Energy price increases

Kittyfrisk

chillidoggy said:

Just been contacted by Octopus with a link to provide meter readings, and found enough of the Avro site was still working to see my balance.

Good for you. I'm still getting the 'excessive traffic' message, try again in 15 minutes  *shrug*
I got the Octopus message too, fingers crossed it all goes as well as it can.
 Still thinking of all those poor sods on Universal Retribution (sorry, Credit) that through no fault of their own that are caught up in this crap, with no hope of a lifeline, no matter what the price.

TTBZ

Worth switching over to Octopus now then? They've quoted me £60 less per month than Bulb on a 2 year fixed price, seems like a good idea if they're decent! That £60 is a monthly finance payment on some nice new gear

Haych

Well this is weird.

Yesterday I had the email from Octopus asking for meter readings as they're taking over from Avro.  I duly submitted them.

This morning I've had an email from Avro to inform me that my 12 month tariff ends on 11th November and I'm being switched to their variable tariff but I can also obtain a renewal quote from them.

I still can't get into their portal to see anything, just tells me to come back in 15 minutes.

exocet

Haych said:

Well this is weird.

Yesterday I had the email from Octopus asking for meter readings as they're taking over from Avro.  I duly submitted them.

This morning I've had an email from Avro to inform me that my 12 month tariff ends on 11th November and I'm being switched to their variable tariff but I can also obtain a renewal quote from them.

I still can't get into their portal to see anything, just tells me to come back in 15 minutes.

It’s all driven by an automated workflow that has yet to be switched off.

Kittyfrisk

@Haych  Keep trying the Avro website. I just got in & managed to display & screenshot all my outstanding credit & meter readings etc. so I'm feeling a lot better now.
It was slow & clunky, took quite a bit of clicking on various unresponsive icons & randomly refreshing screens, but it did work.

Kittyfrisk

TTBZ said:

Worth switching over to Octopus now then? They've quoted me £60 less per month than Bulb on a 2 year fixed price, seems like a good idea if they're decent! That £60 is a monthly finance payment on some nice new gear

OFGEM considers Octopus to be big enough to appoint as a supplier of last resort, so I'd say they are relatively stable.
If you can grab a reasonable deal in these turbulent times, I'd say go for it.
We're all in for a bumpy trip down the white water energy rapids for the foreseeable future, so any stability would seem sensible.

chillidoggy

As above, have another go, try clicking on 'Statements'. My balance is there.

Haych

chillidoggy said:

As above, have another go, try clicking on 'Statements'. My balance is there.

Managed to get a screenshot of my balance and the list of statements, I can't actually view the statements, I just get an error in what looks like JSON.

My balance always confused me though, it seems to bear no relation to anything and I could never reconcile it to my payments or statements.  I presume unless it has a negative figure I'm not in debt, though?

I did query this with Avro a couple of months ago and the replied with a difference figure altogether but I wasn't in debt then so I doubt I could be now since we've just been through the best time of year for not using gas or electric.

chillidoggy

Haych said:

chillidoggy said:

As above, have another go, try clicking on 'Statements'. My balance is there.

Managed to get a screenshot of my balance and the list of statements, I can't actually view the statements, I just get an error in what looks like JSON.

My balance always confused me though, it seems to bear no relation to anything and I could never reconcile it to my payments or statements.  I presume unless it has a negative figure I'm not in debt, though?

I did query this with Avro a couple of months ago and the replied with a difference figure altogether but I wasn't in debt then so I doubt I could be now since we've just been through the best time of year for not using gas or electric.

Yes, that's my understanding is that negative will be shown as a minus. I knew I was about £300 in credit, and that's what it's showing.

Haych

chillidoggy said:

Haych said:

chillidoggy said:

As above, have another go, try clicking on 'Statements'. My balance is there.

Managed to get a screenshot of my balance and the list of statements, I can't actually view the statements, I just get an error in what looks like JSON.

My balance always confused me though, it seems to bear no relation to anything and I could never reconcile it to my payments or statements.  I presume unless it has a negative figure I'm not in debt, though?

I did query this with Avro a couple of months ago and the replied with a difference figure altogether but I wasn't in debt then so I doubt I could be now since we've just been through the best time of year for not using gas or electric.

Yes, that's my understanding is that negative will be shown as a minus. I knew I was about £300 in credit, and that's what it's showing.

Thank you mate, I have just managed to download my latest statement (the others still don't work) and I am indeed £70odd quid in credit.

Nitefly

TTBZ said:

Worth switching over to Octopus now then? They've quoted me £60 less per month than Bulb on a 2 year fixed price, seems like a good idea if they're decent! That £60 is a monthly finance payment on some nice new gear

£60 saving per month???!!!  I'd be checking that with a VERY fine-toothed comb.

We only pay £77 per month in total for both gas and electricity.

*edit* I should add that that is a fixed-price tariff from e.on which is up to next January - at that point I'll expect the prices to go up but I'll probably stick with them on the next fixed-price tariff.

joneve

Nitefly said:

TTBZ said:

Worth switching over to Octopus now then? They've quoted me £60 less per month than Bulb on a 2 year fixed price, seems like a good idea if they're decent! That £60 is a monthly finance payment on some nice new gear

£60 saving per month???!!!  I'd be checking that with a VERY fine-toothed comb.

