Energy Switch effectively 2 months payments up front?

Pat38493

Hi - is it normal that if I switch supplier (in this case from British Gas to Octopus), they are saying they are going to charge me two months of DD in the first week?  They are saying they are going to take the first payment of a months supply on the day they take over, and then the next payment on the date I have chosen to make regular payments which is only a few days later? 

If this is normal how long will this take to regularise?  I have given them my actual annual usage and not just clicked on "low/medium/high" so they should have reasonably accurate way to estimate my monthly amount.

The_Green_Hornet

When I switched to Octopus I received a similar automated e-mail but they never took the payment on the day they took over the supply.

I doubt they would be able to set up the direct debit in time to do so anyway.

QrizB

Octopus were doing this when I joined them, almost two years ago, so yes I think it's normal practice for them.

pallyman

I joined Octopus not long & they said they were going to do the same but never took the month in advance,just took my first payment date monies.

Spoonie_Turtle

Yes they did it when we joined, a few years ago.

Dolor

 I have given them my actual annual usage and not just clicked on "low/medium/high" so they should have reasonably accurate way to estimate my monthly amount.

If you look back a year to an old bill you can calculate how much energy you have used in kWh. Clicking on High/Medium/Low is really for customers switching, say, to a different property where past historic usage may or may not be relevant to the new occupants.

wild666

When I've switched suppliers the date they took the first payment was the date they took the other payments. With Octopus after Avro went under it was the 26th, in the Octopus site you can change the date that the payments are taken and I changed mine from the 26th to the 1st but as it was less than 10 days to the 1st they didn't take the payment on the 1st of July 2022 but I had over £230 credit and my monthly bill was only £43 so there was plenty of credit to pay the bill. 

Pat38493

Thanks all.

Slightly different question  - how long does it normally take after they take over the supply before you actually see data on your Octopus app or account?

I can see that they have taken control of my smart meter already because it's showing the Octopus tariff rates on the IHD (and for the first time in a year it's actually showing correct pricing information which is at least better than British Gas!).

I can also see that my meter is feeding data to 3rd party apps like Bright no problem (at least the electric one is - the gas meter seems to be a bit sporadic but I am not so bothered about that).  Again in the Bright app the pricing information now seems correct whereas with British Gas it was wrong.