Octopus 12 Month Fix

Lillysanity

Beware Octopus fixed rate deals for existing customers.

Every quarter I calculate my annual Gas & Electricity consumption. Luckily this is at the same time as the Energy Caps are set.

After doing so in April I logged into my Octopus account & saw a 12 month fixed rate deal for £134.05 pm. On visiting the Octopus website & using their “input your postcode to get a quote tool” & then putting my actual annual consumption in kwh I got a quote of £129.81 for the same 12 month fixed rate deal. The terms of both deals are exactly the same ie the unit rates & standing charge & no exit fees. if you try to sign up for the deal via the tool you are told that 2 monthly payments will be taken 2 weeks apart as happens when you first join Octopus.

I therefore e@mailed Octopus with copy of the £129,81 quote which incidently showed my account number after e@mailing myself a copy & asked to be moved to the fixed rate tariff at £129,81pm.

I was told that this was no longer available.

I have been going back & forward to Octopus ever since with dated screen shots showing the lower quote & pointing out that actual consumption figures are more accurate than estimated & have had various “excuses” why I cant have the lower quote. The latest being that they will not be carrying out PA ( payment adequacy reviews in April) I have now asked them when my last PA was as both their website & Ofgem state they should be every 3 months & I don’t recall having one for a long time. I now see the only way to get the lower quote is to sign up as if a new customer paying 2 x monthly payment within 2 weeks & requesting a full refund of my £275. credit. ( nice after the winter)

My last 3 e@mails have been copied to issueresolutions@octopus.energy their complaints team who have not replied at all. Although this is a small amount it is the fact that existing customers are not getting as good a deal that is annoying me.

Netexporter

An estimate of you monthly payment isn't what you will owe during the contract. It is actually what you use multiplied by the unit rate plus the standing charge. Fixed deals aren't "all you can eat". It is the unit rate and SC that are fixed.

rolandka

Lillysanity said:

Beware Octopus fixed rate deals for existing customers.

Every quarter I calculate my annual Gas & Electricity consumption. Luckily this is at the same time as the Energy Caps are set.

After doing so in April I logged into my Octopus account & saw a 12 month fixed rate deal for £134.05 pm. On visiting the Octopus website & using their “input your postcode to get a quote tool” & then putting my actual annual consumption in kwh I got a quote of £129.81 for the same 12 month fixed rate deal. The terms of both deals are exactly the same ie the unit rates & standing charge & no exit fees. if you try to sign up for the deal via the tool you are told that 2 monthly payments will be taken 2 weeks apart as happens when you first join Octopus.

I therefore e@mailed Octopus with copy of the £129,81 quote which incidently showed my account number after e@mailing myself a copy & asked to be moved to the fixed rate tariff at £129,81pm.

I was told that this was no longer available.

I have been going back & forward to Octopus ever since with dated screen shots showing the lower quote & pointing out that actual consumption figures are more accurate than estimated & have had various “excuses” why I cant have the lower quote. The latest being that they will not be carrying out PA ( payment adequacy reviews in April) I have now asked them when my last PA was as both their website & Ofgem state they should be every 3 months & I don’t recall having one for a long time. I now see the only way to get the lower quote is to sign up as if a new customer paying 2 x monthly payment within 2 weeks & requesting a full refund of my £275. credit. ( nice after the winter)

My last 3 e@mails have been copied to issueresolutions@octopus.energy their complaints team who have not replied at all. Although this is a small amount it is the fact that existing customers are not getting as good a deal that is annoying me.

Seems like a classic case of big companies favouring fresh meat over loyal ones. It's not just Octopus pulling these tricks; it's like this across all sectors IMO. Shiny deals to lure in newbies.

Lillysanity

I am aware of that. The unit rate & standing charge are exactly the same on the "estimated" consumption ie the £134.05 quote & the £129.81 quote based on actual annual usage.  
The £134.05 quote is their estimated annual usage of 13495kwh gas & 2312kwh electricity. My actual annual consumption is 12498 kwh gas & 2182 kwh electricity. The no of days for standing charge being the same in each case. 

TheElectricCow

The thing with Octopus is if you want to pay the lower amount you can update your monthly payment in your online account - You don’t need to be quoted the new amount from them as they do just let you alter the payment to whatever you please regardless.

Lillysanity

So I could sign up to the higher £134.05 12 month fixed rate amount then immediately  reduce my monthly payment to £129,81 ?

Alnat1

You're signing up to fix the kWh and standing charge rates, the amount you pay by DD can be changed during the term of the fix by you or by Octopus.

BarelySentientAI

Lillysanity said:

My actual annual consumption is  was12498 kwh gas & 2182 kwh electricity. 

OP - Your entire issue with this is based on assuming that your usage over the next 12 months will be identical to that over the last 12 months.  Why would that be true?

You either want the unit rates on the fix or you don't.  The initial predicted DD doesn't really matter.

Xbigman

Your actual usage for last year is not what your estimate for the next year will be based on, because we had a mild winter. Octopus will use an industry standard formula to estimate your usage for next year that allows for a less mild winter. Every energy company does this. Octopus has done nothing wrong.



Darren

Lillysanity

Strangely my annual usage has been decreasing year on year as I am cutting my usage as are most people. All energy companies over inflate predicted future usage. 

RavingMad

Lillysanity said:

So I could sign up to the higher £134.05 12 month fixed rate amount then immediately  reduce my monthly payment to £129,81 ?

When I joined Octopus Tracker in March 23, I was able to change my DD on the website after they had taken the first DD payment.