Hike in DD

casbie

Octopus energy wanted to increase my DD by over £130 , not double but still a massive increase for us.  I emailed them and within 48 hours have negotiated an increase of just under £40 per month. Excellent customer service and I’ve also been offered a free heated blanket. Our household is 2 pensioners who get the Winter fuel allowance but don’t qualify for any other benefits. We are better off than many but our pension increase was determined last September and inflation is a lot higher now 

pochase

Good for you to get the free blanket.

Not to be negative, but what is the £40 you negotiated based on? Real expected usage or what you told them you can afford?

When you say the £130 would not have doubled your DD, you would at least currently pay £150. Just coming from the 54% increase, that would in the region of 75£ more, not even considering the next increase in October. That is a guestimate of course, as I don't know the split between gas and electricity, which have both very different increases and I also don't know if you have a big credit at the moment that has been taken into account.

If you post how much you used in the last 12 months we will be able to have a better look at it.

Do your own calculation, or let us do it for and try to decrease your energy use and if possible put money aside to cover a potential debt at the end of winter if the calculations show that the DD is insufficient.

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, be careful you're not just storing up problems for a later date.  All you've done is negotiated a new monthly payment, you haven't negotiated a new unit price, so you'll have to pay for what you use at some point.

molerat

I suspect the suppliers are running scared of this OFGEM investigation and will start doing anything to prove they are listening to customer concerns over increased DDs (even if it means the customer will fall into debt as they will be able to justify the massive increase later to pay down that debt).