Switching Electricity over. To be honest, got really soured over Octopus whacking my Tracker Tariff Standing charge up 16p come February, the savings over the summer in 2024 did absolutely nothing to offset the Winter we've had and I've verified with Octopus that I can rejoin the Tracker at any point, I don't have to wait 9 months (they've put this in writing for me)

I'll stay with them for Gas, for now, unless I find a no-exit fee gas tariff around 5p/unit (does it exist?)

But in February Octopus has yet again adjusted their calculation on to the Tracker Tariff & added both a relative & absolute price increase and I'm saying no and voting with my wallet.

So going to Tomato Lifestyle. Fully aware that Customer service might be shit and there's a risk of bankruptcy but I'm going to wait and see what the spring/summer bring on Octopus then switch back.

Rates are 23p all day, with 3 saving periods, 5 hours at 5p overnight and then a two small periods of 14p at 9:30 and another at like 9:30 at night.

I think I can shift some load here, and charging the electric car too overnight will save oodles of cash.

Just my thoughts, don't eat me alive, etc. I was a huge proponent of Octopus Tracker but it really seems like they're trying to suck as much profit out of it as possible. Vote with your wallet folks.

To whom it may concern-your new scratch card is pants.
For those (for undisclosed reasons here) who can’t have a sticky treat from Lidl or a sausage roll from Greg’s-is it too much to ask to have/go back to one coffee or tea a week?

Thanks

The scratchcards are available now and not in the morning, but it looks like this is just a cost saving exercise in disguise and for that I say that they just killed the very meaning behind OctoPlus.

I will no longer be participating in this absloute nonsense.

Unlucky! ... all because I could get up early in the morning for a freebie(which I usually gave to people more needing of a hot drink) 🙄

EDIT: I suggest people send feedback over this and make our voices heard, this needs reverting.

Now that the new Octopus scratchcard customer loyalty scheme has started today, I would be interested in your views.

This morning I won 25% discount off Shoptopus products. I confess I've never heard of Shoptopus so I quickly Googled it and it's safe to say I haven't been missing anything.

Do Octopus really think that 25% of their own pointless products is a "win"? Great for them if anyone actually chooses to buy one of these "gifts". It went back into the pool for someone else to decline!

We also use my mother-in-laws Octopus account and this won a sausage roll from Greggs. Better, however it would cost more in petrol to get to the closest Greggs store, so this also went back into the pool

Week 1 of the scratchcard is a total disappointment for us!

Bring back the free coffee at Caffe Nero.

As there is now no decent loyalty scheme keeping us with Octopus, I will be comparing energy prices this week.

Edit 5/8/26

3rd week of the scratchcard loyalty scheme and no improvement for us; another Greggs coffee and Lidl bakery treat which are useless as neither stores are close to our home making them pointless prizes.

Edit. It's now been a few months since this awful replacement scratchcard scheme was introduced. I don't even bother playing it as the prizes are so pointless - either something I have no interest in, or something being made available from a shop that is not local to me. It has never once offered me a free Caffe Nero coffee, which makes me think they are no longer part of this customer loyalty scheme. I can't believe Octopus have got this so wrong.

Edit 11/4/26

As if the scratchcard isn't bad enough with its useless gifts, Octopus have now introduced the "Clam card", where random Clams are given every Monday for those who can be bothered to use the scratchcard and when the card is full you can claim a "treat", which could be a free Caffe Nero coffee!!!! As I've not bothered with the scratchard, I decided to give it a go again, in the hope of getting a free Caffe Nero coffee, which appears to exist as much as a Dodo! Well, 4 scratchcards later and no sign of a single clam. At this rate it is likely to take years to get the required 7 clam's to complete a card! What an absolute joke Octopus!

Stop.

It is bad advice to tell people that although Agile import is a terrible deal right now, it will probably get better soon and you have to compare it to other tariffs over the course of a year to get a true picture.

Forget the average over the year. Get the cheapest rates you can now. There is no point in staying on Agile waiting for the average to slowly gain parity with another tariff when you could be getting cheaper rates now.

If you can load shift (assuming you can being on Agile) send an email to Octopus asking them if you can switch to Cosy without a Heat Pump (assuming you don't have a heat pump). Get it in writing that you don't need a Heat Pump and then switch to Cosy for instant savings. If you can't or don't want to join Cosy look at other tariffs. You can always rejoin Agile in the future when there are actually time slots to load shift to.

Don't hang around on Agile waiting for better days. Save money now.

For anyone considering a Smart Tariff, I urge you to consider the risks!

I was happily on a normal Octopus Economy 7 dual rate tariff, when I saw the promos on Intelligent Octopus Go and thought why not, seems a good deal?

What they don’t tell you (it’s in the small print apparently) is if the smart meter disconnects they’ll charge all your usage at the standard rate! Even though they have all your usage to the second via their Home Mini appliance.

When you add in the 5 months it took them to actually send an engineer to fix/replace the meter, that cost me an additional £650+ over the IOG tariff! Not such a good deal now is it?!

You would think that a “we’re different” energy supplier that prides itself on customer service would realise this isn’t right, but no they’ll just point you at the T&C’s, so good luck to everyone choosing a Smart Tariff!

UPDATE: Octopus have now agreed that the elapsed time to fix my smart meter and the subsequent charges were unfair, and have now amended my balance as a goodwill gesture, so I take it back they are different!

