Increased DD from companies

BooJewels

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

[Deleted User]

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

BooJewels

[Deleted User] said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

Because I'd prefer to pay the same amount every month - that's the point of monthly DDs.  I'll have to overpay some for 6 months of the year because for the other 6 months, I got some of it back. If I set up my DD to be £180 per month, I'll get the credit back for 6 months - so effectively paying £114 x 2 / £113 x 4.  Where, evened out, it would have been £146/month.

[Deleted User]

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

Because I'd prefer to pay the same amount every month - that's the point of monthly DDs.  I'll have to overpay some for 6 months of the year because for the other 6 months, I got some of it back. If I set up my DD to be £180 per month, I'll get the credit back for 6 months - so effectively paying £114 x 2 / £113 x 4.  Where, evened out, it would have been £146/month.

If you set it to £146/month, after 12 months your energy account would get credited in total with £1752 and £1352 would have been taken from your bank account.

If you set it to £180/month, after 12 months your energy account would get credited in total with £2160 and £1760 would have been taken from your bank account.

Either you think you will use £1752 worth - in which case the first option is correct, or you think you will use £2160 worth - in which case the second option is.

The months without the government money aren't overpaying.

You appear to be trying to make the same amount of money come out of your bank account every month, where the actual thing that should matter is how much goes into your energy account.

BooJewels

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

Because I'd prefer to pay the same amount every month - that's the point of monthly DDs.  I'll have to overpay some for 6 months of the year because for the other 6 months, I got some of it back. If I set up my DD to be £180 per month, I'll get the credit back for 6 months - so effectively paying £114 x 2 / £113 x 4.  Where, evened out, it would have been £146/month.

If you set it to £146/month, after 12 months your energy account would get credited in total with £1752 and £1352 would have been taken from your bank account.

If you set it to £180/month, after 12 months your energy account would get credited in total with £2160 and £1760 would have been taken from your bank account.

Either you think you will use £1752 worth - in which case the first option is correct, or you think you will use £2160 worth - in which case the second option is.

The months without the government money aren't overpaying.

You appear to be trying to make the same amount of money come out of your bank account every month, where the actual thing that should matter is how much goes into your energy account.

I want both - the same amount of money to come out of my account each month and for the right amount to be credited to my electricity account each month - i.e. my annual electricity usage divided by 12. 

[Deleted User]

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

Because I'd prefer to pay the same amount every month - that's the point of monthly DDs.  I'll have to overpay some for 6 months of the year because for the other 6 months, I got some of it back. If I set up my DD to be £180 per month, I'll get the credit back for 6 months - so effectively paying £114 x 2 / £113 x 4.  Where, evened out, it would have been £146/month.

If you set it to £146/month, after 12 months your energy account would get credited in total with £1752 and £1352 would have been taken from your bank account.

If you set it to £180/month, after 12 months your energy account would get credited in total with £2160 and £1760 would have been taken from your bank account.

Either you think you will use £1752 worth - in which case the first option is correct, or you think you will use £2160 worth - in which case the second option is.

The months without the government money aren't overpaying.

You appear to be trying to make the same amount of money come out of your bank account every month, where the actual thing that should matter is how much goes into your energy account.

I want both - the same amount of money to come out of my account each month and for the right amount to be credited to my electricity account each month - i.e. my annual electricity usage divided by 12. 

So you want the six month support spread over twelve months - and then you are surprised that it doesn't work that way?

That's a losing battle you're trying to fight there.

There are six months of support here, and you're doing a twelve month calculation, so there are only two possible options:

1.  The amount (effectively) taken from your bank varies but the amount credited to your energy account stays the same.  This is the option the government and suppliers have chosen.

2.  The amount taken from your bank stays the same but the amount credited to your energy account varies.  This is what you thought it said based on your first post.

Neither of these are what you now say you want.

Ultrasonic

BooJewels said:

[Deleted User] said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

Because I'd prefer to pay the same amount every month - that's the point of monthly DDs.  I'll have to overpay some for 6 months of the year because for the other 6 months, I got some of it back. If I set up my DD to be £180 per month, I'll get the credit back for 6 months - so effectively paying £114 x 2 / £113 x 4.  Where, evened out, it would have been £146/month.

