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Octopus GO beware!

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kelvin 660

White SR+ with LFP battery
Aug 21, 2020
903
854
Stonehouse
I just got an email from Octopus Energy;

"Your fixed term on Octopus Go will come to an end on Apr 17 2022. You can renew for another 12 months, with just a few taps in your online account.

Should you choose not to renew, you'll roll onto Flexible Octopus, our always great value variable tariff, at the end of your fixed term. You'll find a full breakdown of prices and estimated cost below.

So what does it all cost?

Your current Octopus Go prices
Peak unit rate: 13.72p / kWh
Off-peak unit rate: 5.00p / kWh
Standing charge: 25.00p / day
Estimated annual cost (electricity only): £849.35


Good to know: we've based your estimate on your annual usage of 6990 kWh and the average share of electricity used off-peak electricity by Go customers (33.00%)

Your new Octopus Go prices
Peak unit rate: 30.78p / kWh
Off-peak unit rate: 7.50p / kWh
Standing charge: 25.08p / day
Estimated annual cost (electricity only): £1,706.08

Flexible Octopus prices
Peak unit rate: 21.86p / kWh
Off-peak unit rate: 15.63p / kWh
Standing charge: 25.17p / day
Estimated annual cost (electricity only):
£1,430.59 "

But when I put the numbers in my spreadsheet, Octopus GO comes out at £1,246.54 and Flexible comes out at £1,441.75, nearly £200 more!

Why are my numbers different to the Octopus Energy email?
Well my usage is 67% and not 33% off-peak and my usage is 7,640 kWh and not 6,990 kWh

My recommendation is be careful when coming to the end of your agreement in April, and check
your own usage figures!
 
Yes, I use the Octopus Compare app on my phone which allows for a custom tariff to be added, then calculates what you would have paid had you been on the new tariff. My rates are very similar to yours & my contract ends in 3 weeks. Waiting to see what I get in the renewal email.

I'll consider changing to Intelligent Octopus but will do the sums when I get the current rates at the end of my term. I think it may work out too expensive as our daytime usage is quite high with 3 people working from home almost permanently.

Edit: Our usage is pretty much double yours, so at the current rates Flexible will be around £700 per year cheaper than the new Go, assuming the off peak time window is still 5 hours like my present GoFaster contract. If it's not, I can change my charging schedules to fit as I rarely need to use the full 5 hours overnight.
 
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I just got an email from Octopus Energy;

"Your fixed term on Octopus Go will come to an end on Apr 17 2022. You can renew for another 12 months, with just a few taps in your online account.

Should you choose not to renew, you'll roll onto Flexible Octopus, our always great value variable tariff, at the end of your fixed term. You'll find a full breakdown of prices and estimated cost below.

A big thankyou for reminding me and an additional warning to others in similar boat.

Your post got me to double check my emails as I hadn't actioned it yet - I thought it renewed later in the month, but your post got me to check. As it happens it renews tonight...

The warning is, do not leave it to renew till the last minute. You may not be able to easily do it. Our previously emailed link does not work and I am currently in communications with Octopus to swap it over, but neither can they. So fingers crossed that leaving it till the last can be sorted, but an unnecessary situation that could have been avoided by me not acting sooner.

And for anyone with the same situation upcoming, iirc @Jason71?, my account currently shows that its swapping over to flexible tonight - I cannot honestly see that the previously quoted 20.49p unit price is indicative of todays current prices. So no automatic rollover as has happened in the past, which I was kind of hoping for as previous emails also said that tariff would change, but then didn't.
 
I just went online to compare tariffs and the Flexible tariff is not the same as the one quoted in the email!

"£4,422.19/year Based on your estimated annual usage, not the figures you gave when signing up.

Tariff cost breakdown
⚡ Electricity
Daily standing charge Question mark icon 25.17p /day (25.17p / day quoted in email)
Unit rate (day) Question mark icon 39.53p /kWh (21.86p / kWh quoted in email)
Unit rate (night) Question mark icon 25.57p /kWh (15.63p / kWh quoted in email)
Early exit fee £0
🔥 Gas
Daily standing charge Question mark icon 26.10p /day (not quoted in email)
Unit rate 10.15p /kWh (not quoted in email)
Early exit fee £0"


Why is Octopus Energy so random when it comes to renewals?

Renewing on Octopus GO looks like my best option, if they keep their word what was put in the email...
 
Unit rate (day) Question mark icon 39.53p /kWh (21.86p / kWh quoted in email)
Unit rate (night) Question mark icon 25.57p /kWh (15.63p / kWh quoted in email)
Wow, ouch!

I double checked my mails after your post yesterday & have had no renewal emails from them at all yet. My fixed tariff expires on March 25th, so it seems odd you have had emails so early & I've seen nothing...
 
I just went online to compare tariffs and the Flexible tariff is not the same as the one quoted in the email!

I suspect its because flexible tariff is exactly that. Its market driven and the market when you got your email is not the same market as is now. That said, we still have one account on a flexible tariff and its is currently 20.99p/kWh, but I am expecting that to rise dramatically.

1646385204493.png


So fingers crossed that leaving it till the last can be sorted, but an unnecessary situation that could have been avoided by me not acting sooner.

Thankfully resolved with a phone call. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Upped the monthly dd by £50 - its over £100/month now, ouch, but hopefully heading into the summer, its not going to be needed and we will build up a cushion again for next winter. Could be worse things to worry about.

From 1646386042533.png to 1646385370115.png
 
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Capped electricity prices increase in April.

My hunch is that;

- you are being quoted the flexible prices based on the current cap (March 2022)
- flexible prices will increase in April 2022 when the cap increases

The capped price will be circa 30p kWh. So the Go pricing looks a good option.
 
it's also seeing a surge in solar PV and home batteries.. I asked for a quote and it's taking ages.
I have a west facing exterior wall where I could technically mount panels and have plenty of solar pretty much any time of the year
Electricity prices surging could see a lot of folks sitting for 3 hours in a Tesco carpark catching up on correspondence and TV for 21kw of freebie when it hits 40p
 
Just bumping this to see how people got on with their GO Faster renewals.

There did seem to be anecdotal evidence of people on Go Faster, coming to the end of their fixed terms, not getting renewal notices. Mine is up soon and I've not had any renewal notice or invitations. I read in this thread or another that some complained and got their terms extended on existing tariff?
 
Just bumping this to see how people got on with their GO Faster renewals.

There did seem to be anecdotal evidence of people on Go Faster, coming to the end of their fixed terms, not getting renewal notices. Mine is up soon and I've not had any renewal notice or invitations. I read in this thread or another that some complained and got their terms extended on existing tariff?
I've read this too - mine ends on Wednesday with no following tariff loaded in the API and no email - the advice seems to be to make no contact and you'll get another year - a known bug with go faster expected to be fixed by June, plain go was fixed earlier in the year
 
I've read this too - mine ends on Wednesday with no following tariff loaded in the API and no email - the advice seems to be to make no contact and you'll get another year - a known bug with go faster expected to be fixed by June, plain go was fixed earlier in the year
Hoping so.

So will you let it expire, then make contact? I'm not sure how to play it, in order to get the best result!
 
Just bumping this to see how people got on with their GO Faster renewals.

There did seem to be anecdotal evidence of people on Go Faster, coming to the end of their fixed terms, not getting renewal notices. Mine is up soon and I've not had any renewal notice or invitations. I read in this thread or another that some complained and got their terms extended on existing tariff?
I received no renewal emails & my GoFaster got rolled over on March 25th for another year at the Dec 2019 rates.
 
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