Problem with Octopus Energy

mo1960

My 24M fixed tariff of £131.98 a month, ends next month, costing £1583.76 annually. (I have recently received £502 paid back to me and I’m still in credit)

I’ve just received an email offering me a choice from 2 tariffs, 

Flexible Octopus at £480.07 a month, costing £5760.91 annually.

Loyal Octopus 12M Fix at £490.44 a month, costing £5885.34 annually.

I send meter readings every month and I’m always a couple of hundred pounds in credit.

There’s only two of us living in the house and every comparison I’ve carried out states, this usage is way above others in my area.

The estimated annual usage, which is shown on my recent email and on which the new payments are based

Electricity  (day) - 11,323 kWh
Electricity  (night) - 1kWh
Gas                             -15,480 kWh

These are the figures I’ve worked out myself

Electricity (day) - 2408 kWh

Electricity (night) - as this dial doesn’t move, figure should be 0

Gas -                 14,597 kWh 

I’m struggling to get them to listen to me and to recheck the figures they’ve used.

They want me to take photos of my electric and gas meters early each morning and then 2 hours later and the same again in the evening.

I have to do this for a week and send photos in an email, so they can check things, but I’ve already been warned, this probably won’t make any difference.

There is no way we can afford the new payments they’re asking.

victor2

mo1960 said:

My 24M fixed tariff of £131.98 a month, ends next month, costing £1583.76 annually. (I have recently received £502 paid back to me and I’m still in credit)

I’ve just received an email offering me a choice from 2 tariffs, 

Flexible Octopus at £480.07 a month, costing £5760.91 annually.

Loyal Octopus 12M Fix at £490.44 a month, costing £5885.34 annually.

I send meter readings every month and I’m always a couple of hundred pounds in credit.

There’s only two of us living in the house and every comparison I’ve carried out states, this usage is way above others in my area.

The estimated annual usage, which is shown on my recent email and on which the new payments are based

Electricity  (day) - 11,323 kWh
Electricity  (night) - 1kWh
Gas                             -15,480 kWh

These are the figures I’ve worked out myself

Electricity (day) - 2408 kWh

Electricity (night) - as this dial doesn’t move, figure should be 0

Gas -                 14,597 kWh 

I’m struggling to get them to listen to me and to recheck the figures they’ve used.

They want me to take photos of my electric and gas meters early each morning and then 2 hours later and the same again in the evening.

I have to do this for a week and send photos in an email, so they can check things, but I’ve already been warned, this probably won’t make any difference.

There is no way we can afford the new payments they’re asking.

Do you have your old statements? If not, download whatever you can from your online account.

From those take your readings close to a year apart. Quote them in an email to them and ask them how they arrived at the estimated 11,323 (+1) kWh annual electricity use. IME they do respond to emails within a few days, but some comments on here suggest their customer service has not been so good of late. Is your nighttime use zero because you once had storage heaters on a dedicated circuit?

It's debatable at the moment whether or not it's worth taking a fix or going onto the standard variable tariff (SVT), as further drops in prices are expected later in the year.

If you do nothing, you should drop onto the SVT, but they might try to increase your DD to the ridiculous amount. They will give you notice of an upcoming change, so you would have to contact them to prevent it going through.

Alternatively, you could ask them to change your account to still paying by direct debit, but only for what you actually use. Your tariff won't change, but they can implement that quite easily. You will then use up any remaining credit and they will take just what is needed to get a zero balance each time they produce a bill. Does mean you get cheap bills in the summer, but will get hit with higher ones through the winter, so you must be prepared for that!

Qyburn

Firstly with Octopus you can pay by what they call "Variable direct debit" meaning each month you pay for exactly what you've used. No arguments about correct level of monthly DD, or about annual estimated usage.

Second, if you're not using any night electricity, you should be on a single rate tariff otherwise you're paying well over the odds for your daytime use.

masonic

Estimated annual consumption can sometimes be a bit of a nonsense figure, but the best way to avoid all of this is to switch to variable direct debit and give them monthly readings as Qyburn suggests. 

A week's worth of photographic evidence of low use in the height of summer means very little indeed.

mo1960

Victor2, I have all my old bills on my Octopus account dashboard and I also have photographs of meter readings sent to them every month.
i will send an email this evening with two meter readings a year apart and hope they reply, thank you for the suggestion.

Qybum, Just to clarify why I have a two dial meter.
I was with another company many years ago, who gave free Saturday or Sunday electricity, it was calculated on the second dial. The dial doesn’t move, it stays on the same figure.

Masonic, I’ve had a few people suggest today, that I tell Octopus I’d like to pay the amount I owe each month and sending them monthly meter readings won’t be a problem, I do that now.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I’m very grateful, Octopus’ email was dropped on me Friday evening, so I’ve had the weekend to worry about it and Octopus have not been very helpful today, so I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow.

SirFreddy

I take my meter readings on the first of every month .

Last month my payment exceed use by around £90 and this put me in a small amount of credit.

So I expect the same sort of credit for the next 2 months.(around £180)

Octopussy have just sent me an email saying they are going to put my account up another £8, very greedy of them and I have reduced it to £2 to keep their algorithms happy.

Hoping I can come up with a fixed tarriff somewhere before it starts getting cold.

mo1960

SirFreddy said:

I take my meter readings on the first of every month .

Last month my payment exceed use by around £90 and this put me in a small amount of credit.

So I expect the same sort of credit for the next 2 months.(around £180)

Octopussy have just sent me an email saying they are going to put my account up another £8, very greedy of them and I have reduced it to £2 to keep their algorithms happy.

Hoping I can come up with a fixed tarriff somewhere before it starts getting cold.

I’m almost £400 in credit and that’s after having. £500 paid back to me a few weeks ago.
Still, Octopus have come up with the crazy figures to get me to pay ridiculously high payments every month.
Good luck in getting a fixed tariff soon 

[Deleted User]

SirFreddy said:

I take my meter readings on the first of every month .

Last month my payment exceed use by around £90 and this put me in a small amount of credit.

So I expect the same sort of credit for the next 2 months.(around £180)

Octopussy have just sent me an email saying they are going to put my account up another £8, very greedy of them and I have reduced it to £2 to keep their algorithms happy.

Hoping I can come up with a fixed tarriff somewhere before it starts getting cold.

That is your right but I would suggest that c.£180 credit in September is not a great deal of credit headroom as we enter a Winter period. Have you actually calculated an annual cost?

SirFreddy

I have no problem increasing my payments come the winter but I don't like the idea of Octopus thinking I am the SirFreddy interest free loan company.

[Deleted User]

but I don't like the idea of Octopus thinking I am the SirFreddy interest free loan company.

Octopus doesn’t need your money: it has some very large financial backers. FWiW, I am drawing down my credit balance by paying just £10 a month. I change my monthly DD payment at will and I just make sure that there is enough credit in the account to cover the current month’s bill in full; ie, my credit balance in January is higher than it is in July. Five years on, Octopus has never cried foul.