Direct Debit problem with Octopus Energy

Super_Stomper

For the first time since I joined Octopus Energy I am having a problem with my direct debit. They reduced my monthly direct debit by the amount of the Government allowance over the last 6 months  BUT they have taken this lower amount again this time. Luckily it has not left me owing too much money this month BUT I have increased my future DD to its previous amount & sent them an email to complain. Has anyone else had this problem please? Thanks
Update 29 April: The enquiry raised with Octopus has been sorted so I will no longer be following this thread  Thank you for your varied responses.

eastcorkram

Same issue with Eon next.

MikeJXE

It's normal practice

You have done the right thing 

BooJewels

Octopus communicated with me in late March (subject: FYI: Energy prices are changing slightly in April) saying they were keeping my DD the same as before:

Also from April, the Energy Bills Support Scheme – that’s the monthly £66-67 credits from the
Government over winter – is coming to an end. Based on your current balance and payments,
we won’t automatically increase your payments to account for the end of this government
payment support. We’ll continue to monitor your cost and usage, and we’ll reach out with a
suggested change if it looks like you’re paying too much, or too little

So maybe they intentionally left yours at the same level as you had sufficient credit or low enough usage.  I have a reasonable credit, so will leave it a couple of months, then up my own manually a little to keep me with a modest credit.

Yorkie1

They did the same to me. Will have to double check my emails to see if I got the text that BooJewels mentions - I don't remember it, but it's possible i just didn't read it fully

BooJewels

It came on I think 24th March (I'm not just at my computer to check) with the subject line I stated above and the content I pasted was from a pdf letter attached, addressed to me, with my own particular tariff and account details about the tiny price changes from 1st April.

badger09

My email from Octopus 23 March is worded slightly differently:
“The Government’s Energy Support Scheme finishes this month. For most, this will mean an increase of £67 to monthly payments, but we think you can leave your payments where they are for now. Prices are changing slightly in April…..”
At that point I was approx 1 month DD payment in credit after receiving a refund. Credit balance will obviously increase going forwards but Octopus always offers a refund if they think my balance is too high. 

I’m happy to have such control. 

Super_Stomper

BooJewels said:

Octopus communicated with me in late March (subject: FYI: Energy prices are changing slightly in April) saying they were keeping my DD the same as before:

Also from April, the Energy Bills Support Scheme – that’s the monthly £66-67 credits from the
Government over winter – is coming to an end. Based on your current balance and payments,
we won’t automatically increase your payments to account for the end of this government
payment support. We’ll continue to monitor your cost and usage, and we’ll reach out with a
suggested change if it looks like you’re paying too much, or too little

So maybe they intentionally left yours at the same level as you had sufficient credit or low enough usage.  I have a reasonable credit, so will leave it a couple of months, then up my own manually a little to keep me with a modest credit.

Thanks. Will check this out 

BooJewels

I remembered after I posted - after I'd posted a query myself about information from Octopus some months ago, I found that your messages appear in your account dashboard at Octopus too and I found my missing info that way.

So if you can't find this email you should have got late March about the tariff changes on 1st April - have a look at your Octopus dashboard, your messages should all appear in there too.

gibbletts

We have about £600 credit and ours was increased by the £67 a month so it seems a bit pot luck what they do.

BooJewels

That does sound like they're treating accounts individually @gibbletts - maybe it's more down to what the resulting DD would be relative to your usage that's considered.  When they dropped my own DD by the £66/£67, it made it far too low, as I'd recently reduced it to eat into my own growing credit balance, so I upped my DD part way back myself - so adding £67 back on to it now, would certainly make mine too much.  If you have a large credit, you should be either able to get it back, or drop your DD amount.