Octopus Energy Direct Debit Doubling

tomp2494

I will have approx £55 left in credit at the end of March.
I currently pay £60 per month
I received an e-mail today saying they want to up the DD to £128 per month, a 113% increase. 
I have upped it to £92.50 to cover the 54% increase, effective from April.
Why do they want to charge me so much? 

QrizB

tomp2494 said:

Why do they want to charge me so much? 

It's impossible to say from the limited information you've given.

• Which Octopus tariff are you on?
• If it's a fixed rate, when does it end?
• What is your estimated annual consumption (EAC)? It will be given on your bills.

Astria

because they predict that over the next 12 months that is the energy that you will consumed based on past energy use?

It all depends on what tariff you were on, and what tariff you will be on. For example,if you are on a fixed rate that will expire soon, the difference may be far higher than 54%, it could easily be a 100% increase.

MWT

Which tariff are you on at the moment?

The 54% figure is just an estimate of the difference if you are already on a capped variable tariff and use around 2900kWh electric and 12000kWh gas each year, variations from that would affect the actual rise you will see, as will being on a fixed tariff due to end soon...

The good thing with Octopus is that you remain in control and can set your DD as you wish, and then make a top-up payment if you fall short..

tomp2494

I am on the Avro Tariff, so (almost) the standard variable. 

Est Elec 1392.3 kWh per yr 
Est Gas  26321 kWh per yr

MWT

tomp2494 said:

I am on the Avro Tariff, so (almost) the standard variable. 

Est Elec 1392.3 kWh per yr 
Est Gas  26321 kWh per yr

With that annual use, there is no way that £60 a month covers the bills, have you been working down a credit brought forward from Avro?

It depends which region you are in, but in the Eastern region with that consumption you should be paying £128 on the current tariff, and £214 after April... (if Octopus raise prices to the capped limit)

Take a look at your bills and see what they have been recently, a lot more than £60 a month I am guessing?

Your high gas use means the increase in April is closer to 69%, not 54% as the kWh price for gas is going up proportionately more than electricity.

tomp2494

I'm going to have to go through it all again. 
the price increase from avro to octopus was x% so I increased my dd by that %. I was paying 45 a month with avro between March and Sept 2021, and had 92 pounds credit applied to my account with octopus. 
 this is my first winter owning my own property so have no idea how much kwh I use in winter!

tomp2494

thanks for your help anyway, all!

MWT

tomp2494 said:

I'm going to have to go through it all again. 
the price increase from avro to octopus was x% so I increased my dd by that %. I was paying 45 a month with avro between March and Sept 2021, and had 92 pounds credit applied to my account with octopus. 
 this is my first winter owning my own property so have no idea how much kwh I use in winter!

Ditch using the percentages, do the calculations using the daily standing charge and the kWh rates for both gas and electric.

You can get an idea of the maximum numbers from April here:

https://octopus.energy/documents/114/Ofgem_price_cap_rates.pdf

Keep in mind that Octopus may not go all the way to the cap immediately...

If you want some help, check your last bill and give us the dates it covered and the kWh for gas/electric.

That gas estimate for annual use is very high, it might be accurate, but hopefully not, similarly your electricity estimate is very low...

tomp2494

My current use for this month according to my ihd isn't even 60 pounds and it resets on Saturday....
so something somewhere ain't quite right! 

I live in a one bedroom small flat

Ultrasonic

tomp2494 said:

My current use for this month according to my ihd isn't even 60 pounds and it resets on Saturday....
so something somewhere ain't quite right! 

I live in a one bedroom small flat

I'd double-check the figure you gave for your gas usage. My electricity usage is very similar to yours but I use about 4,000 kWh of gas per year compared to the 26,321 kWh figure you stated above.