Re: The energy crisis
 

Of course :)

Re: The energy crisis
 

Re: The energy crisis
 

Seem very complicated these not so smart meters.

I like my system. I read the meter when it suits me, and they send a bill. I then pay it, everyone's a winner.

I also don't give them a phone no so they don't waste their time, trying to flog me a smart meter, I'm kind like that :)

Re: The energy crisis
 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-...shire-67232057

;)

Re: The energy crisis
 

I refer you to a previous post.
They clearly were not "actively avoiding", and 18 is way past 7, even if they were.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Bills rising by an average of £94 pa from January to £1,928 pa, Ofgem has just announced.

This 5% rise is attributed to higher wholesale prices and a change in the energy cap calculations. Unwelcome as it is, I guess it's in line with inflation. https://news.sky.com/story/energy-pr...unces-13013686

Re: The energy crisis
 

Current Wholesale gas prices are approx. 40% of last year’s price at this time…

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uk-natural-gas

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...2&d=1700726979

Re: The energy crisis
 

My gas charge for the past month was just over twice the Standing Charge.

Re: The energy crisis
 

I’m currently with Shell, just had an email saying I’m moving to Octopus.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Yup - me, too.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Same here, let the fun begin :)

Re: The energy crisis
 

That's a good thing as Octopus are great to deal with.

Re: The energy crisis
 

I'm joining the migration from Shell to Octopus club too. Originally joined them as First Energy. Their email did emphasise I wasn't to switch myself but wait my turn. Presumably they've run this past their lawyers but as I'm not on a fixed tariff, thought I could leave when I wanted to.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Just let it all happen automatically, any credit you have will be transferred over, it took a while before I was moved but I keep monthly metre readings and it was all correct when the transfer did go through.

Re: The energy crisis
 

From their site ;

https://octopus.energy/shell/

Re: The energy crisis
 

Got my new prices from OVO today (for January).

Gas:
kWh Rate From 6.76p to 7.29p
Standing Charge From 29.11p to 29.60p

Electricity:
kWh Rate From 26.75p to 28.01p
Standing Charge From 50.31p to 50.68p

Could have been worse I guess, makes you weep when you recall what they were 3 years ago ... :(

Re: The energy crisis
 

My Octopus rate changes for the Eastern region paying via Direct Debit, the eastern region has the lowest standing charge compared to all their others by a large margin.

Octopus Rate Changes January 2024.

Gas:
kWh Rate From 6.78p to 7.31p (7.82% increase)
Standing Charge From 27.47p to 27.47p (no change)

Electricity:
kWh Rate From 27.93p to 29.22p (4.62% increase)
Standing Charge From 42.01p to 42.01p (no change)

I still have the option to go on a fixed rate which reduces the bill by £3 a month but I'm not going to.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Just to compare my DD Octopus standard rate to SnoopZ's Eastern region, not sure of my actual octopus region, but I am in Manchester.

Gas from 1st January 2024

Unit rate (per kWh) was 6.898p to 7.422p
Standing charge (per day) 27.468p no change

Electricity from 1st January 2024

Unit rate (per kWh) 27.212p to 28.440p
Standing charge (per day) 49.77p no change


My husband and I need to keep the house warm due to my health so when I worked out whether the other Octopus options would be cheaper it seems, at the moment best to stay as we are.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Based on what you have posted you're North West according to the chart.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Assumed I was in the North West price area but wasn't sure if Octopus used the normal geographical divisions.

Would be interesting to see what the different rates are in the other Octopus regions.

.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Click the link I posted a few posts up it's all in there the different rates.

Post 2417

Re: The energy crisis
 

Sorry SnoopZ, I should have read the whole link. Silly me! :D

Re: The energy crisis
 

Have you spoken to Macmillan, they might be able to help

Re: The energy crisis
 

What crisis, so couldn't resist

Re: The energy crisis
 

Thanks for caring Daddy ♥. I'm not the one with cancer. and my husband, who does, has talked to a counsellor when needed.

Longer explanation ...... I have Cold AIHA and just don't have enough mature red blood cells with the resultant reduced oxygen levels restricting my activity levels. One side effect of my condition is that my body has problems regulating my temperature. At the moment I'm kind of stable, my body churning out new RBCs faster than my immune system can destroy the mature ones, but I am very sensitive to the cold so my husband and I would rather turn up the heating and keep me toasty warm. :D

Re: The energy crisis
 

From Scottish Power.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Expensive compared to other providers, are you stuck with them or do you have other options?

Re: The energy crisis
 

I prefer that option anyway, not a fan of feeling cool.
I strike a happy (hopefully) medium between my desire to be nice and warm v the cost (which has improved since I had a new boiler).