I totally understand your point, and the logic of giving extra support specifically over winter does rather fall apart once uniform DD amounts across the year are factored in.

In practice what you could do is put £33 per month into a saving account over the winter and then use this to help fund payments over the summer. 

BooJewels

@[Deleted User]  You're putting words in my mouth without foundation - I didn't say I wanted the support spread over 12 months.  I'm on a fixed and tight budget - I personally would prefer if it worked differently - if I'm confused by the method of delivery chosen, you can be sure next month I won't be alone.

I would just prefer that my personal payment was the same every month, I will need to work something out that works for me.

BooJewels

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

Deleted_User said:

BooJewels said:

molerat said:

The company will not be "receiving" £400, they will be reducing your DD by £66/£67 per month for the 6 months or returning that amount into your bank account. You should not factor in the £400, doing so will possibly put your account into debit.

Can you reference somewhere where this method is outlined please, because that's not what I'm reading anywhere other than by posters on here.  The Government web site states:  "The discount will be applied to your monthly household electricity bill for 6 months starting in October 2022."  I'm reading the same elsewhere too - a credit to your account, nothing about reducing DD amounts.

That sounds to me - and makes more sense - that a credit will be applied to your electricity account, as though you'd just paid £66 more than you have.  So if I paid £100 by DD, my electricity account would be actually be credited by £166 that month.  I'm trying to project forwards to see what I need to set my DD at to come out around the same credit balance this time next year.

Need any more?  Look on your own supplier's site and they will tell you how it works.  In fact, I don't recall any supplier doing it the way you suggest.

I wasn't personally 'suggesting' anything, but directly quoting the Government web site, with a link.  Many thanks for those references, I'm not with any of those companies so hadn't even looked at them.  I'm with Octopus and my initial search came to their blog about it, which sent me to the BBC web site to explain how it worked, which did say it would be a credit to your electricity account.

I've just searched again and found another Octopus page which does indeed state:  "Direct Debit customers will have their monthly payment reduced by the discount amount."  I can't spend too long on their site as their colour scheme can start off a migraine, so I only look in very short bursts.

What a stupid way to implement it - I'll have to overpay by £66/£67 just to keep my account straight.  I just can't figure it out at the moment.

Why will you have to overpay?  Set your DD to whatever it needs to be (not including the £400 at all in your calculations) and that is exactly what will be credited into your account.

Just because the amount that's taken from your bank account is different is irrelevant to the calculation you say you are making.

Because I'd prefer to pay the same amount every month - that's the point of monthly DDs.  I'll have to overpay some for 6 months of the year because for the other 6 months, I got some of it back. If I set up my DD to be £180 per month, I'll get the credit back for 6 months - so effectively paying £114 x 2 / £113 x 4.  Where, evened out, it would have been £146/month.

I totally understand your point, and the logic of giving extra support specifically over winter does rather fall apart once uniform DD amounts across the year are factored in.

In practice what you could do is put £33 per month into a saving account over the winter and then use this to help fund payments over the summer. 

Indeed - that's what I'll have to do - or set my DD to what I think it should be per month (my anticipated annual use - £400 / 12) and pay back the 400 as a lump sum manual payment in March.  It just feels as though crediting the electricity accounts with 400 quid, in whatever instalment arrangement suited (I equally think a single lump sum would be problematic too), then allowing the balance to be paid by DD in equal monthly amounts would have been less work for everyone and far less confusing. 

I can't help thinking actually returning money to people is going to be subject to abuse in some quarters too.  I'd much rather it didn't have a tangible cash value either - numbers on the screen of a secondary account would seem much safer for everyone.

I already have a similar problem with my gas usage, as despite giving BG my readings every month for about 5 years, they're incapable of estimating my usage properly and perpetually return any credit, then reduce my DD to preposterously low levels, telling me that I'm paying way too much.  So I have several pockets of money in a savings account, ready to pay it back to my gas account as soon as it goes in debit.  I didn't want to have to double my work doing the same with my electricity account too.

Chrysalis

Octopus are about to reduce my DD to £28 a month from October.

£28 add £67 = £95.

They probably should explain why, it doesnt say on the dash.

I assume will be a separate £67 credit to my account.