Octopus have adjusted my direct debit

chels

MWT said:

They are happy for you to adjust it as you see fit after their reduction for the £66/67.

We should all keep an eye on the balance as we move forward as unless you are on a fix that is already below the new cap, there are going to be other changes hitting the account from 1st Oct.

Yeah I'm planning to monitor my balance regularly to check I'm on track.  

The amount of £150.00 I'd set previously I knew wouldn't be enough if the price guarantee hadn't come into force but my preference was to pay a more 'reasonable' monthly payment and top up as an when required.  So I will continue to monitor as I'd planned but should now be at a payment level which doesn't require any/much topping up.

MWT

wild666 said:

What concerns me is that others who have their payments reduced might suddenly find that come April 2023 when the £67 rebates end people who have spent the money on other things find that they still spend on the other things and get into difficulty with their energy accounts which will suddenly increase by £67 per month. 

There is only so much that can be done to protect people from themselves...

[Deleted User]

wild666 said:

I just checked my payment and it also says I have a payment holiday like a few others on this thread. Personally I'd rather keep paying the £55 DD, maybe I might make an additional payment every month, it might not be £55 but it would be something like say £30. 
What concerns me is that others who have their payments reduced might suddenly find that come April 2023 when the £67 rebates end people who have spent the money on other things find that they still spend on the other things and get into difficulty with their energy accounts which will suddenly increase by £67 per month. 

The same argument could be made for any temporary scheme or any scheme where a threshold changes.

As someone else said recently here, I'm waiting for all the posts in April that will say "why has my supplier put my DD up by £67 at the start of summer?" (probably followed by "are they trying to steal my money for free profit?")

bristolleedsfan

Was put on a payment holiday, I wanted DD to continue for monthly bank rewards.

I was able to change DD amount. payment date would not change from 1st despite saving change 2 days running.

Puzzling how being put on a payment holiday meant could edit in and save a monthly DD amount, not change date....

"looks like this is due to the payment holiday, We’ll cancel that payment holiday for you so the payments can continue to come out on the 17th"

oliverbrown

This could be a breach of the direct debit guarantee, as there are less than 10 working days before the 1st of October which is when my revised direct debit amount goes out. I note the word "normally", although 10 working days is the commonly accepted advance notification period.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-explained/direct-debit-guarantee/

If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit the organisation will notify you (normally 10 working days) in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request the organisation to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request

[Deleted User]

oliverbrown said:

This could be a breach of the direct debit guarantee, as there are less than 10 working days before the 1st of October which is when my revised direct debit amount goes out. I note the word "normally", although 10 working days is the commonly accepted advance notification period.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-explained/direct-debit-guarantee/

If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit the organisation will notify you (normally 10 working days) in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request the organisation to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request

This will not be a breach of the direct debit guarantee, as the words in brackets are completely advisory and the guarantee simply states "the organisation will notify you in advance".

CasualMFW

I am with Octopus, they too reduced my DD from £150 to £86. I have adjusted it back to £150, I knew that over the winter my DD wouldn't be enough but I'm going to let the Government money build and have a month without paying should my credit build up too much (currently in credit by £80).

oliverbrown

So according to my calculations, my old direct debit of £150, having been reduced to £83, will now need to be further revised to £166. This accounts for the £400 discount and the October unit rate and standing charges being unchanged for the next year.

Even if Octopus do not notify customers of their revised DD by their next bill, it is probably worth them breaking the direct debit guarantee, as notifying them of an unrealistically low direct debit could lead to confusion.

badmemory

So from what has been posted here the energy companies are rejigging the future DDs without taking into account the increase in prices that they obviously know about.  And I was criticised for questioning their competence.  I suppose the question is, is this better than BGs we are still working out what your DD should be?

[Deleted User]

badmemory said:

So from what has been posted here the energy companies are rejigging the future DDs without taking into account the increase in prices that they obviously know about.  And I was criticised for questioning their competence.  I suppose the question is, is this better than BGs we are still working out what your DD should be?

They were criticised a week or so ago for taking the future increases into account ("my DD is going up but my price hasn't changed"), now they're being criticised for not taking the future increases into account. 

Suppliers who have commented early with incomplete information were criticised for that ("why have they told me this when it's changing again soon") and suppliers who waited for complete information before commenting were criticised as well ("why haven't I heard from... / I haven't been told what my new tariff will be").

That's not a question of the suppliers' competence or not - it's everyone else having a different preference about what information should be delivered and when, then complaining when the system isn't exactly as they would want it to be.