Needing some clarification

Giraffe76

Hi all,
We are low energy users, are currently with octopus and have seen the EDF fixed tariff details via an email through uSwitch so I did a comparison on their site (including my last 12 month usage) and found that EDF would be cheaper by only £19 for the year but what shocked me is that their projected monthly payments would be just over £69 per month whereas with octopus we are paying £100.
We were £149 in credit with octopus which I have requested to be refunded but I'm curious why there's such a big difference in the octopus payments and the EDF payment?

Any clarification would be appreciated

Kind regards Mark 

Netexporter

You can change your Octopus DD amount online, with a couple of clicks, to manage your debit/credit level.

CouldntResist

Giraffe76 said:

Hi all,
We are low energy users, are currently with octopus and have seen the EDF fixed tariff details via an email through uSwitch so I did a comparison on their site (including my last 12 month usage) and found that EDF would be cheaper by only £19 for the year but what shocked me is that their projected monthly payments would be just over £69 per month whereas with octopus we are paying £100.
We were £149 in credit with octopus which I have requested to be refunded but I'm curious why there's such a big difference in the octopus payments and the EDF payment?

Any clarification would be appreciated

Kind regards Mark 

How would you imagine that EDF could only be £19 a year cheaper but have £31/month less payment? What was the projection for Octopus on the same comparison?

Slinky

IME DD payments are a bit of a 'finger in the air' exercise. I'm currently £260 in credit after the April bill, and they are recommending the DD to be £133.09. I've currently reduced it to £20 because we have solar and last month's bill was under a tenner.  I'll increase it later in the year, but we've used nowhere near £133.09 in any month since moving to them last July, when initially they were taking £165. That at least was closer than EDF's £210.

Scot_39

Assuming Octopus bills covers any heating, being in credit at the end of Apr by say 1months bill if genuinely low user  is probably a sign your paying too much.

But bear in mind this winter has been damp but relatively warm - at least here in EM  - so some months my energy use has been much lower than previous 5 year average - in Mar used 40% less on room heating than last year etc.  And many people don't track kWh usage and only remember ££s costs.

Do a simple calc of costs based on that 12 m usage data at current Octopus rates - they used to discount a few % - 2% per fuel SC iirc -  so should be a little cheaper on svt.

Then divide it by 12.

If they won't refund the £149, subtract it from the projected cost, then divide it by 12 - or simply subtract c£12 from above figure.

And set the DD accordingly.