Huge debt with Octopus Energy

HeatherAL

This might be a long post, so I will start by saying that there is probably no way out of the charge. Would be grateful for opinions either way. 

I moved into my current flat in 2017 and signed up with octopus energy. I was being charged £37 PCM. A debt built up and I I have been paying £64 PCM for some years now. I have £700 debt on the account and I’m coming to move shortly so will need to clear this. I live on my own in a one bed flat and I was not here for four months last year (the payments continued) due to coronavirus and staying with parents. The charges seem ludicrous to me. I do have electric heating but it surely can’t be THAT expensive to run? 

My meter does not record on the night rate at all, and it is not clear whether everything is recording on the day rate. I have attempted to fix it in the past with octopus but when the engineer came round they could not find something they needed and could not install the smart meter. This is why I think I made my mistake, I did not remember to chase them up because I was very busy with work. I have raised the issue of high payments with them since but got nowhere further.

I guess what I am asking is, are all the charges fairly incurred and need to be paid or do I need to ask them to do an investigation into the meter? If it makes any difference, I am in a rented property.

Opinions very welcome!

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Electric heating is always expensive and DD of £37 or even £64 per month is unlikely to be sufficient to pay the bills.  You'll have to pay the final bill.  Unless you have firm evidence of the meter misbehaving, getting it checked will just land you with an unnecessary bill when it's found to be OK.

Unfortunately your post is seriously lacking in facts.  You haven't said whether you have storage heaters (that need Economy 7) or 'on demand' heating (panel heaters, convectors, oil filled radiators, fan heaters etc) which don't, you haven't given your kWh usage nor the kWh rate(s) and daily charge.  Just saying 'it's too much !' won't cut the mustard.

Sadly, it has to be said that you need to take much more control of your energy accounts at the new property, otherwise you're likely to have similar problems again.  Make sure you register with the incumbent supplier(s) and send meter reading(s) the day you take possession.

Before moving, remember that gas CH is the cheapest, storage heaters are very expensive and 'on demand' electric heating is cripplingly expensive.  Make sure you send meter readings every month and always check the bills to make sure your DD is keeping up with your actual usage.

welshmoneylover

Your DD payments were far too low for an electric flat (I’m assuming it’s all electric).
you need to find your opening reads , getting current reads today and ensure they match your bills.
dont forget to take final reads when you move out, give them to the supplier and settle the bill.

Robin9

@HeatherAL  A Smart meter by itself will not have helped you.  .  You had lost control even before they tried to install the Smart meter.

Get into the habit of keeping your own records - read the meter every month  and then you will start to see where the energy is going, keep a spreadsheet,  download those bills when then come  and see if that DD you are paying is keeping track with the cost.

HeatherAL

Thanks all - I was really struggling to work out if the debt built up was reasonable because many people I spoke to (I know anecdotes aren’t facts), including the man on the phone at Octopus, we’re surprised by my bill. 

I had ‘lost control’ as stated but I was reassured by the provider multiple times that the debt would ‘balance’ itself over summer. I also raised the mounting debt with them multiple times and no suggestion was made to increase my monthly DD. I suppose I could have suggested this myself but, as I set out, my concern was that something was fundamentally wrong with the meter. In any event, I am now moving to somewhere with gas CH (a key criterion when I looked for a place!).

I think another part of the issue is that I have an economy 7 meter but my actual heating is on demand (wall-mounted electric panel) as the underfloor hearing is non-functional. I am paying 15.25 per KWh with a day rate of 19.66p

As I said in my original post, I know I am likely to just have to pay but I was wondering if anyone had had the experience of an economy 7 with only one moving dial and if the bills were high.

Robin9

Have another chat with Octopus and see if they can merge the two readings to use on a single tariff.  

Energyinsider

Octopus are required to manage your account and ensure a debt is not built up, even if that requires them sending someone to read your meter so they can bill accurately.

So sounds like you have a case for raising a complaint and going to the ombudsman if necessary. Generally compensation offered won’t be above £50 though

MWT

HeatherAL said:

As I said in my original post, I know I am likely to just have to pay but I was wondering if anyone had had the experience of an economy 7 with only one moving dial and if the bills were high.

Can you post a photo of the meter and the surrounding equipment please?

I have had a similar problem in the past which was caused by the failure of the clock which was used to change between day/night rate so the rate didn't switch and all accumulated on the one register.

HeatherAL

MWT said:

HeatherAL said:

As I said in my original post, I know I am likely to just have to pay but I was wondering if anyone had had the experience of an economy 7 with only one moving dial and if the bills were high.

Can you post a photo of the meter and the surrounding equipment please?

I have had a similar problem in the past which was caused by the failure of the clock which was used to change between day/night rate so the rate didn't switch and all accumulated on the one register.

Not sure if this is too close up? 

Also, thank you for the help!

Gerry1

The little arrow (on the left, between the registers) shows that Normal rate is selected when you took the photo.  Take photos at hourly intervals and you should see it change to Low overnight.  If it never changes, report it as a fault and get all your bills recalculated.

MWT

HeatherAL said:

Not sure if this is too close up? 

Also, thank you for the help!

Just a bit too close

Follow the wires that go into the meter, there will be some sort of switching device attached.

... but if it isn't obvious then as Gerry suggests, just keep checking the little arrow to see if it has moved to point to the 'low' rate.