octopus and Agile

MultiFuelBurner

The good news is gas usage should be very low this time of year.

For those that have gas.

[Deleted User]

MultiFuelBurner said:

The good news is gas usage should be very low this time of year.

For those that have gas.

The bad news is that the cost of electricity is based on the price of gas. As I post over 43% of our electricity is gas generated.

MultiFuelBurner

Eggs suck teach, thanks lol

Yet electricity didn't jump 20% tomorrow as I presume the daily generation mix on average this time of year (let's say 40% gas) should only equate to mayb 40% of the 20% rise in gas prices.

Of course it won't be that easy gas prices rise 20% on tracker so electricity prices rise 8%

Makes sense which means it must be completely wrong lol

Bring back windy sunny (not too sunny days)

Chrysalis

Bear in mind a 20% jump on something very small isnt panic time.  You can go from say 17p to 22p from one day to the next and that is bigger than 20% but still way better than SVR.

As Dolor said some people are just way too risk averse so these tariffs arent for them.

[Deleted User]

Chrysalis said:

Bear in mind a 20% jump on something very small isnt panic time.  You can go from say 17p to 22p from one day to the next and that is bigger than 20% but still way better than SVR.

As Dolor said some people are just way too risk averse so these tariffs arent for them.

My worry is that people have jumped onto the Agile/Tracker train based solely on what has happened to prices in the past. 

Switching to Agile last year worked for many because the capped price was lower than the Ofgem Cap: that is no longer the case.

Recent events in Australia show how reactive wholesale prices can be when there is a perceived risk to supply. Agile and Tracker may well work out cheaper than other tariffs over the longer term but there may well be many price bumps on the road. 

CSI_Yorkshire

[Deleted User] said:

Chrysalis said:

Bear in mind a 20% jump on something very small isnt panic time.  You can go from say 17p to 22p from one day to the next and that is bigger than 20% but still way better than SVR.

As Dolor said some people are just way too risk averse so these tariffs arent for them.

My worry is that people have jumped onto the Agile/Tracker train based solely on what has happened to prices in the past. 

Switching to Agile last year worked for many because the capped price was lower than the Ofgem Cap: that is no longer the case.

Recent events in Australia show how reactive wholesale prices can be when there is a perceived risk to supply. Agile and Tracker may well work out cheaper than other tariffs over the longer term but there may well be many price bumps on the road. 

I'm absolutely certain they have.  Several people have specifically said it.

I'm waiting for a rush of complaints in late autumn or early winter - "Octopus are charging me more than the price cap, is this legal?!?!?!?!?!"

Last year has put strange ideas in some peoples' heads.  To them, if prices go up then the government will just put the cap down and give everyone free cash again.  We're seeing it with the mortgage rates - people asking why doesn't the government just cap mortgage repayments.

Chrysalis

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Dolor said:

Chrysalis said:

Bear in mind a 20% jump on something very small isnt panic time.  You can go from say 17p to 22p from one day to the next and that is bigger than 20% but still way better than SVR.

As Dolor said some people are just way too risk averse so these tariffs arent for them.

My worry is that people have jumped onto the Agile/Tracker train based solely on what has happened to prices in the past. 

Switching to Agile last year worked for many because the capped price was lower than the Ofgem Cap: that is no longer the case.

Recent events in Australia show how reactive wholesale prices can be when there is a perceived risk to supply. Agile and Tracker may well work out cheaper than other tariffs over the longer term but there may well be many price bumps on the road. 

I'm absolutely certain they have.  Several people have specifically said it.

I'm waiting for a rush of complaints in late autumn or early winter - "Octopus are charging me more than the price cap, is this legal?!?!?!?!?!"

Last year has put strange ideas in some peoples' heads.  To them, if prices go up then the government will just put the cap down and give everyone free cash again.  We're seeing it with the mortgage rates - people asking why doesn't the government just cap mortgage repayments.

Well government bails out companies, you cant blame consumers for wanting help as well whilst that is happening.  So I dont consider it strange, especially when things are caused by greed somewhere in the supply line.

Also last year electric was cheaper in winter vs the summer.  So we dont know what will happen.  These tariffs been available is absolutely a good thing, if some are either misunderstanding the tariff's or panic on every thing that happens in upwards price movements thats their problem, not a reason to sit there being concerned about a upcoming rush of complaints.

