Octopus price rises

Car1980

I'm rather irritated by Octopus. I'm on Flexible and looked at prices on Friday, after the lowered price cap:

£176.75 pm
£181.66 12m fixed

Looked today and they've gone up:

£181.48 pm
£186.40 12m fixed

My mum has actually just applied for
the fixed and they've given her until midnight to confirm. Why? Are they going to put them up again tomorrow?!

Can anyone explain the increases? I thought Octopus were supposed to be more transparent over this stuff. It's as if they've had a surge of people fixing over the weekend and have upped prices to cash in.

BarelySentientAI

Well firstly, those numbers mean pretty much nothing because they are guestimated monthly totals.

Secondly, if the actual prices behind those nonsense numbers have changed, why shouldn't they?  A tariff is available from the day it is launched until the day it is closed.  If you happen to get a quote on the day before the price changes, well that's what happens.

Thirdly, the timing of tariff changes on fixed tariffs has almost nothing to do with the timing of price cap announcements.

MP1995

It can only be explained by knowing the usage in kwh as a monthly amount means nothing without the key usage info.

The recently announce price cap drop doesn't lower until 1st July.

la531983

Providers will know the predicted caps months in advance and these are baked into the fixes they offer, they wont be knocking 7% off the fixed rates the same day they announced the cap went down 7%

bristolleedsfan

Car1980 said:

My mum has actually just applied for
the fixed and they've given her until midnight to confirm. Why? Are they going to put them up again tomorrow?!

Octopus have launched four different 12 month  fixed rate versions this month, latest being towards the end of last week.

I would have thought until midnight is long enough to decide whether to accept a quote to change from flexible tariff to fixed tariff being as both tariffs have no exit fees.

spot1034

Those prices reflect firmer wholesale rates, and would come as no surprise to you if you were watching the market.

If you want a fixed deal you have to make a judgement as to whether the price on offer tomorrow or next week will be higher or lower than it is today.