Re: The energy crisis
 

I have compared the only other one that services this area, and it was such a tiny cost difference over a full year, that it was not worth the hassle. It's a postcode lottery, as friends just a few miles away get far cheaper prices.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Ofgem are proposing to increase the price cap to cover customer debts owed to energy retailers.
BBC News - Energy bills could rise by £16 to cover customers' debts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67725424

The irony of this is that higher bills will risk more customer falling into debt in the first place.

Re: The energy crisis
 

what an absolute piss take

---------- Post added at 14:34 ---------- Previous post was at 14:33 ----------

people in debt should either join the debt management scheme or get an IVA depending on how much debt they are in

Re: The energy crisis
 

Many who have fallen into debt possibly spent their freebies from HMG on "other things" I suspect.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Not us l may say as our gas and electric are in good credit..

Re: The energy crisis
 

Why are we paying their debts, no one pays mine and I resent picking up someone elses bill when I'm already paying extra as it is to cover the original follies

Re: The energy crisis
 

Tell OFGEM what you think

Re: The energy crisis
 

Some people are foolish and waste money but some are legitimately struggling those deserve compassion not derision

Re: The energy crisis
 

And they are suddenly going to listen as they have had plenty of time to consider things before they made this announcement.

Re: The energy crisis
 

We are the same. We build up credit during the warmer months to have it whittled away during the colder times.

Scottish Power recently tried to drop our DD by half, but I did the calculations, and saw we would have to pay more than we pay now to clear the debt that would cause.

Re: The energy crisis
 

How does that help the businesses that are owed money? As it is, there are huge squeals at any attempts to get people to pay any debt off.

Re: The energy crisis
 

again it is not a one size fits all but I will tell you what happened to me a number of years and risk your judgement

I suffer from quite severe anxiety and depression and have done since I was a child. About 8 or 9 years ago I got into trouble I was going through a real bad time and got comfort buying nice things. I was on a low income but companies were throwing credit at me hand over fist a lot of it buy now pay later over about a year I accrued £16k debt and had no way of paying it off. I wanted to kill myself. I was fortunate enough to find out about IVAs and took one out. Paid 6K off over 5 years living on next to nothing and the rest was cleared.

Yes a number of firms lost money and yes I was to blame for the spending but they were responsible for facilitating that spending. They all did credit checks and all the agencies know employment status yet they still in some cases gave me 1000s of pounds credit.

I have no sympathy with energy firms they make billions and I have no sympathy for credit companies that do not loan responsibly.

Judge me how you will it matters not

Re: The energy crisis
 

Err they don't owe me money, they owe it to the energy companies, what a scam, they can't pay them so they'll make everyone else pay them instead

---------- Post added at 20:17 ---------- Previous post was at 20:16 ----------

That's shit, really is but hey if scams like this had been around all those credit companies other customers would've paid them back for you

Re: The energy crisis
 

How is it a scam? you saying I am dishonest? Still does not matter I knew you were going to judge me you seem that kinda guy

I think actually you mean the energy top up thing ok I understand now

Re: The energy crisis
 

The energy SUPPLIERS are NOT making billions. They are OWED £3bn.
They are restricted in being able to raise prices and are not allowed to cut people off.
The lenders of money that doesn't get paid back, raise their interest rates for everybody else and/or reduce rates for savers. Same principle, others pay for non-payments.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Well British Gas made almost a Billion first half of this year



This report seems to contradict you also somewhat

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...-b2388968.html

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/news/...afford-heating

Re: The energy crisis
 

And that was to recover previous LOSSES, so they didn't add to the list of those going bust or ending their business.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Often when a business report a loss what they have made is less than what they projected and not an actual loss at all. Don't fall for the blag no business can operate after really losing millions

Re: The energy crisis
 

It was the regulator that examined the situation and allowed the ONE-OFF profits.

Re: The energy crisis
 

yeah righteo

Re: The energy crisis
 

All the other years, the energy companies are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and not making any money from us. :D

Re: The energy crisis
 

It's like when Starbucks tried to say they made a loss on every cup they sold in the UK.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Oh no, who will save the multi-national corporations and their excessive profits

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...5&d=1702684303

Re: The energy crisis
 

A m a zing, you understand I meant the energy company but decided to leave the negative bit about me judging you in when I'd actually sympathised with your previous plight, guess what, I'm judging you now and it's not positive :(

Re: The energy crisis
 

I misunderstood you it is easy to do with text I apologise

Re: The energy crisis
 

I do not understand the reluctance of people towards Octopus agile and Octopus track. With a smart meter.