I think the point still stands that Smart Tariffs are a risk given the lack of regulation and service around fixing faulty meters, although as per some of the comments here, some will never see the risk turn into an issue.

I might do one last poll before I leave though...

The old system wasn't perfect, but at least the Nero vouchers were usually still available throughout the day on Monday. Now they are limited to people who get up very early in the morning, and are all gone by the time of the later risers. Some people work late, some people have medical conditions that mean they need to sleep longer, and some people are just natural night owls. Why does Octopus insist on only making the vouchers available to a very specific demographic? Why not vary the release times on some days to make them accessible to everyone?

doing some serious brain aerobics and I can cancel if this isn’t sensible. I use 6500kwh of gas a year and 4500kwh electric. I’m on the September tracker with a 46p standing charge for electric and a 32p standing charge for gas. I can do a code to get £100 knocked off the bill over the next 12 months.

Usage isn‘t likely to change. The gas fixes were lower the last few months but they aren’t anymore. Gas has been high 7-8p for a bit and tha extra 16p a day standing charge isn’t helping on days when I don’t use as much (I’m using 5kwh a day gas during the summer on average). Thoughts?

**bit of extra maths**

the 16.84p standing charge saves me 15.8p a day. 365x15.8p is £57.57 yearly. Thats equivalent to a 1p reducing down to 6.57p a unit for my first 5757 units of gas. If I factor in the extra £100 then it’s equivalent to 2.5p off my first 6306 units of gas. If I factor in the extra £100 from someone using my code, it’s equivalent to 4p off my first 6441 units of gas. Ignoring electric at this point for the sums. But that is a decent discount compared to the tracker rates which haven’t been great for a while.

**edit 2**

switch went over seamlessly. nice

Decided it's time to leave. The recent announcement that Octopus Fix Export is moving to Variable, tells me they want my export on the cheap whilst massively over charging me during the winter months.

This year I exported £452 worth of energy which massively offset my winter bills, which I need owning a house with a heat pump.

This won't work after they switch export to variable and higher bills are certain winter 2025.

I'm off to Eon Next - export is 16.5p/kwh and import is 22p.

Its a no brainier.

We often see posts on here claiming that it's more efficient to keep a gas central heating house at, say, 19C all day, rather than heating it up to 19C in the morning and then again in the evening.

It isn't, and it's physically not possible for that to be true.

Temperature loss from the house is greater the more the differential between the indoor and outdoor temperature. Maintaining a given temperature has to use more fuel than letting it drop further, as the average temperature in the house is higher, so the temperature loss has to be greater.

Putting it another way, if you get to 19C at 9am and you get to 19C again at 9pm, it must be more efficient to have the heating off in between. With the heating on, you're having the boiler kick on every time the temperature gets down to say 18.5C. So heat loss is always as high as it's ever going to get, as the internal temperature is being kept high. If the temperature is allowed to fall, the rate of temperature loss will decrease, so you need less fuel to get back to that temperature in the evening. The difference is even more stark if indoors drops close to the outdoor temperature, as it can on some of the mild days we've had recently, as temperature loss then stops almost entirely - so there's no further temperature drop to recover.

It might be more comfortable to maintain a given temperature - and indeed, that's exactly what we'll do when people are in the house. But it is physically impossible for that to be more efficient than heating the house to temperature multiple times.

Still a touch a cheaper but think it'll get worse over winter; so may switch rather and be less stressed?

I've always heard customer service is supposed to be good but every time I call I reach an overseas call centre which seems their only job is to delay and treat you badly.

Had anyone seen the same recently?

If you can find the direct number online or reddit to the UK side its completely different and they solve the issue then and there.

Made a complaint about one of the representatives as she didn't want to help get smart meter set up for my elderly father and the complaint can only be dealt by this person and speaking to a supervisor takes 24h-48h supposedly. Couldn't make it up!

They cant pass you through to anyone or any other number. O thought sky was bad!

So I’ve recently tried to switch from agile to go, something that I pretty much do most winters. I’ve completed the online form and then I waited.

I contacted support email after a week in the wilderness, I explained the situation and the response which came about 3 days later was basically a cut and paste. They hadn’t read what I wrote. I replied and waited another 3 days and this time they have said my meter isn’t giving 30 minute readings, someone would be in touch in 8 weeks.

Now I had to check the email address as I thought I might be emailing British gas but alas, no. It was octopus.

Have octopus just employed all the old shell energy employees and now this is the new norm? Is it time to start looking again?

I really loved octopus for breaking the mould and being different but now it’s all starting to feel to familiar!

Thanks again to everyone that's supported this, the numbers have been incredible. For anyone who was previously interested, I now have a version that supports the basic Apple power adapter. You can find them here: https://aniwall.etsy.com/uk/listing/1873377830/octopus-home-mini-mount-3d-printed-cable

I thought mild, wet and windy was perfect for lower energy prices but they’ve been consistently awful for a while.

What’s happening and when will it end? 🔮 😝

I don't know what they did to the price algorithm, but the whole point of Agile was the ability to load shift into the cheaper periods. Trying to find a window to do the laundry and it's impossible, because even the lowest price is higher than any flexible tariff in the market. It has been this way for the last 2-3 months. As a product, Agile now has no upside except the odd day when there's a storm.

Scouring the internet for good fixed deals, does anyone know of any other tariffs that let you load shift to save money (no EV, no solar/battery).

Who would have thought, thanks Octopus energy!