Are we all now asking our electricity providers to reduce our monthly payments?

[Deleted User]

ProDave said:

Yes you can change it on the Octopus website without explaining why, but I thought it courteous to send an email explaining why I wanted it reduced, rather than them risk rejecting it or changing it to something else they thought "better"

The default rate they suggest if I go to the change my payment option is £20 more than I presently pay and what I already pay is above my actual usage, so i sense they are trying to trick customers into building up a substantial credit.

Are we talking about the company that now states on its messaging that it is very busy so only call if it is urgent, or send emails when response times are short? 

Having been an Octopus customer for over 4 years, the one thing that I would say is that they are not out to trick anybody. When they mess up - which they do from time-to-time - they will always default in the customer’s favour.

That said, why would a supplier build a DD adjustment tool into its App if it wanted customers to call them before using it?  Kraken will just query the change if it is not happy.

Sea_Shell

Basically, what I was asking is will electricity suppliers be happy to allow you to reduce your DD by, say, £66 per month for 6 months over winter, to then enable you to increase your DD to your gas supplier by the same amount?

Ultrasonic

I'm on a fix that will hopefully* run to May 2024 so yes I will be looking to reduce my DD payments.

*The Scottish Power terms given them an option to end it sooner so I can't be certain.

ProDave

My reason for not wanting to build up an unecessary large balance is in case the supplier fails.  There have been plenty of cases here of people struggling to get a balance transferred when their supplier folds.  I would rather run my account with just enough credit, not £400 too much credit.

I am electric only no gas here so electric (heat pump) heating.

MovingForwards

I'll just keep paying my bill each month, the bit left to pay after the grant contribution.

[Deleted User]

ProDave said:

My reason for not wanting to build up an unecessary large balance is in case the supplier fails.  There have been plenty of cases here of people struggling to get a balance transferred when their supplier folds.  I would rather run my account with just enough credit, not £400 too much credit.

I am electric only no gas here so electric (heat pump) heating.

That's exactly what I do. I make sure that there is sufficient credit in the account to cover - in full - the present month's bill and I play tunes with my DD monthly payment. If I get it wrong, and we get a very cold spell, then I make a one off payment. The money goes back and forth between a Chase Bank current account; savings account (1.5%) and Octopus. All the supplier really wants is confidence that there is enough in the account to pay for the energy consumed as its pays its wholesaler in advance of supply. This is why most new contracts start with a payment in advance of supply

Ultrasonic

I could technically be better off by increasing my DD to get more Santander 123 account cashback but I don't feel comfortable with ending up hundreds/thousands of pounds in credit and then potentially struggling to get it back easily.

[Deleted User]

Variable DD for me takes care of some of the issues being raised.  Am happy that I won't have the issue that some might have if they want to reduce the amount being requested/demanded before all the grant payments kick in.

Ultrasonic

Ultrasonic said:

I could technically be better off by increasing my DD to get more Santander 123 account cashback but I don't feel comfortable with ending up hundreds/thousands of pounds in credit and then potentially struggling to get it back easily.

^Reflecting on this, increasing savings interest rates now means this logic no longer holds actually. I've got money in a 6 month fix earning 2% interest (the cashback rate) and I think most would be fairly confident interest rates will continue to rise from here.

I've just reduced my DD amount to the minimum the Scottish Power website would let me, which is what they currently estimate would mean I'd be underpaying by £100 at the end of a year.

I've only been with SP since March and it was interesting to see that when I went to the section to reduce my payment amount they were actually recommending I did anyway (from £100 to £79) based on the usage data they'd got so far.  It looks like this reflects that my first payment was much higher than needed (over £300) and so it will be interesting to see if future government payments get automatically factored in.

Note that I am on a fixed tariff so there is no issue with factoring in price cap related increases.

t0rt0ise

It's people having huge credits with bust companies that is one of the reasons we are all paying higher bills now as they have to be repaid. Supply companies are not savings banks. This idea of using them as such is ridiculous and ultimately expensive for the rest of us. Open a savings account and put the extra there where it belongs.