Octopus Energy tariffs

[Adsibob]

Spotted something a little odd on my energy bill this month:

 

“You’re on our cheapest gas tariff of its kind. You could save £114.22 a year by switching to Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed.”

 

I’m not sure in what world these two sentences do not contradict each other, but it has reminded me that a couple of months ago I posted on this forum to ask if I should fix my energy rates and somebody said wait. Can’t remember if it was @ProDave or @Mr Punter or somebody else, but just wondered what forum users are doing in terms of tarifs, fixing etc. I’m keen to stay with Octopus so don’t mind paying a small premium for that, but still need to reduce bills as much as possible (and yes, for those that have kept up with my other thread, I’m getting my Veissman system upgraded…).

[JohnMo]

I have stayed variable, rather than fixing and being stuck on a higher rate. All things being equal, rumours have it prices are due to reduce over the next two quarters.

[ProDave]

I am electric only and remained on the variable tariff.  The only fix they have offered me for a couple of years would have only been a tiny saving and as we keep hearing the price cap will fall over the summer, it was unlikely the fix would save money.

[S2D2]

Octopus Tracker has had by far the best rates over the last year. Obviously it's not without risk as prices change daily but as long as the market is on a downward trend it should be a winner.

[TonyT]

IO Go for me with 5.5 hrs cheap leccy 

helps charge the car and some heaters

[crispy_wafer]

Electric only here, in the old bungalow.  I switched over to Octopus Tracker 3 weeks ago, initially hesitant because of risk, but looking at the last years worth of tracker prices I decided to switch.  Not running the heat pumps in the build yet, but if unit prices stay at approx 30% less then I'll take that.

[SteamyTea]

9 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Spotted something a little odd on my energy bill this month:

 

“You’re on our cheapest gas tariff of its kind. You could save £114.22 a year by switching to Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed.”

The problem here is that there is no price to compare it to, made worse by the suppliers not understanding their own tariff structures and customer needs.

Just yesterday on the BBC's You and Yours they had tales of woe about billing problems.

 

 

[JohnMo]

Read a new article last night stating that the Octopus tracker calculation method was changing, so prices were going upwards quite soon.

[S2D2]

35 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Read a new article last night stating that the Octopus tracker calculation method was changing, so prices were going upwards quite soon.

I could be wrong, but I think this is the same change that has been in place for new signups since December, so if you signed up recently there won't be an extra increase.

 

They're now moving old signups which weren't a fixed term tariff (which the new one is) to the new rates. 

[TheMitchells]

Martin Lewis said last week that energy prices were being forecasted to go lower than they had thought!  maybe down 16%.

[Alan Ambrose]

In theory you can't beat the market by locking in fixed prices as you need to be smarter than the bulk of the traders participating in the futures market. It may suit your particular circumstances though if the sweat of higher prices is more than the benefit of lower prices e.g. if you're on a very fixed budget.

 

Also, the active hedging will cost the providers in manpower and they'll pass the cost onto you. In theory the floating rates should be easier and cheaper for them as they don't have to hedge - they just pass the risk on.

 

Whether that's all born out in practice would need a very detailed analysis.

 

 

[johncraig8229]

We started on a fixed and now have changed to a variable traffic with octopus energy, better being on the variable 

[joe90]

I too am on variable and don’t believe in an energy company keeping my money by overcharging during the summer. I pay for what I use every month.

[SteamyTea]

5 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I pay for what I use every month.

Taken me a couple of hours on the phone and several emails to get halfway to paying what I owe.

EDF have been absolutely terrible recently.  They estimated my bills, even though I have a smart meter, then they somehow estimated it totally wrong by getting the night rate and day rates swapped around, and now have gone silent when I asked for a full audit since the smart meter was installed.

They also claimed that they were unable to communicate with my smart meter, even though I could see, and download, the daily files.

I shall get some more compensation cash out of them.

It is a real shame as I have been with EDF since they took over SWEB and had only one problem in the past with them (oddly enough that same swapping over numbers problem).

 

Over at the other place, I ran a thread that people put their weekly meter readings into and we could see who was getting the best value for their size and location of property.

[joe90]

48 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Taken me a couple of hours on the phone and several emails to get halfway to paying what I owe.

