Octopus hikes estimated annual usage way above actual usage

Spies

I moved to Octopus when my provider went SoLR, my billing is that my account goes negative and they take the exact amount to bring it back to zero each month, I'm on a smart meter. 

Is that not an option for you? 

rhedyn

Spies said:

I moved to Octopus when my provider went SoLR, my billing is that my account goes negative and they take the exact amount to bring it back to zero each month, I'm on a smart meter. 

Is that not an option for you? 

I'd be happy with that too.  It doesn't seem to be something I can choose from their website.  We'll see what they say when they respond.

Sapindus

Bristol Energy did a similar thing to this to me just before they went bust.  Upped the direct debit and the adviser on the phone trotted out the line about "we recommend you keep your account in credit" well sorry but no.  Especially not keep it in credit during the winter months!  I can understand maybe having it in credit during the summer and balancing it at zero around the half way point between that and winter.  But if it's in credit in winter, imagine how much of my cash they're going to be sitting on during summer!   It's like paying them a deposit for the privilege of being their customer and I told her so and negotiated/insisted on a new direct debit.  Of course, I thought, it's very obvious why a struggling company would hike everyone's payments and hope that at least some customers are too lazy, confused or scared to do anything about it.  But I didn't like to tell the woman on the phone that as she was presumably about to lose her job.

British Gas who I've been moved to sent me a first bill on a "pay by cheque" basis and I set up a direct debit for about 50% more than what I'd worked out was about right with Bristol Gas.  So far that seems to have satisfied them.

Instead of cancelling one's direct debit as some have suggested, would it not be possible to reduce the amount at the bank's end via online banking?

oap71

I've been having a similar problem with Octopus setting our estimate on previous defunct supplier Avro. Then Octopus suggested a variable DD , which I've accepted, DD is for actual use not estimate.
DD if bill is £50 then pay £50, if £100 then DD is for £100.

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

Deleted_User said:

So my Gas Bill for February/March 2022 says 10.0 Units M3/Gas Energy used 113.3 kWh.

That's fine.  You'd only have to worry if the formula included a multiplier of 2.83 in it.  The volume is always converted to cubic metres before being turned into kWh.

It's easy to work it out from first principles:-

1 cubic yard (3 x 3 x 3 feet) is 27 cubic feet.

A metre is a bit bigger than a yard, so 1 cubic metre = 35.31 cubic feet.

Scaling up, 2.83 cubic metres = 100 cubic feet.

However, a reading of 1 on an imperial meter actually represents 100 cubic feet (shorthand to keep the numbers manageable) so 1 imperial unit = 100 cubic feet = 2.83 cubic metres.

 QED

That is a really helpful explanation, thank you Gerry1. It is much appreciated and I'm going to keep a note of it.

Crimson

rhedyn

Sapindus said:

Bristol Energy did a similar thing to this to me just before they went bust.  Upped the direct debit and the adviser on the phone trotted out the line about "we recommend you keep your account in credit" well sorry but no.  Especially not keep it in credit during the winter months!  I can understand maybe having it in credit during the summer and balancing it at zero around the half way point between that and winter.  But if it's in credit in winter, imagine how much of my cash they're going to be sitting on during summer!   It's like paying them a deposit for the privilege of being their customer and I told her so and negotiated/insisted on a new direct debit.

Exactly! 

I'm happy enough to not be on direct debit and pay manually each month, especially for bills like this that are a variable amount, that way it keeps me paying attention and I don't have to keep a big buffer in my checking account.  I could just go cut off the DD at my bank but I'm a little paranoid about doing so without any communication with Octopus first, so I'm holding off hoping to hear back from them reasonably soon.  If I don't, then twitter is the next step.

Chrysalis

I have seen a crap ton of reports of Octopus updating direct debits to way above annual usage for previous year.  They seem to be deliberately trying to raise cashflow by having as many people as possible with credit balances.

If you catch them doing, I would consider switching to variable direct debit which is paid in arrears not up front.

(To clarify above as I know some will think I am been confused, I mean they are increasing the direct debits much more than the actual cost rise, so e.g. if previously using 1000 units year, and billed at 10p unit, then increase to 20p unit (plus extra standing fees), instead of just increasing based on tariff they also act as if you using double electric.  An example is one guy who had £85 month increased to £415 month, and that account is in credit with actual not estimated readings).

NINJA59

Surely just more of a reason why energy providers should have client accounts and funds held separately to save such nonsense.

MWT

Chrysalis said:

I have seen a crap ton of reports of Octopus updating direct debits to way above annual usage for previous year.  They seem to be deliberately trying to raise cashflow by having as many people as possible with credit balances.

Out of curiosity, where are you seeing this huge number of reports of over estimates?

I'm not seeing them on here, or on their own forum?

[Deleted User]

Chrysalis said:

I have seen a crap ton of reports of Octopus updating direct debits to way above annual usage for previous year.  They seem to be deliberately trying to raise cashflow by having as many people as possible with credit balances.

If you catch them doing, I would consider switching to variable direct debit which is paid in arrears not up front.

(To clarify above as I know some will think I am been confused, I mean they are increasing the direct debits much more than the actual cost rise, so e.g. if previously using 1000 units year, and billed at 10p unit, then increase to 20p unit (plus extra standing fees), instead of just increasing based on tariff they also act as if you using double electric.  An example is one guy who had £85 month increased to £415 month, and that account is in credit with actual not estimated readings).

Complete rubbish. Octopus, based on my 4 years as a customer, goes out of its way to ensure that when things go wrong the customer is not disadvantaged. For example, when my smart meter stopped recording usage for 3 months after a firmware update, I wasn’t charged for any gas used during the period of the failure. Octopus has no reason to inflate consumer direct debits as it is probably one of best funded new suppliers in the sector. Indeed, it now makes more money from the sale and lease of its billing platform than it does from domestic energy sales. FWiW, because I built up 3 month’s worth of credit for the stopped meter, my DD payment was set at a £1 for 6 months. I was able to do this via the Octopus App.