Does anybody still offer quarterly DD

tim123456789

Hi,

I'm an ex-SSE customer on their Quarterly DD option who, long ago now, has been moved to OVO.

OVO have just mailed me to tell me that they will be moving me to monthly DD with some patronising waffle about how it's easier for me (It's not, I don't have a monthly income, everything gets paid out of a huge (relative to the size of my average energy bill) pot of savings, so I have no need to budget monthly to pay bills).

And I don't want to do this.  I want to stay on a tariff that pays the exact bill, so that I don't have the hassle of having to reconcile a shortfall/overcredit each month/quarter/year/whatever.

Does anybody still offer an account that does this?

I'm quite prepared to forgo a discount to get such a tariff.  I'm not prepared to switch to the aggro of manual payments to get it.

I have smart leccy meter, but not gas - it's too far away from the leccy meter to work.  My leccy usage per year is small and my gas usage, tiny.

None of the comparison sites will help me.  Energy switching seems to be verboten ATM

TIA

tim

[Deleted User]

Several suppliers still offer variable direct debit. Mainly monthly rather than quarterly though.

Octopus and EdF both do, and you can switch to either if you telephone or live chat.

xeny

If the size of the bill is insignificant relative to the size of your pot, why waste time on reconciling so frequently as quarterly?

Perhaps do a sanity check once a year and do something more rewarding with the time?

I 'm in a not totally dissimilar situation, and I like the constant dd, as it makes managing withdrawal rate slightly simpler.

tim123456789

ok great thanks

I'll do that

Though I'm wondering what will happen to the £400 that the government will be giving me, if I switch part way through the period when it is being paid.

Though I guess no-one here will know the answer to that.

It would have helped if OVO had mentioned that when calculating my DD as that would have made them zero for the months in question.

Spoonie_Turtle

tim123456789 said:

Though I'm wondering what will happen to the £400 that the government will be giving me, if I switch part way through the period when it is being paid.

The qualifying date for each month is the 1st, so whomever is your supplier on that date is to get it to you (whichever way they do it).

sammyjammy

I imagine I will be in this situation soon, only just changed over to quarterly payment because they were mucking around with my account, am on a fix until January so I anticipate that I'll be moved over and get the same letter.   I'll definitely be looking to move to someone that will allow me to pay my bill that way still.  Very annoying.

Alnat1

Does any company offer quarterly payments to new customers?

tim123456789

I wasn't expecting to get the government credit twice, I was expecting to get it with the old account and then having trouble getting it transferred to the new one.

I have checked and I already have £66 credited to my account so by the time that they take the monthly payment I shall be well over the amount needed to pay a monthly bill.  

I phoned Octopus and they refused to switch me (government rules!), telling me that "I had a legal right to pay the bill (with OVO) in whatever way I liked" and I should ask OVO to change it back.  (Yes, I have a legal right to pay quarterly, but that often also means "manually")

I tried OVO and I get "our helpline is closed" despite it saying that it should be open on the email that they sent only a few days ago  .  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I looked at my online OVO account and it seems that I can change my Monthly DD by just simply selecting a new amount (well request a change anyhow, it's unclear how they decide whether to agree it).

Life's too short for this.  I have given up for now.  I will monitor the account when the next bill arrives and change the DD amount to suit, and then perhaps people will be allowed to switch in March if I am still unhappy.

I have a further problem in that the email says: "Your payment plan comes with a discount ... which is shown below", and it isn't show below.

Then the rate card they have stated looks to be pretty much the maximum allowed under the cap, so as far as I can see I am getting zero discount.  I shall take this up via their WhatsApp chat line.  I guess that's the stress-free way to contact them