Electricity Supplier Switch

[ACarneiro]

Actually, that makes it sound like Octopus customer care is pretty sterling. The smart meter signal is not under their control and I doubt many of the big companies would have credited you for something they can't control.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I've yet to find an EV specific tariff that is worth switching to as opposed to the standard approach of using comparison sites based on known energy consumption pattern to get the optimal low cost outcome, which is often 100% renewable electricity and in my case (with Pure Planet) 100% carbon-offset gas.

My experience from a month or so ago was that none of the price comparison sites gave anything close to a good comparison, and none of the top three tariffs I found by slogging around the suppliers were even listed as being available by the likes of Go Compare and Compare the Market. I found exactly the same thing when looking for insurance; the price comparison sites didn't give the best prices for some reason.

Whether this is because suppliers have to pay commission to the comparison sites (which are really just brokers) I don't know, but it does seem that one or two companies refuse to use them now, particularly in the insurance market.

I agree about the EV-specific tariffs being poor value. I have a suspicion that these are aimed at EV owners in the belief that some may just assume that any EV-specific tariff has to be better value than a standard tariff. In our case, best value is always with an Economy 7 tariff, although the Symbio tariff does come pretty damned close. Not sure how Symbio can sell electricity at under 10.8/kWh, with a 21p/day standing charge, and still make a profit, TBH.

 

[ACarneiro]

I did read somewhere that some fundamental rot had set in on price comparison sites (vigorously denied by them, of course).

I have now started shopping around again and, as @Glan gluaisne suggested, consider separate bills for gas and electric. My current combination (Octopus Go for electric and Zog Energy for gas) is pretty much unbeatable by any "dual fuel" tariffs I've ever seen.

 

[Js1977]

Let's be honest with ourselves. With the bad and good reviews we could be talking about anything here... Tesla, Toyota, VW, B&Q, Tesco, every insurance company... essentially every big brand out there. You will not find one that will have 100% customer satisfaction rate, end of. Its about choosing the best of evils. Do your researches and take a punt

 

[Jeeves]

I’ve found Octopus OK too, but the bar is quite low with energy providers in my experience. Most of my issues were getting EDF and Octopus to agree on final readings. After switching, Octopus needed a bit of chasing to get me migrated onto the right tariff and get my billing preferences sorted out, but since then I’ve had no complaints. It’s been the same with every other switch I’ve done, so I guess I was prepared for a little bit of hassle. I’ve referred quite a few friends to Octopus. Their switches were much smoother than mine but none of them were trying to get to Agile on smart meters.

 

[init6]

My experience from a month or so ago was that none of the price comparison sites gave anything close to a good comparison, and none of the top three tariffs I found by slogging around the suppliers were even listed as being available by the likes of Go Compare and Compare the Market. I found exactly the same thing when looking for insurance; the price comparison sites didn't give the best prices for some reason.

Price comparison sites are a good starter, but you do need to check what the companies themselves are offering. I found a good deal on EDF that was only available on a price comparison site. EDF's own best tariff was over £200 per year more expensive.
I'm afraid it's a slog to find the best deal and so dependent on how and when you use the fuel.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

There's also a big variation between regions. I keep a spreadsheet of the rates from the top 20 suppliers/tariffs for our area, and EDF, for example, are currently number 15, behind Bulb, Octopus, Ovo, Symbio, Green Energy, etc. If we switched to EDFs cheapest tariff in our area it would cost us a bit over £120 (roughly 19%) a year more than our current supplier.

 

[john19951]

I switched from EON to Octopus, and it went through smoothly.

But VERY IMPORTANT. Lots of posts say Octopus are poor at installing SMETS meters - so you should get a SMETS meter installed before you switch to Octopus (if you don't have a SMETS meter already). I got EON to install a SMETS meter before I switched - and that install by EON was no problem at all.

BG should install a smart meter for free - do that before you switch. Then wait two months to check that BG can get data from the smart meter - because of reports that SMETS meters can't communicate in some locations.

 

[Hamstall]

Hello All,

Due to collect my long range on Tuesday the 15th getting super excited!

Currently use British Gas for both Gas and Electricity and paying 3.23p and 17.79p respectively with standing charges off 24.35p and 21.97p

Is that massive more then the going rate? Can anyone recommend a good supplier? I’m working from him at the moment so using electricity during the day with a direct debit of £70 a month

Thanks in advance

Gareth

British gas do an ev tariff now. It might not suit you or be available in your atea but worth a look? Save money with our EV tariff for your home charger - British Gas

 

[john19951]

BG response in my area "Offer available to dual fuel customers only"

Perhaps I can get cheap off peak gas for my current car?

 

[Drew57]

For me Octopus and their Customer Support has been excellent since switching in the Spring. I'm on Agile, no issues so far.

The price cap on their beta accounts (with high current wholesale prices) & the admin to manage Smart Meter issues (missing 30 min slots) must surely be hurting their balance sheet though, That may impact us in future.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

With the peak wholesale price being up around £720/MWh, and the day-ahead clearing price up around £350/MWh that must have caused a bit of pain and grief to all the suppliers. They will all have been losing money hand over fist during this period, even Octopus, who at least can charge up to 35p/kWh (£350/MWh) to some of their domestic customers at times like this.

 

[Pink Duck]

Since Friday (and perhaps the final Martin Lewis ITV programme episode) Octopus sign-ups have gone to phone for 'personal' quotation with a call queue pointing out their email address every 90 seconds and no indication of queue length or time. Some of the email median response times got near to 47 hours too. My own nearing 48 hours soon. Makes me wonder if they might be the next to collapse, despite what the CEO said a while back.

 

[bc1979]

Surely that just implies they are really busy and it’s people wanting to sign up?

 

[Pink Duck]

I got the feeling they did it to try to prevent energy users from paying excessively with one of their fixed rates when the standard variable tariff for most works out cheaper, despite the announced April increases and expected October 50%+ ones. Plus the other providers all withdrew their fixed EV tariffs recently. My question is how long to leave it before joining the phone queue. Their recent email response times have come down a bit from median of 47 to 37, with current average 18.5 work hours (was 14 yesterday).