Read on the news that the price cap increases today, so presumably unit prices of gas & electric are increasing ?
I’m with Octopus, have no idea what tariff I’m on, only that I pay £75pcm by DD, and I’m normally £100 in credit. I don’t know if the unit prices are cheaper at night but if i need power & light then so be it. My washing machine must be 25 yo and the rest ( Bosch) so probably isn’t the most energy efficient but if it ain’t broke….
Is it worth looking at Octopus tariffs, assuming they offer options, or carry on as before ?
Late September > Spring I’m away 50% of the time and when i tried to find an energy supplier with no standing charges but higher unit costs drew a blank.
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Just look at the Octopus App, It will tell you what tarrif you are on and your options.
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The capped price, equivalent of the old standard tariff, increased today to reflect the spike in fuel prices after the Iran/US/Israel conflict starting in late February.
At one time advice was that the cap was the best deal in town but I'm fairly sure some semblance of normality has returned and there are fixed deals of varying lengths out there. I guess too that as prices are broadly back at pre-war levels, at least for oil, then the next cap from 01-10 will be lower again.
As CG says Octopus's App or your bills will tell you your tariff and unit costs.
Meerkats etc will give you a range of offers.
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"Just look at the Octopus App, It will tell you what tarrif you are on and your options."
Yes and no.
It will give you the standard variable and a fixed price deal, which may not necessarily be the best. When our previous fixed price deal was coming to an end last year, I renewed on the new fixed price deal offered several weeks beforehand. Checked as a new customer a couple of weeks later and a lower fix was available. The website wasn't showing any options as I'd just signed up to a new 12m fix. Phoned them up and they swapped to the better deal without issue.
Octopus, for me at least, always offer fixes with no exit fees.
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I thought most Octopus tariffs now had exit fees (though CS seem to have some discretion on many things).
One reason being they are fed up with people auto swapping between tariffs on a daily basis (using technology). You can even do it retrospectively - if your tech identifies that one tariff would have been better for today it would swap before midnight and get the better tariff.
LL - you probably won't save much of you are on a half-decent tariff already but it's worth having a look. Standing Charges are the killer - I use no gas for about 6 months of the year but still pay the SC which is a bit irritating.
Were you an EV driver, or had a heat pump, you would likely want to be on a time-of-use tariff so you can shift heavy loads to a cheaper period (usually overnight).
I have an app called Octopus Compare which uses your actual data and compares it to other Octopus tariffs. The free version is limited to three months-worth. You can add up the three Octopus tartiffs to compare with. Pleased to see my 30 day cost is £34.82 and the next cheapest seems to be around £80!!
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>> LL - you probably won't save much of you are on a half-decent tariff already
>> but it's worth having a look. Standing Charges are the killer - I use no
>> gas for about 6 months of the year but still pay the SC which is
>> a bit irritating.
>>exactly that. Away a lot, heating switched off, water off, minimal electric consumption and still being ripped off by daily standing charges. TBH, paying £75 a month it’s not worth the hassle of changing to another supplier…what I would save in a month would barely be enough for 4 pints. Plus the potential for the transfer to go wrong.
On the plus side I’m getting over €1.16 on Revolut and my friend Emilio is only charging me €40 B & B at his hotel in the Picos.
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The price cap is set having regard for wholesale energy prices in the market in previous months and reflects the high costs associated with war in the Middle East. If the ceasefire holds and (hopefully) peace deals follow, market prices should fall.
It's probably worth keeping an eye on deals over the next few weeks. Fixed price deals may not immediately reflect the drop in wholesale energy prices - suppliers will want to secure any deals against a reduced price for futures contracts which will depend on whether the ME ceasefire holds.
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Energy price cap - CGNorwich