8am today: 3.51p leccy and 3.95p gas per kwh (Surrey)

:confused:

Re: The energy crisis
 

It's probably the hassle of getting smart meters installed, if I had a smart meter I'd likely sign up if it saves me alot of money, currently I'm paying Octopus £90 a month.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Thats why.

People dont trust them, and the energy companies have made that worse with their apparent switching people to PAYG remotely.

Once lost, trust is hard to regain.

Re: The energy crisis
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67494082

Re: The energy crisis
 

It is negative electricity price right now, but the wife and I can't be bothered to do the laundry. Very sorry that you lot have to pay.

It is bloody absurd!

Re: The energy crisis
 

I guess you are on Agile (or similar). The price went down to -3.75p/kWh at 2:30 last night

Re: The energy crisis
 

Yeap!:D


Negative to zero tonite--- all night

Re: The energy crisis
 

If someone is with Octopus and has a smart meter isn't there a huge waiting list for their Agile and Tracker tariffs?

Re: The energy crisis
 

Agile has no waiting list ---it averages 17p per kwh (Surrey) ----if you avoid using it 4-7pm, then it costs 15p per kwh (Surrey).

And if you are bothered to do all your washing/dishwashing/drying at negative/zero times, you save much more... but it is annoying, annoying very annoying... even with programming etc

I am not sure whether there is a waiting list for the gas tracker. The gas prices have plummeted recently, 3.8p today (Surrey)

Re: The energy crisis
 

I am thinking of moving our Gas to Tracker (if possible), would you recommend this tariff?

Re: The energy crisis
 

What’s the penalty if you do use leccy between 4&7pm though (Rutland)?

It’s pretty difficult to avoid, especially at this time of year (Ceredigion).

Re: The energy crisis
 

There is no penalty per se, you just try and remember to avoid running electricity intensive tasks during the peak cost hours. For example, if you have a dishwasher with a timer function, you just set it for X hours time instead of turning it on straight away.

However saying this, remember you will have a 24x7 cost of running the house so all of this will, on average, cost you less which helps to offset any higher costs during peak periods.

Here's some screenshots of the Octopus Watch app for the last couple of weeks. You can see the (few) days where it was colder and there was no wind but these are offset by the many more days when the Agile pricing is cheaper.

Attachment 30813 Attachment 30814

Re: The energy crisis
 

Re: The energy crisis
 

Big Brother's watching you! ;)

Re: The energy crisis
 

Yes, I do. I will never pay 7p for gas. Since January it ranged 2.5p-5.1p (Surrey)

Why pay more? It is the same gas that everybody else uses

Also, we had 3 days that gas was free (zero) (surrey). No idea why. Gas is never negatively priced. But what do you do with free gas? Burn your house for free?

The gas price is announced around 10pm every day. But you can guess it from

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cxwdwz5d8gxt

Re: The energy crisis
 

What crisis?


electricity is free or negative from 10pm tonight until 4pm tomorrow (surrey). we will not enjoy the weekend, we will wash and dry everything, even the bloody cat!

Re: The energy crisis
 

here it is

Re: The energy crisis
 

Re: The energy crisis
 

Is there any cap on the amount of electricity you can use during these negative periods, apart from the physical limit of a domestic supply?

Re: The energy crisis
 

I presume it works on demand, so the more is used, the less time its negative.

Re: The energy crisis
 

I told one of their operators NOT to change the DD. I've just had a bill up to the tariff change on 1st January. They changed the DD in mid-December after I had called them!

And now no-one wants to reply to my calls.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Re: The energy crisis
 

Can't you change the DD online? If not that's ridiculous in this day and age.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Strange indeed, OVO allow me to change it, as did British Gas and EDF.

They would not generally allow you to set it lower than their recommended, but you could set it higher.

This review score on trust pilot is ....... interesting ...
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.scottishpower.com

Re: The energy crisis
 

The planned reduction came with a bill. I could not lock it online, so had to do a one-to-one chat with an operator.

I shall try to get a response from their website to make an additional payment and raise it to where I want it to be. To get onto the site, you have to log in, then wait for an email that gives a one-off access link.

But the past couple of days has seen no such emails generated.

Re: The energy crisis
 

This all sounds terribly dated, Octopus give me log in access as well as an APP, I just log in and change the DD instantly I can even withdraw credit to my bank account at a click of a button.

You have no alternative supplier you can switch to to make your life easier?

Re: The energy crisis
 

I've had a good look, and they all come out within pence of each other.

