Anything bad about Octopus? Looking to switch to them.

[SafetyThird]

For over a decade we've been Good Energy customers, believing in putting the environment ahead of cost as we were able to afford to pay a bit more to support their plans for green energy generation. However, their prices are not subject to any energy cap and the rates have almost tripled over the past year. I phoned Octopus this morning and been given their E7 rates which compare as follows.

Good Energy. Octopus
33.63p 21.61p Night rate
40.72p 30.67p Day rate
56.01p 51.44p standing charge

Now that's before getting on to anything like Agile, as we're still waiting for a smart meter to be fitted but I think it likely Octopus would do that faster than Good Energy as some friends moved house recently, switched to Octopus and had their new meter installed two weeks later.

I know Octopus are fully green as a supplier, but are there any other things to be aware of, are they really as green as Good Energy or is it all a bit of smoke and mirrors with carbon offsets etc? I know there's plenty of Octopus customers on here and I'm guessing they've been thoroughly vetted by folks more knowledgeable that me. If they're genuinely a green company, it's hard to justify paying a third more for my power through Good Energy.

Agile becomes an interesting option for us as we've just installed our battery setup with a Luxpower Squirrel Pod that's Agile capable and I think I'll be getting a couple of extra batteries to help cover the heat pump overnight during the winter.

Thoughts?

[Oldgreybeard]

Octopus seem generally to be pretty good, from what I've heard. They did refuse to supply us, though, saying that they would only offer their E7 tariff to customers that could have a smart meter, not those that already had an E7 meter.

I, too, have been trying to pin down rates, and have found a cheaper supplier than Octopus if you are on Economy 7. These are the prices I got this morning from E-ON for the Southern Region, BEFORE the new government cap comes in on the 1st October:

Day rate = 32.0720 p/kWh

Night rate = 16.4350 p/kWh

Standing charge = 41.4100 p/day

From everything I've read over the past week it seems that suppliers are looking to cut the night rate for Economy 7 customers come the 1st October. I would be inclined to hang on a few days and see what happens, because right now (for us, "just" in Dorset) E-On is, rather surprisingly the cheapest. After allowing for the £400 rebate it looks like our Direct Debit for electricity (which we use for everything, heating and hot water etc) will be £39/month, before whatever happens come 1st October.

[Bugtownboy]

We were ported across to Octopus when Avro crashed. Been very impressed with them, although we’re only on a standard variable tariff.

Website and App are ok, emailed queries are answered by a human quite promptly, allow you to adjust your DD very easily on the website, good communication re their service, innovative service.

[SafetyThird]

OGB that's very interesting about Eon but the option to have Agile and, eventually, an electric car tariff makes me want to go with Octopus rather than Eon as I could set up the inverter to charge our batteries during the cheapest hours and get an even better rate than Eon, hopefully.

If the rates are going to change on Oct 1st then it's worth waiting a few more days to see what Octopus offer then, thanks for that.

[SafetyThird]

We were ported across to Octopus when Avro crashed. Been very impressed with them, although we’re only on a standard variable tariff.

Website and App are ok, emailed queries are answered by a human quite promptly, allow you to adjust your DD very easily on the website, good communication re their service, innovative service.

That's good to know, thanks.

[Mr Gus]

Love em! ..humanity exists within them.
Staff are pro-active, a different level of customer service & ability, not perfect (there will always be horror stories on any company) but hopefully it manages to keep hold of its ethos.
Recommended

[NikoV6]

Been with them for about 4 years, Octopus Go tariff for charging battery and car overnight is great

Customer service is excellent, much badgering of them got my Smart meter installed even though they said I could not get a signal! We can

Referral link if you do join - Share £100

https://share.octopus.energy/loyal-cloud-540

MoDs please remove link if not appropriate

[Mr Gus]

Nah, you should be fine Niko, (see my profile link) ..if It's renewable, or forum membership & Not outrageous spam it's likely all fine.

I use my referrals for buying more watts in ripple (even though it'll be another year to be built), ..reciprocal & green interest.

[Swwils]

Octopus are miles ahead of everyone else. You will have nightmares with any smart tarrif on OVO / eon, especially switching.

The ease of switching between octopus tarrifs is the real USP.

[SafetyThird]

Been with them for about 4 years, Octopus Go tariff for charging battery and car overnight is great

Customer service is excellent, much badgering of them got my Smart meter installed even though they said I could not get a signal! We can

Referral link if you do join - Share £100

https://share.octopus.energy/loyal-cloud-540

MoDs please remove link if not appropriate

Thanks Niko, looks very likely we'll join and I'll use that link at the time.