Octopus projected usage

Kirstin75

I am completely baffled by my Octopus bills and I hope someone can help me out. I'm nearing the end of my Fixed term and my new offer from them is £112 per month, my current direct debit is £71 per month. I have a debit balance of £184, which implies to me that I've massively gone over my projected energy usage that Octopus projected.

I'm trying to understand how they came to this figure of £71. My Personal Projecton on my bill is
£862 for electricity and £449 for gas, if this was used then my direct debit should have been about £109. Is my understanding correct and Octopus didn't give the correct direct debit figure or am I not understanding something?

Also, on my quote for the next year, my Personal Projection for gas (14,121kWh) and electricity (5,941kWh) seems quite a bit higher than what my actual usage for gas (10,414kWh) and electricity (5,106kWh) has been. Is this normal? I understand that the personal projection takes into account the standing charges but it still seems like a much higher personal projection.

I know this is a very detailed query and I'm grateful if anyone's able to sift through it and help me understand. Octopus seems like a really good, ethical company from what I've read online so I'm hoping this is a lack of understanding on my part rather than any poor issues from Octopus's side.

System

Hi - welcome to the forum. The most important question is 'have you been providing Octopus with monthly actual meter readings'? if not, then a situation can occur where repeated estimates lead to exaggerated annual projections.

The estimated direct debit going forward will be based on (a) the projected annual consumption going forward and (b) an annual cost based on 'x' months on present tariff plus 12 - x months on the standard variable tariff.

My advice is that you should ignore what Octopus is telling you. Carry out a FULL market comparison based on annual usage that you have calculated from two statements about a year apart. It is important that ACTUAL meter readings are used not estimates.

The good news is that irrespective of what level your DD is set at you will only pay for the consumed amount of energy at the agreed tariff rate. Credit/Debit balances are meaningless unless they are based on an actual meter reading and then only on the date that the meter reading was provided.

Kirstin75

Thank you Hengus