Some Octopus Energy customers will be facing higher bills from May 1 after they were given just a fortnight's notice. The Octopus Go and Octopus Go smart energy tariffs will see increased rates from this Friday, including standing charges rising by an average of 52p monthly.
MoneySavingExpert (MSE) revealed that customers were informed of the increase on April 20.
Octopus Energy's chief executive, Greg Jackson, posted on X: "Whilst rises are painful and we work very hard to avoid them (you can look back and see very few over the years on these tariffs) - these tariffs are still very cheap - typical users on this tariff will have a blended rate of around 18.3p/kWh - around 20% below the price cap, and the more they charge their car the bigger the saving."
In response, one customer wrote: "@OctopusEnergy so 'due to global volatility' my prices are going up which I understand......what I don't is why does my daily standing charge also increase #moneymakingscheme".
Another added: "I've been following the news quite closely since the start of this war in Iran and it's a war where strangling energy supplies is the key. I've stopped watching now as it was making me worry too much BUT for Octopus to increase the cost from 1st May it's an indication to fix 100%! The 1st July and the one on bang on about the 1st October are the worries. BUT you can fix and it's only slightly more than the fixed I originally went for 1st October last year. Yes, the government reduction where they removed some of the costs has been eaten up, but thank goodness they did that."
Greg Jackson further stated: "You don't need to buy a charger from us. The points about timing are well taken. In terms of 'reviewed every three months' – although the price was changed less than three months ago – that was simply passing through the Government cut, in full. We haven't changed the price ourselves for four months (Octopus Go) and longer (for Intelligent Octopus Go) – and in terms of notice period, Ofgem removed the 30 days (we assume because it sometimes caused people to leave good value tariffs). We aim for about two weeks – slightly less this time, as we didn't want to email over the weekend when there'd be less support available. And perspective is important – an EV on these tariffs is about five to eight times cheaper per mile than a petrol car, despite the fact the UK has such high electricity prices."
A spokesperson for Octopus Energy said: "We're delighted that hundreds of thousands of Intelligent Octopus Go customers remain on Britain's cheapest standalone EV tariff, with many Octopus Go customers also charging up at 20% below the price cap. Before the war in the Middle East, customers on these tariffs saved over £860 a year on charging compared to filling a car with petrol; now it's over £1,000 cheaper – one of the many tariffs that Octopus is delighted to be providing to help drive down the cost of energy, even in the current volatile period."
