Octopus Energy

Ironside69

A few weeks ago I moved away from Green Energy over to Octopus Energy. I submitted an electricity & gas reading and they calculated I would be paying £86 a month. A couple of weeks ago I received an email telling me that I was using more power than I was paying for and the direct debit would be increased to £138. There are only two of us living in my bungalow you. Has anybody else experienced this?

Neil_Jones

Ironside69 said:

A few weeks ago I moved away from Green Energy over to Octopus Energy. I submitted an electricity & gas reading and they calculated I would be paying £86 a month. A couple of weeks ago I received an email telling me that I was using more power than I was paying for and the direct debit would be increased to £138. There are only two of us living in my bungalow you. Has anybody else experienced this?

Your direct debit is not your bill.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/

This issue is usually caused a) because you told Octopus you use less energy than you actually do (by accident or otherwise), and b) we are just going into Winter.  You will use more gas and electricity at this time of year than you would if this were the middle of June.

Robin9

Their guess at a DD is based on the information you gave to Octopus. What figures in kWh did you give them ?

The change in DD is probably due to accurate readings from the monthly readings you have been giving them - you have haven't you ?

[Deleted User]

Ironside69 said:

A few weeks ago I moved away from Green Energy over to Octopus Energy. I submitted an electricity & gas reading and they calculated I would be paying £86 a month. A couple of weeks ago I received an email telling me that I was using more power than I was paying for and the direct debit would be increased to £138. There are only two of us living in my bungalow you. Has anybody else experienced this?

This is one of the problems when a switch of supplier is made at the start of Winter. Suppliers are under pressure from Ofgem not to allow customers to build up account debt so it follows that when people use more energy in Winter then they can expect to pay more. Your DD payments should fall when Spring arrives. All that said, Octopus is probably the most customer-friendly supplier that I have encountered in recent years. You can adjust your monthly DD payment in My Account or just call customer service and discuss your concerns.

Brewer20

Yes as others have said, if they expect your DD won't cover your next monthly usage, or you haven't built up a credit on your account (new customer) they'll want to adjust the DD to compensate for future higher bills.

Ironside69

Okay, thank you, everybody.  I am going to continue to pay the £138 until around June.  I will then take a look at my account and see if I have built up credit.  If I have, then I can negotiate a more reasonable monthly bill.

MWT

Ironside69 said:

If I have, then I can negotiate a more reasonable monthly bill.

You will not need to negotiate, just adjust it yourself online in your account settings...

Robin9

Since you moved in - what has your actual consumption been ?  You can do some simple sums  to see how much you have been charged and how accurate the DD was.