Change to Octopus (I will get you £50 off your first bill if I refer you 👍)

[SteamyTea]

20 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Change to Octopus (I will get you £50 off your first bill if I refer you 👍)

I don't think they would work out cheaper in reality because I have an odd usage pattern that does not fit in with the temporary time discounts that Octopus are offering.

Octopus seem to be like the discount store at the scummy end of the high street, you pick up a bargain, but the next time you go in, it is not there anymore.

[Roger440]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

 

Octopus seem to be like the discount store at the scummy end of the high street, you pick up a bargain, but the next time you go in, it is not there anymore.

 

Thats a good summary.

 

To be honest, i couldnt evenfind a bargain

 

I dont know why people rate them so highly.

[ProDave]

5 minutes ago, Roger440 said:

 

Thats a good summary.

 

To be honest, i couldnt evenfind a bargain

 

I dont know why people rate them so highly.

I rate Octopus because their customer service is less bad than many others, and you are actually in control, you can set your DD amount or as others have said just pay actual bills, if you end up too much in credit you can ask for some back etc.  So many other suppliers just choose their own random amount, make silly estimates, won't let you change anything and hold onto a large credit, and won't even discuss it.

 

In other words Octopus allow the things you expect and would hope are normal, but so many people with other suppliers have plenty of horror stories.

[Alan Ambrose]

It could be that Octopus are the best of a bad bunch. I don’t use the email support as it behaves like a bot and I pay my bills as they arise to avoid the ridiculous build up of huge balances in the supplier’s favour. Agile was fun over xmas when I was being paid for heating up the house overnight. January’s bill was at 17p average, so not great, not bad. I did get advertising standard’s to give them a slap on the wrist for advertising tariffs

that they then said were not available. They were able to install a 3P smart meter without making much of a fuss.

Edited February 3 by Alan Ambrose

[joe90]

14 hours ago, ProDave said:

In other words Octopus allow the things you expect and would hope are normal, but so many people with other suppliers have plenty of horror stories.

I quite agree, I have had faultless service from them, they answer the phone, speak English and nothing is too much trouble. They also source sustainable energy. 

[JohnMo]

12 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I quite agree, I have had faultless service from them, they answer the phone, speak English and nothing is too much trouble. They also source sustainable energy. 

+1

[Bramco]

48 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

ridiculous build up of huge balances in the supplier’s favour.

 

We've been in debt to Octopus for about a grand since last winter and they've never asked us to increase our £50 monthly charge.  We've paid it off now but I wonder how long they would have let us keep building up the debt.

 

Simon

[joe90]

59 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

It could be that Octopus are the best of a bad bunch.

I would argue they are one of the best out there, there has got to be a reason they didn’t go bust like so many others 🤷‍♂️

[SteamyTea]

I think part of the problem with most energy companies is that the genuine errors should not be happening in the first place i.e. incorrect meter reading, simple change of address not happening.

My recent experience has been that there is an assumption that all errors are the customer's fault, and that the customer is trying to rob them.

And then I here is the outright lies. You can sit Infront of your computer and see the daily files, while at the same time being told that the meter is not reporting the data.

I never like to look for a conspiracy, when incompetence can explain it, but I am starting to wonder if some sharp business practice is going on.

I recently changed car, so had to get a new insurance quote. My old insurer could not compete, so took out a new policy. Told my old insurer to make sure that auto renewal was switched off (I never auto renew anyway), told it had been, then had £600+ taken out of my account.

 

What really bugs me though is that nearly all the companies I have dealt with recently have been 'updating' their systems. One of them have had the same message for at least 15 months, so I guess it is a Fujitsu system.

The other is the message about being polite to the call handlers. If the companies feel the need to put that message up, they know they have a problem. They need to deal with the problem, not the symptoms of their incompetence.

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> It could be that Octopus are the best of a bad bunch.

>>> I would argue they are one of the best out there, there has got to be a reason they didn’t go bust like so many others

 

Maybe that's the same thing e.g. they're using customer balances to finance their operations instead of ring-fencing them like a solicitors have to.

 

It depends whose morals/efficiency you're comparing against. I've had atrocious service from some of the other suppliers, so that makes Octopus seem 'good'. Have you dealt with their email service? - it seems to have a random reply generator at the other end.