I did find Scottish Power offering "Green Flexi Feb 2026 EM1" (saving £26.99 pa) and "Help Beat Cancer Flexi Feb 2025 TM1" (saving £75.77 pa) but that would mean locking myself into tariffs that could end up more expensive if the wholesale prices drop.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Re: The energy crisis
 

If it's only a few pence difference then consider swapping to a supplier that gives you easy full control of your account via webpage or mobile app without you having to talk to a human, I would think it would make your life easier wasting time on the crap Scottish Power are doing to you.

You don't even have to tell Scottish Power you're leaving the new supplier does that and any credit gets transferred over.

Re: The energy crisis
 

I just had a call from them to say that they had seen my requests to be allowed onto the site, and that a technical problem had been sorted. But I couldn't put the DD back to what it had been on the phone. For that, I had to access the site. It only took 3 attempts to do so. All sorted now.

Guess what was on their website?

Re: The energy crisis
 

It's a mis-print, they mean joint Last place. ;)

Re: The energy crisis
 

The results are here, they came 6th but I find it laughable they scored higher than Octopus.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/wa...tomer-service/

Re: The energy crisis
 

Agreed.

Which? actually puts Scottish Power in last place (51%) and Octopus at the top (78%). This comes from a survey of over 10,000 energy customers plus Which? analysis.

Re: The energy crisis
 

The gas prices have plummeted. Today I pay 3.95p. Tomorrow I expect to pay close to 3p

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cxwdwz5d8gxt

Re: The energy crisis
 

I have always been with SP

Re: The energy crisis
 

Been on Gas Tracker a couple of weeks now and have been paying between 4.44 and 4.87 p/kWh which is a saving of approx. 40% over SVT.

Remember that at the beginning of the year, they put up the Gas SVT to 7.52p from 6.99p when wholesale prices are at their lowest for a year or more. What a rip-off ...

---------- Post added at 18:59 ---------- Previous post was at 18:35 ----------

Really good site to follow the current and historical Agile & Tracker rates: https://octotrack.co.uk/region/h-southern-england

Re: The energy crisis
 

“We scored 2.9 out of 5” :D

Re: The energy crisis
 

I am on that region but my rates are always lower by 0.20p-025p :shrug:

Re: The energy crisis
 

The new gas price for me came in : 3.80p and yet the link says 4p ....

This is scandalous, they are ripping off the country's people with charging 7.52p!!!! Some regions are lower than me.

Re: The energy crisis
 

What is your Tracker tariff? I am on the latest which I think is Dec 2023 v1

---------- Post added at 07:53 ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 ----------

Quite agree. Don't forget, we are paying ~40% less than SVT and they must still be making a profit from us!

Re: The energy crisis
 

Octopus Tracker November 2022 v1

The profit on agile Octopus electricity is at least 100% (Octopus has published the formula). I do not know about gas

Re: The energy crisis
 

So the formula is changing for Octopus tracker.

Electric unit price to rise by 2.3p, and Gas by 0.38p (these sadly might be misleading they quoted average, not actual for the region). Standing charge also to increase by unspecified amount which will make it end up 4% below SVR standing charge. These are fixed increases meaning when the wholesale rate is lower they are a bigger impact in terms of percentage and lower when its higher.

The reasons provided are largely on the basis they have not been charging the true cost in relation to the cost, and have been subsidising the package. Its going to be a matter of opinion I suppose if its profiteering or they have been losing money, but considering the formulas have always been published, unless those formulas were out of date then Octopus had healthy margins on tracker, the only time they would be losing money is if people were pegged at the cap with wholesale rates above it.

I am curious if Agile formula has changed, I dont know as havent checked yet, if it hasnt it might make moving back to it a good option. As 2.8p in terms of % isnt insignificant.

Tracker is also moving back to fixed term. No mention of exit fees in the email although that doesnt necessarily mean they dont exist, havent checked the full t&c's.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Looks like Agile formula isnt changing, although still is getting the same SC increase, I will probably be moving back to Agile some time this month.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Ofgem are cutting the time a supply must complete a customers request to switch suppliers from 15 days to 5 days from April 2024. Under current rules if a switch isn't completed in 15 days a customer is entitled to £30 compensation.

Re: The energy crisis
 

My recent switches have generally all been done in 2/3 days.

In one case, I was asked to pick a date, starting from the day after, and it was done on the date I picked.

Re: The energy crisis
 

Well, it lasted almost 7 months before they finally realised they had screwed up, and "fixed" my bills. :(

Still, on the bright side, the RTS switch off, that would have affected my E7 meter, has been delayed by another year, until March 2025.

So a bit longer before I'll likely have to change it to a smarty. :)

Re: The energy crisis
 

Typical energy bill to fall £238 a year from April under new price cap, maybe it was a good idea I never went fixed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68353627

Re: The energy crisis
 

It will be interesting to see how the Agile & Tracker tariffs respond to this.