Just had an offer from Octopus

[quicklybeendrivenmad]

Octopus energy
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Your current tariff
Flexible Octopus
Unit rates
Electricity: 27.35p per kWh
Gas: 7.28p per kWh
Standing charges
Electricity: 48.26p per day
Gas: 27.22p per day
Your new tariff options
Octopus 12M Fixed
£989.12
monthly estimate
Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed
Most popular
£945.53
monthly estimate
This tariff features 100% renewable electricity and fixes your unit rates and standing charge for 12 months. There are no exit fees, so if you change your mind, you're in control.
Your new quote
£11,869.50

God knows where these figures have come from, last months gas was £19 and Electric £180!! Who the hell would sign up to £989 per month at nearly £12k a year. Love how they say Loyal Octopus "Most popular" popular to who? Think they mean them.

The fix is for the rates, the £ amount is an indicator based on your previous usage but it's not all you can use for a set cost.

I’m on pre payment meters. The gas I’ve used is pennies. I’ve kept topping it up so have over £100 on there. Electric has been the killer for me. I’m topping up £40 every 8-10 days. That being said, I have been using portable air con a fair amount. Usually at least 4 hours a night (peri menopausal sweat bucket!). So at least that’s something I won’t need in winter. Anything else electric wise I don’t see I can really cut much.

No they haven't, you can't fix a monthly price. They have told you the DD amount they will take if you fix. You need to be clear that's not the same as your usage

For the Sep 2021-Mar 2022 period I paid £638 last year. If I use the same amount of electricity and gas this year, on predicted prices it comes in at £2570 or £360/month AFTER the £400 government discount.

My bad luck was that my last fix ended at the end of March and I’ve never seen a fox worth taking since then, given that it would have locked me into higher prices for the last six months.

I think I might move into a travel lodge for a warm!!

It's going to cost the energy companies millions to take people to court, they are going to feel like mosquitoes who have caught malaria !! Just wait!.

This is what I want to know too, someone has said a prepayment metre which sounds right but so unfair. We're in the same boat, don't have heaps left of disposable income. We physically wouldn't have the money to pay 900-1000 a month 😳

Holy crap! No one can afford that! Are they insane?!?!

Thanks @MinervaTerrathorn it makes a bit more sense now.

Could you post a source please? This is really concerning.

Does anyone know what will happen to customers who cannot pay increased monthly prices? I've worked out that we could afford to pay £300/ month max and beyond that point there is no more money. None. Nothing. We have a household income around double the national average (I think) but with mortgage being a third of our take home costs, childcare for baby, wraparound care for 4yo and monthly car payment (for a second hand hybrid- not a really luxury snazzy car) and rising food costs we have nothing else to spend on energy once we hit £300 a month. If we just keep paying £300 and explain we can't afford further increases would they still cut us off? Or would we be better taking out credit cards to pay off energy bills and paying £300/ month off those?
My head is spinning and I feel absolutely sick to my stomach over it all.
Dh and I have been discussing things like how few baths per week we could cut down for the DC for and whether we could double up gro bags on baby at night as we won't be able.to afford to heat house even if it gets really cold. It is beyond comprehension we find ourselves here and yet we are luckier than so many others in what we earn.

Honestly if they try and charge that they can just turn my house off. Disconnect me I don't care. I'd rather use a camping stove to cook and my wearable duvet 😂

We've been with Octopus for years, so all our domestic usage is from renewables. We don't have gas, so all our heating and hot water is electric.

Wind and solar power are NOT. going up in price, so I'm furious that our fuel bill will be going up. We can't get gas where we live, so the argument about electricity prices being tied to gas prices is bonkers.

We have paid a slightly higher rate for electricity over the years because we wanted to support green/renewable energy. And now it feels like we're being slapped in the face for our loyalty.

Is anyone else's wishing they had proper old fashioned fire place?.

I never wanted a woodburner but maybe it's going to be cheeper to get one installed and turn off heating except for water?

Damn right.

Octopus fixed rate on gas and electric wanted £1448pcm, I was paying £160 now paying £545
its gone mad

I also can’t see them managing to source and fit sufficient prepayment meters either, if people did default (this is NOT a recommendation, just a comment😆).

Further to the earlier post about clarity and terminology, I wish they’d lose ‘price cap’ - maybe a simple change to ‘rate cap’? So many seem to believe that this is the most they can be charged, and are in for a big shock.

How the fuck can they claim that is 100% renewable? How bloody much has the price of wind and sunlight increased?

I honestly can’t believe the number of people who don’t understand how their energy bill is calculated or what a direct debt means and that it isn’t an all-you-can-use monthly cost.
Not a dig to anyone personally but it’s a pretty terrifying state that the county doesn’t understand their utility bills.

This is what EDF says about my tariff and whether they can bring it to an end.

It's a touch concerning, given the possibility of more windfall taxes. Maybe the windfall tax already announced hasn't affected them beyond their reasonable control.

Who would have thought it would be cheaper to burn fancy candles than turn your lights on.

This is just awful.

I think maybe people will pay 10% monthly income as more than that puts you in fuel poverty. Then contact supplier and put a payment plan in place. This will mean debt but hopefully they won't cut you off. Who knows? So many people just won't be able to pay. I'm going to work in my local library this winter, take a flask of tea.

I may be wrong but I think the price hikes are happening because the energy sources are starting to run low. If the energy companies have nothing to sell they will go under. Therefore appear to make the product dearer and force people to cut back so that use is restricted and they will be able to sell and make money for the shareholders over a longer period of time. It is the cocoa beans and chocolate situation to some degree in that crops were smaller so the chocolate companies made products smaller and charged more. What is really worrying is that fossil fuels have taken billions of years to form and over the last few hundred years have been depleted to the point of running out.

'100% renewable' is misleading because they supply electricity 24/7 including at night, when it's not sunny, obviously and at times when it isn't windy.

Unless you're happy for your electricity supply to be turned off when there isn't sufficient sun or wind, which is reasonably often, then you aren't just paying for wind/solar energy and realistically some of your electricity will be gas (or nuclear) generated, so you pay the standard price they charge, which is the price cap, or a fix if that's what you choose.

I know, it's hard to comment on whether the fix they've been offered is worth considering because no one is looking at the actual fixed rates.