Octopus Energy Bills - Watch those pennies folks

Spoonie_Turtle

I completely understand the rounding argument because I've seen electricity and standing charges as 3dp in full for Octopus on tariff information (and now 4dp on Agile), but still displayed to just 2dp on bills and quotes. 


BUT I wonder if the response the OP got was an AI one, which is why it didn't relate to their specific tariff and why it didn't give an actual reason.


(Proof of 4dp: )


Edit: what an idiot I am, that's 4dp because it's in £ not p *facepalm*  thankfully, the link someone else posted does go to 3dp in pence.  But really my main point was about it potentially being an AI response rather than a human.

WiserMiser

No, the pence price is still shown to two decimal places (32.39p/kWh).

But even that is irrelevant, energy companies have to show published prices inclusive of VAT for domestic customers and typically they are two decimal places exactly.  However, the itemised bill has to show the pre-VAT prices (VAT is added on right at the end), and the pre-VAT calculations  often don't translate to neat 2dp figures.

superkoopauk

I have sympathy with the OP.  If Octopus are using non rounded ex VAT rates then they should either show on the bill or be available on the website somewhere.

debitcardmayhem

superkoopauk said:

I have sympathy with the OP.  If Octopus are using non rounded ex VAT rates then they should either show on the bill or be available on the website somewhere.

The customer knows what the tariff says inc vat simple to work out divide by 1.05,
e.g. my rate is 5.74p inc vat but is 5.74/1.05=5.466666666666666666666666666666666667, how many decimal places do you want on the bill? Better is to say xxxx kWh @ 5.74 / 1.05 ( net of VAT ) , of course the calorific value is shown as 38.0 (basically between 37.5000000000001 and 38.49999999999]. 

or quote the ex-vat and cv to 6 dps and similar the kWh figure. 
At the end of the day who cares perhaps they should show the lines of code that determines these figures, and of course the database of the daily calorific values.

I hope the police have the time to investigate this non-crime scam .

MWT

This sort of thing is one of the reasons why the HMRC rule on VAT is that the VAT is whatever is shown as the VAT on an invoice, as you get different results from applying VAT line by line vs applying it to the total of the lines...

It is an old accounting issue that all old accountants are familiar with...

superkoopauk

I think it would be better for suppliers to publish tariffs ex VAT and then the rounding happens on the VAT

Spoonie_Turtle

superkoopauk said:

I have sympathy with the OP.  If Octopus are using non rounded ex VAT rates then they should either show on the bill or be available on the website somewhere.

More accurate figures should be available in the tariff information in their account online.  (Which is where my screenshot is from.)

t0rt0ise

On the Octopus price listings table for their flexible tariff, they quote the price to three decimal places but as others have said when they do the sums on the billl they use prices to four decimal places. Then they actually show the result rounded to two places. It's a mess but no cheating takes place.

The table is here, scroll down to the question about prices..
https://octopus.energy/blog/energy-price-cap-apr-2025/

superkoopauk

Spoonie_Turtle said:

superkoopauk said:

I have sympathy with the OP.  If Octopus are using non rounded ex VAT rates then they should either show on the bill or be available on the website somewhere.

More accurate figures should be available in the tariff information in their account online.  (Which is where my screenshot is from.)

But were those rates ex or inc VAT.  If inc then it doesn't really solve the problem

mmmmikey

superkoopauk said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

superkoopauk said:

I have sympathy with the OP.  If Octopus are using non rounded ex VAT rates then they should either show on the bill or be available on the website somewhere.

More accurate figures sh available in the tariff information in their account online.  (Which is where my screenshot is from.)

But were those rates ex or inc VAT.  If inc then it doesn't really solve the problem

Is there actually a problem that needs solving here?