Variable Direct Debit

Qyburn

Gerry1 said:

Qyburn said:

You can't directly choose the DD date.

Octopus don't seem to agree with you.

Change your Direct Debit payment online

You can check your current balance and manage all of your payment details, including amount and payment date, from your online account or app. https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/monthly-payments/

That all refers to fixed monthly DD, however I'm happy to be corrected if you've managed to do so.  

victor2

Qyburn said:

Gerry1 said:

Qyburn said:

You can't directly choose the DD date.

Octopus don't seem to agree with you.

Change your Direct Debit payment online

You can check your current balance and manage all of your payment details, including amount and payment date, from your online account or app. https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/monthly-payments/

That all refers to fixed monthly DD, however I'm happy to be corrected if you've managed to do so.  

You could be right. I've just looked at the Octopus account I've switched to variable DD and it says the payment date is the first of the month, when it isn't. For example, a statement was produced on the 2nd, email on the 10th saying payment will be taken on the 17th.

Mum161111

Thanks very much for all these helpful and positive replies.  I think the main issue would be to remember, and budget for, much higher bills in winter than the lower summer ones.

pseudodox

Mum161111 said:

Thanks very much for all these helpful and positive replies.  I think the main issue would be to remember, and budget for, much higher bills in winter than the lower summer ones.

Set yourself a monthly amount to put aside in a savings account.  Then use that to pay the bills.  You won't earn a huge amount of interest but it will be in your account, not the energy company.  If you put aside a bit more than you anticipate will be necessary then you will build up a small surplus.  And try to think of winter bills as normal (we live in a half the year cool/cold country) & summer ones as a bargain basement expense.  Spend some surplus on ice cream in a summer heatwave!

And BTW if you are holding out against smart meters watch for a "carrot" in the form of a monetary incentive to "give in".  I held out for several years until EDF finally offered me £300 (yes!) to have SMs installed.  I have heard Octopus have made similar offers.  It is worth their while to save them being fined for not pushing SMs.

twopenny

Darn, I didn't manage to do that.

I've got a SM for electric because that's EDF which has never caused me any problems.

One incentive was to pay by VDDebit (not all offered it at the time) and that too so far is working well. I get paper bills through the door - so I don't forget to log in and check.

 I have fewer bills in winter. But do spend going out in summer so the whole thing works for me.

Chose a smart meter because I live alone and it worried me if I was carted off in an ambulance there was no one to pay the bills and I wanted to come back to a warm home.

I was against the clock thing that tells you how much you are using but found it was useful and have adjusted what I use when to save money.

Qyburn

victor2 said:

Qyburn said:

That all refers to fixed monthly DD, however I'm happy to be corrected if you've managed to do so.  

You could be right. I've just looked at the Octopus account I've switched to variable DD and it says the payment date is the first of the month, when it isn't. For example, a statement was produced on the 2nd, email on the 10th saying payment will be taken on the 17th.

I have the same dates, billing date 1st so that the bill covers an exact calendar month, DD taken on 17tth.  The website say my DD payment date is the 1st, and if I try to change that it gives an error.

Chrysalis

Mum161111 said:

I am trying to avoid having a smart meter until it becomes essential and I wonder about changing to variable monthly direct debit instead of monthly "fixed" Direct Debit.

Would I just submit my meter reading regularly once a month, as I do at present, and my Direct Debit would be taken soon after or am I more likely to receive estimated bills between regular monthly online payments?  

I have not asked for a refund of credit but how much credit would I have to leave in my account if I ask to switch to a variable direct debit?  Thank you.

Variable direct debit by design is you always pay whatever your bill is and it targets a zero balance.

So the following.

Existing credit will first be used to pay your variable direct debit bill, if there is enough to cover the entire bill, there will be no money taken from bank, if there isnt enough the left over amount will be taken from your bank.  If there is no credit, then the full bill amount will be taken from your bank.
Different suppliers give a different amount of notice, Octopus energy will take the money from your bank 14 days after the bill is issued, bills are paid in arrears.
Your meter readings work the same as they do now, if you supply readings at the right time for the bill to be generated, then the bill will be for actual usage, if not it will be estimated usage.

With a smart meter bills will always be for actual usage, as the suppliers automatically fetch the readings/consumption data.

There is some replies saying bills will be bigger in winter, this actually also applies to fix direct debit.  But the difference is the suppliers estimate your annual consumption on fixed direct debit, divide it by 12 and give you a fixed direct debit, this is often inaccurate and can lead to over or under payment for energy.  Since variable direct debit always follows your bills, it will also be an accurate match for your bills, but will mean if you use more energy in a given month, it will be immediately impactful on the following direct debit.  So you need to be aware of this, but this also means you will feel the impact much quicker from different amounts of energy use which is a good thing.

bobanite

I am with a different supplier (EON.Next) and I am on a tariff that is only available to customers paying by Direct Debit (fixed), and I do not have smart meters, so I manually read my meters every month, and send the readings to my supplier.
I have asked them to set my Direct Debit to what is basically the amount I should pay in the summer (so that most months it is lower than my bill), and then I top up by a card payment every month my bill is higher than the DD amount (most months). While this is not ideal for lots of people, as it means unpredictable payments (in particular in winter months), this works for me.

What happens then is that every so often I receive an email from my supplier saying "We need to increase your DD amount", to which I always reply telling them not to. While this usually works, a few months back they refused to keep my DD unchanged, and I was told if I wasn't happy with this to file a complaint.
So I filed a complaint, to which they basically answered "We need to raise your DD, please confirm you are happy for the complaint to be closed". To which I responded "I am not happy for you to close the complaint, please keep the DD amount to the current level".
This went back and forth for a while (pretty much copy and past on both sides), until they tried to explain why they needed to raise the amount.
They basically said "We need to raise the amount so that your account does not go too much into debit". To which I replied by asking me when my account had been too much in debit (the answer to which I knew was never, as every time they send a bill, I pay off any amount still owed by card straight away).
So they effectively could not justify raising my fixed DD amount, and they eventually agreed to leave it at the current level (at which point I said they could close the complaint).
I therefore have a fixed monthly DD with my energy supplier (which gives me access to the DD-only tariff), but I pay a variable bill every month by topping up by card the amount needed.

Again, while this works for me, it doesn't mean it is the correct solution for everyone. But I thought it might be worth sharing.