Chrysalis

Dolor said:

Chrysalis said:

Bear in mind a 20% jump on something very small isnt panic time.  You can go from say 17p to 22p from one day to the next and that is bigger than 20% but still way better than SVR.

As Dolor said some people are just way too risk averse so these tariffs arent for them.

My worry is that people have jumped onto the Agile/Tracker train based solely on what has happened to prices in the past. 

Switching to Agile last year worked for many because the capped price was lower than the Ofgem Cap: that is no longer the case.

Recent events in Australia show how reactive wholesale prices can be when there is a perceived risk to supply. Agile and Tracker may well work out cheaper than other tariffs over the longer term but there may well be many price bumps on the road. 

I think the reasons are different, last summer agile was attractive mostly because it had a 35p cap which as you said was lower than the expected ofgem cap from October onwards.

However now agile has a 100p cap, and people are jumping purely because the average daily rates are considerably cheaper.  I agree these people might not be aware, but ultimately we all know the day will come when the tracker tariffs will not be competitive, its not a reason to not use them or to not have them on the market.

Ideally Octopus would allow people to jump whenever competitiveness changes, so if e.g. 3 days of 50p unit, hop onto SVR, then hop back right after when 20p again, that would be awesome, but Octopus seem to have a reason for not wanting that to happen as they have taken measures to prevent it.  I see in another thread you pointed out specifically a 30 day rejoin restriction was added for this reason, to prevent frequent jumpers.

Ironically for me I am finding the opposite, everyone I know has no interest in tracker (cant get any referrals), they either just dont understand the way it works, or just seem happy enough to pay extra as the old system is something they are used to, so there is people out there who dont jump on it, just because its popular it doesnt mean everyone who has jumped is clueless.  Of course people will complain when the costs go up but thats what people do, they do that on the legacy tariffs as well.

CSI_Yorkshire

Chrysalis said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Dolor said:

Chrysalis said:

Bear in mind a 20% jump on something very small isnt panic time.  You can go from say 17p to 22p from one day to the next and that is bigger than 20% but still way better than SVR.

As Dolor said some people are just way too risk averse so these tariffs arent for them.

My worry is that people have jumped onto the Agile/Tracker train based solely on what has happened to prices in the past. 

Switching to Agile last year worked for many because the capped price was lower than the Ofgem Cap: that is no longer the case.

Recent events in Australia show how reactive wholesale prices can be when there is a perceived risk to supply. Agile and Tracker may well work out cheaper than other tariffs over the longer term but there may well be many price bumps on the road. 

I'm absolutely certain they have.  Several people have specifically said it.

I'm waiting for a rush of complaints in late autumn or early winter - "Octopus are charging me more than the price cap, is this legal?!?!?!?!?!"

Last year has put strange ideas in some peoples' heads.  To them, if prices go up then the government will just put the cap down and give everyone free cash again.  We're seeing it with the mortgage rates - people asking why doesn't the government just cap mortgage repayments.

Well government bails out companies, you cant blame consumers for wanting help as well whilst that is happening.  So I dont consider it strange, especially when things are caused by greed somewhere in the supply line.

Also last year electric was cheaper in winter vs the summer.  So we dont know what will happen.  These tariffs been available is absolutely a good thing, if some are either misunderstanding the tariff's or panic on every thing that happens in upwards price movements thats their problem, not a reason to sit there being concerned about a upcoming rush of complaints.

Government most commonly bails out companies by giving loans or taking equity stakes.

Neither option is really something that can happen with individual consumers.

And "electric was cheaper in winter vs the summer" is a massive oversimplification that is only true in the broadest sense.  Prices in December were more expensive than May, June, July and September on many markets - including the day-ahead.

These tariffs being available is a great thing, and I expect more of them in future, but the blind and partially-informed lemming rush towards them (partially driven by misrepresentation of last year's pricing) is not an unqualified success.

Chrysalis

In the summer I was pegged at the 35p cap almost all the time, in December many days were below the cap for long periods, there was even some plunge pricing where I got paid to use electric.

Looking at the historical graphs, electric first came down at start of autumn, it briefly went up again for part of December, but then came down again still during December and has been low since.

Also company bailouts, loans tend to get written off, or equity stakes sold back to private sector at large discounts, or quite often as seen recently funded by the consumers/taxpayers.  Please dont try to paint a different picture to reality.  But at least we agree on the availability of the tariffs.