Octopus Energy Scandal

moto50

We have been with Octopus for years, and have never been in arrears or missed any payments. We pay £160 each month for our Electric. Yet, we are increasingly building up credit - recently over £700 (we were permitted a percentage to be refunded)

We are told we MUST pay that amount, and they refuse to allow us to pay less, even when competitors are offering (INCLUSIVE of the April Rise) £133/month.

They cans we are always in credit, and as I say that £700 or just under pre-refund was after the winter on E7 heating - so we are paying well over, as this will rise to £1550-1900 over the summer when the power usage drops.

So how many others are propping up the energy companies by force? Because our credit is paying for these that cannot afford to pay for their use or their supply losses.

We asked the question today, over the disparity of what we are paying, what they are charging and if we can lower our payments - the lady did not have an answer other than going elsewhere! So you are being FORCED to pay more than you use.

la531983

When i was with Octopus the app happily allowed me to reduce payments down to £1, I merely topped up extra myself.

Have you actually tried doing this?

teaselMay

In what way are you being forced to pay it and refused a refund? Go into the app or onto the website and click 'can I refund some credit' likewise you can amend your direct debit yourself there. 

RedFraggle

You can also switch if another supplier is cheaper based on your actual use.

caprikid1

How its always been for 30 years I have been dealing with Direct Debit's for energy, always looking to keep you in credit.

This is not an Octopus scandal, they are always reluctant to lower it as their algorithms are built that way.

victor2

Or just ask Octopus to switch you to Monthly Variable payments. Won't change your tariff, and will use all your credit up over the ensuing months, costing you nothing, before they start charging you just for what you have used.

They do seem to now have a limit on how low you can set your DD amount online. They've just proposed increasing mine (I currently have a small debit balance), but I emailed them asking to leave it where it as, as I have calculated it is more than enough to leave me with a small credit balance at the end of my current fix. They agreed by return email, no problem.

Edit: It's hardly a "scandal".

kingstreet

Weirdly enough, we've been paying £150 have a credit of £820 after this month's payment and we've just been emailed to say our payments are reducing to £118 from next month.

MikeyPGT

la531983 said:

When i was with Octopus the app happily allowed me to reduce payments down to £1, I merely topped up extra myself.

Have you actually tried doing this?

I pay £1 a month DD and then settle up the remainder when they bill me - has never been a problem.  When I was in credit I just went on the app and requested a refund.  Seems very odd that the OP is having problems ...  

born_again

moto50 said:

We have been with Octopus for years, and have never been in arrears or missed any payments. We pay £160 each month for our Electric. Yet, we are increasingly building up credit - recently over £700 (we were permitted a percentage to be refunded)

We are told we MUST pay that amount, and they refuse to allow us to pay less, even when competitors are offering (INCLUSIVE of the April Rise) £133/month.

They cans we are always in credit, and as I say that £700 or just under pre-refund was after the winter on E7 heating - so we are paying well over, as this will rise to £1550-1900 over the summer when the power usage drops.

So how many others are propping up the energy companies by force? Because our credit is paying for these that cannot afford to pay for their use or their supply losses.

We asked the question today, over the disparity of what we are paying, what they are charging and if we can lower our payments - the lady did not have an answer other than going elsewhere! So you are being FORCED to pay more than you use.

Gat a email form them a couple of weeks ago (thread somewhere on here) Asking to increase to £162 a month. From my working out would be too high given my credit.

They had upped the DD in my account. I just altered it back to what it was before. No trouble, still set as I want. 
So do not get your "they refuse to allow us to pay less" As you clearly can.

EssexHebridean

Another one here with Octopus, who has both requested credit and been able to freely adjust my DD as needed. I am certainly not being "forced to pay more than I use" - but that is through being willing to provide a bit of interaction.

Do you provide regular readings - at least monthly assuming you don't have a smart meter? If you are on a smart meter, have you checked the readings against what is on your bills to ensure that you are being billed correctly? 

Quite honestly, the word "scandal" should be reserved to be used in situations which genuinely ARE a scandal. 

Newbie_John

Your options:
a) ask for direct debit to be set to £1 and pay the rest each month
b) ask for variable direct debit - that way you will be paying only for what you use
c) switch to another provider like Tomato who has variable direct debit as default