Octopus Energy. Wrong, wrong, wrong

Penlla

My account has never been in debit to Octopus since I was forced upon them by the closure of Avro.. Octopus say it is legal to take unauthorised (by me) money from my bank account by varying my set Direct Debit in such a way it leaves me £80 in credit with them. Having done that, they then projected varying the Direct Debit upwards in May, in the UK summer, which (on my projection) will leave me ca £150 in credit in June. They will not allow me to vary the Direct Debit to a smaller sum that will still have me in credit but only by a few pounds.
This is not fair and reasonable trading, and I cannot image the 'legal' justification for this high handed action.

MikeJXE

Ask for variable direct debit and that will pay your bill every month with neither credit or debit

Obviously small bills in summer and larger bills in winter 

[Deleted User]

buffylump said:

My account has never been in debit to Octopus since I was forced upon them by the closure of Avro.. Octopus say it is legal to take unauthorised (by me) money from my bank account by varying my set Direct Debit in such a way it leaves me £80 in credit with them. Having done that, they then projected varying the Direct Debit upwards in May, in the UK summer, which (on my projection) will leave me ca £150 in credit in June. They will not allow me to vary the Direct Debit to a smaller sum that will still have me in credit but only by a few pounds.
This is not fair and reasonable trading, and I cannot image the 'legal' justification for this high handed action.

If you want to pay variable DD amounts on the basis of what you use then change your billing arrangement with Octopus. You would benefit from low bills in the summer but very high bills in the Winter.

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

TheElectricCow

A fixed direct debit, by design, is supposed to build up credit on your account over summer for use in the winter months. If this doesn’t work for yourself, you might find a variable direct debit (where you pay exactly what you’ve used each month) is more suited to your needs.

If you have a direct debit set up with them then yes, it is perfectly legal for them to do this and you have authorised the payments. The only requirement on their part is that they notify you of the change beforehand.

Should there be a genuine error for a payment by direct debit you can get a full and immediate refund from you bank, as per the direct debit guarantee. You can also cancel the direct debit at any time should you disagree with it fundamentally, but beware you will stop benefiting from the direct debit discount on your bills if you do this.

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

[It's currently set at £70, and I wanted to change it back to £3 to pay the rest on a card and get cashback.]

bristolleedsfan

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

That is because they estimate tracker costs for 12 months based on previous 12 months, best ignored as no 12 month period tends to be the same as previous 12 month period.

kWh rate estimate issued today for electricity tracker tariff would look like this subject to regional differences.

Spoonie_Turtle

bristolleedsfan said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

That is because they estimate tracker costs for 12 months based on previous 12 months, best ignored as no 12 month period tends to be the same as previous 12 month period.

kWh rate estimate issued today for electricity tracker tariff would look like this subject to regional differences.

That makes sense, I've not known how they estimate when it comes to Tracker.

bristolleedsfan

Spoonie_Turtle said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

That is because they estimate tracker costs for 12 months based on previous 12 months, best ignored as no 12 month period tends to be the same as previous 12 month period.

kWh rate estimate issued today for electricity tracker tariff would look like this subject to regional differences.

That makes sense, I've not known how they estimate when it comes to Tracker.

When you contacted them to change to tracker they should have given you account specific quote/estimate switch link, screenshot of mine  that I posted which updates.

pearl123

I've never had any issues manually adjusting how much I pay on the Octopus site. There's a section, which says change my payments. 

Spoonie_Turtle

bristolleedsfan said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

bristolleedsfan said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

For those on a monthly DD, the DD payment is based on an estimate of your annual energy cost divided by 12. During the summer, you would normally expect to build up a credit balance to see you through the coming Winter. 

I've just discovered our current DD recommendation is £435!!  Annual usage is about 9,500-10,000 kWh, £435/month works out at ~50-53p/kWh once standing charge taken into account.  Or 14,500kWh at 35p/kWh.

That is because they estimate tracker costs for 12 months based on previous 12 months, best ignored as no 12 month period tends to be the same as previous 12 month period.

kWh rate estimate issued today for electricity tracker tariff would look like this subject to regional differences.

That makes sense, I've not known how they estimate when it comes to Tracker.

When you contacted them to change to tracker they should have given you account specific quote/estimate switch link, screenshot of mine  that I posted which updates.

Possibly, I don't recall.  Last time I was on the payments page they recommended £278 which worked out bang on the EPG, and that was previously the recommendation since at least January.  Just odd that it's suddenly changed.

Officer_Dibble

When I couldn't move my monthly DD online to the figure I wanted, I emailed them (or DMed on Twitter, I can't remember) and asked them to change it manually. I showed my workings, and explained that their electricity projections were way off for some reason. They changed to the figure I asked for without quibbling. I'd suggest that your "they won't allow me to change the DD" probably just means that you haven't tried beyond encountering the restricted "change my payments" page