Annual spread of over/under balance on Gas and Electric

Chapmag99

I was recently, well maybe a couple of months ago, watching Martin on TV saying that you should be two monthly payments in credit at the end of November (it may have been October) for your annual Gas and Electric account to balance out across the year.
I was in credit by this amount around the end of Oct/Nov but at the if this month (January) I'm likely to be £100 in debt and probably double that (if not more) at the end of February.
As Martin didn't give a forecast of what an account should look like at the end of February (or throughout the year), I'm unsure if this would be right/acceptable to my energy supplier (Octopus).
Of course I could just ask them but I'd like all you experts to let me have your thoughts.
Thanks in anticipation.
G.

Ildhund

Check the terms and conditions of your contract. Mine (with OVO) clearly state that customers paying by equal Direct Debit amounts undertake to keep their account in credit.

Gerry1

So-called 'Fixed' DDs used to work that way, so that sometimes you were in credit, sometimes in debit.  However, some time ago Ofgem discouraged this, preferring that accounts always remained in credit.  This meant that customers wanting to switch suppliers wouldn't find themselves suddenly having to pay off a sizeable debit or be stuck with their existing supplier.  However, some dodgy suppliers used this to fund their businesses, Ponzi-style, and others hadn't hedged sufficiently, with the result that nearly 30 collapsed when the energy crisis hit.

You don't have to do anything right now: Octopus will probably increase your DD before long.  Of course, you can always make a top-up payment at any time if you don't like being in debit.

Alternatively, most suppliers will allow you to pay the whole bill in full each month (Variable Monthly Direct Debit).  That makes bills easier to understand and unexpectedly high usage much easier to spot, thereby minimising the risks of huge DD increases later on, but of course your payments will be higher in winter and lower in summer.  You'll have to call or email Octopus to arrange VMDD, it can't be done on the website or via the app.

MikeJXE

You should be able to see that on the Octopus app 

Balance forecast 

Chapmag99

MikeJXE said:

You should be able to see that on the Octopus app 

Balance forecast 

Thanks Mike, but I'm on their Tracker Tariff so the Balance Forecast doesn't work.

Last year I topped up my account but I'm interested to know what happens if I don't.

Perhaps I'll just have to go ahead and ask them! 

RelievedSheff

We tend to find that from April to October the amount we pay each month is over the amount that we use, March and November are usually about the same as we pay and December through to February we use more than we pay. (Monthly DD)

By November we tend to try and be about 3 months in credit which usually means that by March our balance is about zero, although it looks like this year we are on track to have some credit leftover.