Octopus, energy, direct debit

[Deleted User]

Over the years, I have seen many changes to my pension scheme; insurance etc where the gaining company has taken over the existing DD mandate without any issues. When GBEnergy folded some years ago, the Ofgem advice was to leave the DD mandate in place. The new supplier just took the monthly payment.

To my mind, the amount of the monthly payment is a different issue. Octopus, in my experience, is pretty good at allowing consumers to fix their own payment, via the App, provided the credit balance is enough to cover the following month’s bill in full. I am currently laying £10 a month and I have in the past been as low as £1 a month when SEG payments were high.

EssexHebridean

It's surprising that you didn't get the standard Octopus contact saying that they were planning on taking your DD - have you checked to make sure that they have the correct email address for you and that their contacts aren't going to junk by mistake? 

Qyburn

TheElectricCow said:

If you didn’t cancel it with the bank the direct debit would have still existed it would just be that bulb would have stopped taking payments through it, so it would still be on your account when transferred to Octopus. Bulb cannot cancel the DD, only you/the bank can.

A supplier can cancel a direct debit in some way, when we settled our mortgage the DD to Cheltenham and Gloucester disappeared without any action on my part. I think it was the same with Neo but I wouldn't quite swear to that.

Dippygoose

EssexHebridean said:

It's surprising that you didn't get the standard Octopus contact saying that they were planning on taking your DD - have you checked to make sure that they have the correct email address for you and that their contacts aren't going to junk by mistake? 

What happened was I received my bill I paid it with a one-off payment octopus then set up a direct debit, but the notification went straight to my spam folder, but they set it up after I paid the bill, and I didn’t given authorisation for it.

octopus, say bulb, provided them with my direct debit details and provided the information that was how I paid my energy bill, but that direct debit was cancelled and octopus set up a brand-new one.

Dippygoose

cm4ever said:

@Dippygoose you've still not offered an answer to the question asked by @MWT .....

How do you intend to pay Octopus for your energy? (moving fowards)

I pay with one-off payments The reason I do this was when I was with bulb they would not let me lower the amount of the direct debit and I had to threaten to cancel it to get them to do anything.

I would find my energy bills would be like £120 a month and bulb demanded the direct debit be set for over 200 even during the winter.

pochase

You are aware that paying this way will cost you 7 to 9% more as you don't get the direct debit discount?

Octopus and Bulb did not have the higher cost for paying on receipt of the bill, but at least for Octopus that changed with the EPG in October last year.

Not sure if Bulb also increased the cost at that time.

Dippygoose

pochase said:

You are aware that paying this way will cost you 7 to 9% more as you don't get the direct debit discount?

Octopus and Bulb did not have the higher cost for paying on receipt of the bill, but at least for Octopus that changed with the EPG in October last year.

Not sure if Bulb also increased the cost at that time.

i used to be a bulb customer so I was really put off because bulb demanded ridiculous amounts for the direct debit to be set at and wouldn’t let you lower it, even though I  didn’t use anywhere near the amount they demanded.

MWT

Dippygoose said:

cm4ever said:

@Dippygoose you've still not offered an answer to the question asked by @MWT .....

How do you intend to pay Octopus for your energy? (moving fowards)

I pay with one-off payments The reason I do this was when I was with bulb they would not let me lower the amount of the direct debit and I had to threaten to cancel it to get them to do anything.

I would find my energy bills would be like £120 a month and bulb demanded the direct debit be set for over 200 even during the winter.

Then just ask Octopus to put you on a variable DD, so that way you will just pay the amount of the bill each month, but have it come out automatically by DD which leaves you only paying the the same rates as if you were on the fixed DD which you do not want to do...

So you get what you want without the increased cost of a standard credit account.

[Deleted User]

Dippygoose said:

pochase said:

You are aware that paying this way will cost you 7 to 9% more as you don't get the direct debit discount?

Octopus and Bulb did not have the higher cost for paying on receipt of the bill, but at least for Octopus that changed with the EPG in October last year.

Not sure if Bulb also increased the cost at that time.

i used to be a bulb customer so I was really put off because bulb demanded ridiculous amounts for the direct debit to be set at and wouldn’t let you lower it, even though I  didn’t use anywhere near the amount they demanded.

The Octopus App allows you to set your own monthly DD. I am presently down to £1 a month as solar export payments cover my bills.

sourpuss2021

I’ve just today found I can’t log in to my Bulb account as it says I’ve been transferred to Octopus.   I presume I’ll be getting an email from them soon?   I’ve downloaded the Octupus app but wasn’t able to log in using my Bulb password.

My Bulb bill is also usually generated on the 1st or 2nd, and I’d already manually paid about what I expect it to be.  So I’ll have to see if I get a new Octopus bill in the next couple of days instead.

I’m another direct debit refusenik, paying variably by bank card. But may have to change if the penalty for this with Octopus is harsh.