Octopus direct debit

cherryade44

Hello, I am asking about my direct debit with Octopus. I was with Avro before being moved to Octopus. Silly as this sounds but with all the news about the huge price increases I expected my DD to increase massively yet it it still the same as when I first was moved to Octopus last year, my latest bill had me  £180 in arrears so I made a one off payment. I read somewhere they have to give you 10 days notice of an increase yet I've heard nothing.. Can anyone advise , thank you very much

TheMilkmansDad

Are you on a fixed or varied tariff? if a Fixed, then would not expect your DD to increase, although the fact you we're in arrears makes me think that maybe you should increase it yourself online.

youravinalarrrf

The responsibility to increase your Direct Debit is yours. Octopus will only review your account maybe once or twice a year at most.

As far as your direct debit amount is concerned log on to your online account and click on the "Change my payments" link then click on the "Edit payment amount" link and you will see what the current Octopus recommended payment amount is. You don't have to make any change if you don't want to but it does give you an idea of what your payment amount needs to be close to.

These FAQ's may help https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/categories/bills-and-payments

cherryade44

TheMilkmansDad said:

Are you on a fixed or varied tariff? if a Fixed, then would not expect your DD to increase, although the fact you we're in arrears makes me think that maybe you should increase it yourself online.

I was moved from Avro when they went bust, so I will be on a variable tariff. I will increase my payments, thank you

youravinalarrrf said:

The responsibility to increase your Direct Debit is yours. Octopus will only review your account maybe once or twice a year at most.

As far as your direct debit amount is concerned log on to your online account and click on the "Change my payments" link then click on the "Edit payment amount" link and you will see what the current Octopus recommended payment amount is. You don't have to make any change if you don't want to but it does give you an idea of what your payment amount needs to be close to.

These FAQ's may help https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/categories/bills-and-payments

I did not realise that. I have logged on and chosen edit payment but it does not recommend a specific amount. Would you say an increase of 50% is about right ? Thank you

edit I did email them a week ago and have heard nothing, which i think is poor considering the seriousness situation  some people find themselves in, it stands to reason if the prices have gone up then so should the DD automatically

youravinalarrrf

I cannot begin to guess at what you need to increase your Direct Debit amount to as I do not have access to your usage information/history which Octopus have.

That Edit payment amount link on your account should look something like the following and the Octopus recommended amount is shown at the bottom.

Direct Debit payment amount

Submit this form to request a change to your monthly Direct Debit payment amount.

Your monthly payments are £175.00 on the 25th of each month

Our recommended amount

Based on your usage we recommend a monthly payment of £175.00.

teeny39

Exact same thing happened to me. I was with Avro as well, and my DD did not increase. Got a reply from Octopus saying what was stated earlier, that is up to you to increase your DD. I didn't have a recommended payment amount on the app either, but in the" bills "section of the app, you are given an estimate of your annual usage, just check your latest bill. I found this to be way more than expected (from £74 up to £186). So, I have paid off what I was owing them (£117), let them take another payment of £74 next month and see what the shortfall is. Then if I am, say, £50 in debt, I shall increase my DD to £124, or thereabouts and hope this will be enough.

pochase

teeny39 said:

Exact same thing happened to me. I was with Avro as well, and my DD did not increase. Got a reply from Octopus saying what was stated earlier, that is up to you to increase your DD. I didn't have a recommended payment amount on the app either, but in the" bills "section of the app, you are given an estimate of your annual usage, just check your latest bill. I found this to be way more than expected (from £74 up to £186). So, I have paid off what I was owing them (£117), let them take another payment of £74 next month and see what the shortfall is. Then if I am, say, £50 in debt, I shall increase my DD to £124, or thereabouts and hope this will be enough.

Your logic is a bit flawed here. Sense of the fixed direct debit is to build up credit during summer to cater for higher bills in winter.

If you do it like described, add the debt for next months to your DD you will be up for some bad surprise next spring after the expensive months.

MWT

cherryade44 said:

edit I did email them a week ago and have heard nothing, which i think is poor considering the seriousness situation  some people find themselves in, it stands to reason if the prices have gone up then so should the DD automatically

Right now it seems that whatever the energy supplier does will be wrong

Half the people posting here are complaining that their supplier has put their DD up and when Octopus leave it for you to manage as you see fit that is wrong too...

You can if you wish continue exactly as you were with a lower DD and make make top-up payments each month, and as long as you don't leave your balance negative Octopus will be happy for you to continue like that.

... or as you can increase your DD and review as you go along making an additional payment if necessary or even reducing the DD if you feel you are building up too much credit. 

pochase

... or you can go onto a variable DD and pay each months what you use, more or less what you are doing now, just an automated process. Disadvantage is that you will bot build up a credit, so it can be expensiv ein winter.

MalMonroe

youravinalarrrf said:

The responsibility to increase your Direct Debit is yours. Octopus will only review your account maybe once or twice a year at most.

As far as your direct debit amount is concerned log on to your online account and click on the "Change my payments" link then click on the "Edit payment amount" link and you will see what the current Octopus recommended payment amount is. You don't have to make any change if you don't want to but it does give you an idea of what your payment amount needs to be close to.

These FAQ's may help https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/categories/bills-and-payments

I'm with Octopus, pay by monthly DD and they didn't leave it up to me and they certainly do not review my account only once or twice a year.

It seemed to me that they were sending me emails every two weeks and I asked them to stop as I keep a regular and vigilant watch on my energy account myself. They are happy for me to do so. 

BUT the best thing is when you actually communicate with them, you can do so via email and they get back to you fairly quickly. They told me I'd have to pay a lump sum of £200 and see about clearing the balance of my account (which had only just happened as I sent them a meter reading). I wrote back and said I'm not paying a lump sum but I will clear the account. Perfectly acceptable. 

And it's not as if I've ever been in debt with them, either. At the moment, for example, I'm in credit but am leaving the money there because it may be needed when my next bill comes in.

You can send them meter readings at any time and they will then adjust your bills and send one out. They do not stick to the once a month or any strict time limits. The only thing they want is your monthly direct debit. And they DO keep an eye on it and monitor it. Unless I'm some anomaly. In which case, I'm very cross!

MalMonroe

MWT said:

cherryade44 said:

edit I did email them a week ago and have heard nothing, which i think is poor considering the seriousness situation  some people find themselves in, it stands to reason if the prices have gone up then so should the DD automatically

Right now it seems that whatever the energy supplier does will be wrong

Half the people posting here are complaining that their supplier has put their DD up and when Octopus leave it for you to manage as you see fit that is wrong too...

You can if you wish continue exactly as you were with a lower DD and make make top-up payments each month, and as long as you don't leave your balance negative Octopus will be happy for you to continue like that.

... or as you can increase your DD and review as you go along making an additional payment if necessary or even reducing the DD if you feel you are building up too much credit. 

Yep, I agree. I'm with Octopus and it doesn't take long to just have a look at my balance and adjust as and when necessary. If I didn't do that, they'd be on the ball at contacting me and letting me know what's what. They always ask if you are having trouble paying bills. I'm not but it's good to know that you can enter into some kind of agreement with them. I don't ever want to though as it will be reflected on credit reports.

Energy suppliers, as far as I can tell, are also having a tough time right now. Many of them get things wrong as we know but so far I'm fairly happy with Octopus. They are very flexible and also, if I do want to leave, there are no exit fees.