We only pay £77 per month in total for both gas and electricity.

*edit* I should add that that is a fixed-price tariff from e.on which is up to next January - at that point I'll expect the prices to go up but I'll probably stick with them on the next fixed-price tariff.

Worth taking a look at all the available fixed price "deals" about at the minute. there aren't any. Make the most of your fixed tariff now as you'll likely be paying double what you pay now if the prices don't fall in the next few months. 

we currently pay circa £125 per month with Octopus on their variable tariff, which is cheaper than most "big 6" tariffs...which covers our gas and electric for 3 of us (and a dog) in a not very energy efficient 1940's semi. 

That's going up by about £13 on their variable tariff with the October price cap increases and another 15-20 per month on top of that for their new "best" fixed "deal" if we chose to move. I compared this with others available and they were all pretty expensive due to the massive price hikes. Good thing with Octopus is that we can fix and then cancel at any time with no fees if the prices start to come down in 4-5 months time. 

Or we just risk staying on their variable tariff, which I'm tempted to do as it's  good rate in the current climate, but there's always the chance things could get worse, so we will probably fix for a bit of stability and take the hit short term. 

ArchtopDave

How long does the fixed rate tariff last? Obviously no one knows where wholesale gas prices are going to go in the future, but demand across the globe is unlikely to decrease significantly, unless there's another nasty global surprise around the corner. I've seen "estimates" reported on several financial sites that, at current wholesale gas prices, companies would need to be charging roughly £50 per month over and above tomorrow's price increase to order to break even.

joneve

ArchtopDave said:

How long does the fixed rate tariff last? Obviously no one knows where wholesale gas prices are going to go in the future, but demand across the globe is unlikely to decrease significantly, unless there's another nasty global surprise around the corner. I've seen "estimates" reported on several financial sites that, at current wholesale gas prices, companies would need to be charging roughly £50 per month over and above tomorrow's price increase to order to break even.

The Octopus one is 24 months (with £0 exit fee), but some companies are offering 12 months. 

stratman3142

Well I was expecting a price increase, but this is what I saw when I switched on our new smart meter  : 

https://i.imgur.com/K13xmiB.jpg

ArchtopDave

stratman3142 said:

Well I was expecting a price increase, but this is what I saw when I switched on our new smart meter  : 

https://i.imgur.com/K13xmiB.jpg

How do you get it so cheap???

Nitefly

joneve said:

Nitefly said:

TTBZ said:

Worth switching over to Octopus now then? They've quoted me £60 less per month than Bulb on a 2 year fixed price, seems like a good idea if they're decent! That £60 is a monthly finance payment on some nice new gear

£60 saving per month???!!!  I'd be checking that with a VERY fine-toothed comb.

We only pay £77 per month in total for both gas and electricity.

*edit* I should add that that is a fixed-price tariff from e.on which is up to next January - at that point I'll expect the prices to go up but I'll probably stick with them on the next fixed-price tariff.

Worth taking a look at all the available fixed price "deals" about at the minute. there aren't any. Make the most of your fixed tariff now as you'll likely be paying double what you pay now if the prices don't fall in the next few months. 

we currently pay circa £125 per month with Octopus on their variable tariff, which is cheaper than most "big 6" tariffs...which covers our gas and electric for 3 of us (and a dog) in a not very energy efficient 1940's semi. 

That's going up by about £13 on their variable tariff with the October price cap increases and another 15-20 per month on top of that for their new "best" fixed "deal" if we chose to move. I compared this with others available and they were all pretty expensive due to the massive price hikes. Good thing with Octopus is that we can fix and then cancel at any time with no fees if the prices start to come down in 4-5 months time. 

Or we just risk staying on their variable tariff, which I'm tempted to do as it's  good rate in the current climate, but there's always the chance things could get worse, so we will probably fix for a bit of stability and take the hit short term. 

Agree with all that @joneve , I'm expecting to get clobbered when we get to January and my fixed deal ends 

I was more bothered about Octopus telling @TTBZ that they'd save him £60 per month against Bulb - I'd think either Bulb are ripping him off, or Octopus are being extravagant with the truth.

Or perhaps @TTBZ lives in Windsor Castle!

TTBZ

Well Bulb want to put my monthly DD up to £190 which seems ridiculous so I think I will probably do the switch  as I said earlier in the thread we were paying around £80 a month with Bulb when we first moved in and this has steadily risen since then.

dano

TTBZ said:

Worth switching over to Octopus now then? They've quoted me £60 less per month than Bulb on a 2 year fixed price, seems like a good idea if they're decent! That £60 is a monthly finance payment on some nice new gear

Similar for me. Been with Bulb a couple of tears, now on their variable tariff so I've been looking at Octopus fixed tariffs the last couple of days. 

chillidoggy

I see this morning that Ofgem has lifted the price cap. About fucking time too. Had they thought about doing it sooner, we wouldn't be in this mess.