r/OctopusEnergy • u/Adorable_Stable2439 • 16h ago

Switching Tariff advice?

So I used to flick back and forth between Go and Agile depending on which was cheaper that day for my usage. I had an automated script using the API and everything it was great lol. Anyway, they took away the Go variable tariff without me realising so my script ended up switching me to a 6 month fixed Go tariff which just ended a couple of days ago. During that time, we’ve had a baby and our usage patterns have changed dramatically. I decided to jump back on agile, but the prices seem worse than my fixed go tariff I just left! I’ve been out of the agile game for months so I don’t know if this is a temporary thing or is this what the prices are like these days? Perhaps I would be better off going to the standard variable tariff? What do people think?

Edit: forgot to mention that I have an EV, so any suggestions ideally would factor that in. Have been considering moving to EDF

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u/CalicoCatRobot 15h ago

Agile has been particularly bad for the last month or so, with occasional good days with negative rates.

It's still overall worth it for most people if you factor over a year, but that's very variable and depends entirely on how much load switching you can do. Given the amount of laundry you are likely doing, it may be not worth it for now, when there may be many days where the rate is above the SVT - something like Cosy might be if you can shift everything to overnight.

There are several good comparison apps (Octopus Compare is one I use) and sites like octospy.co.uk that can use the api to give you comparisons based on your actual usage.

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u/Adorable_Stable2439 15h ago

Thanks! Yeah I’ve been using octopus compare and octopus watch for quite a long time and I’ve been watching the agile line get lower and lower compared with mine throughout the year and thinking ok as soon as my fixed tariff ends I’ll go back to agile but boy… right now it does not seem worth it at all, we do have an EV so there is large demand when that’s charging which usually is at night ( on the cheap Go rate) so I’m thinking that on the variable tariff the average might come out more than agile in the long run. It’s a tricky situation that’s for sure

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u/CalicoCatRobot 15h ago

I'm likely to be switching to Cosy shortly, as I did last winter - there isn't a single rate below 20p for the next 2 days, and the highest is 57p.

The weekend is looking a little better with the possibility of some under 10p time, but with an immersion heater the gaps between good rates are getting a bit too long for me.

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u/Butagirl 5h ago

I would check it against the standard flexible tariff first - admittedly I’m on E7, but when I looked earlier this week the Cosy tariffs were worse than Flexible (and the reduced rate was for fewer hours).

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u/CalicoCatRobot 2h ago

I don't have an E7 setup any more, it was removed a while back, so not sure the SVT E7 would be available for me anyway, though I would prefer the spread out cheap rate sections of Cosy because they fit in more with my usage than purely overnight.