Santander no longer paying cashback for Octopus Gas & Electricity, Hopefully being resolved?

Richchad

I raised this again via the Santander Chat and eventually got them to understand the problem.

The chat ended with this..

I have logged this for you and it will now be investigated. You should shortly receive a text message/email confirming this which includes a reference number for the case.

Once the back office team have completed the investigation you should receive and a text message/email confirming the case has been closed and you should receive a letter detailing the decision which you should receive in 7-10 working days.

This is not a guarantee we can pay this cashback back due to this but the investigation will find if we can add it to the list for you

So will have to wait and see...

crumpet_man

born_again said:

Hattie627 said:

My direct debit has always said "GC re Octopus Energy Operations". This has been the case since I moved to Octopus when they acquired Bulb (in administration). This was early 2024 or late 2023, if I recall correctly, certainly several months ago. I have always received the 1% Santander Edge cashback for my Octopus DD. I check every months that the cashback amount is correct,

Tue 25 Mar 2025 Hi there, Just a heads up that we're switching to a new company to process our payments, so your bank might get in touch at some point to confirm that’s happened. If you don’t hear anything from them: don’t worry, there’s nothing you need to do.   This is basically an administrative change and in future your payments will be processed by a company called GoCardless. You can read their privacy policy here. There won’t be any impact on your account or payments, and you’ll continue seeing ‘Octopus Energy’ on your bank statements.   If you’ve got any questions just respond to this email, or give GoCardless a call on 020 7183 8674.   Love and power, The Octopus Energy team Seems a lot of people missed the email... 🤷‍♀️

I have not received an email like your one, but on checking the regular "we''ll take a payment of" monthly billing emails the info about gocardless is tagged on to the end.  

It would have been nicer if they had sent a separate email with a different subject line to highlight this information.

Sea_Shell

crumpet_man said:

born_again said:

Hattie627 said:

My direct debit has always said "GC re Octopus Energy Operations". This has been the case since I moved to Octopus when they acquired Bulb (in administration). This was early 2024 or late 2023, if I recall correctly, certainly several months ago. I have always received the 1% Santander Edge cashback for my Octopus DD. I check every months that the cashback amount is correct,

Tue 25 Mar 2025 Hi there, Just a heads up that we're switching to a new company to process our payments, so your bank might get in touch at some point to confirm that’s happened. If you don’t hear anything from them: don’t worry, there’s nothing you need to do.   This is basically an administrative change and in future your payments will be processed by a company called GoCardless. You can read their privacy policy here. There won’t be any impact on your account or payments, and you’ll continue seeing ‘Octopus Energy’ on your bank statements.   If you’ve got any questions just respond to this email, or give GoCardless a call on 020 7183 8674.   Love and power, The Octopus Energy team Seems a lot of people missed the email... 🤷‍♀️

I have not received an email like your one, but on checking the regular "we''ll take a payment of" monthly billing emails the info about gocardless is tagged on to the end.  

It would have been nicer if they had sent a separate email with a different subject line to highlight this information.

So they did!!    And yes, they should have.

I didn't scroll to the end, as it just seemed to the the "usual" reminder.

Although, I'm not sure we'd have twigged that this change would mean the DD wouldn't be recognised by Santander.

Hopefully Santander can update their systems to recognise these new DDs 🤞🏼

SiliconChip

I've just checked the cashback on my Edge account and can confirm that the 1% was not paid for Octopus Energy this month. I'm just about in profit with other DD and debit card cashback and I'll probably keep the account going for the Edge Saver while it's still at 6%, but there may be a future reappraisal if the Octopus issue isn't resolved.

flaneurs_lobster

SiliconChip said:

I've just checked the cashback on my Edge account and can confirm that the 1% was not paid for Octopus Energy this month. I'm just about in profit with other DD and debit card cashback and I'll probably keep the account going for the Edge Saver while it's still at 6%, but there may be a future reappraisal if the Octopus issue isn't resolved.

Consider adding your voice to the complaints to Santander - good to up the pressure for them to resolve.

hgt

I've been in touch with Santander via chat who were very matter of fact, stating that because Octopus are now using a 3rd party, the DDs no longer qualify. I asked to raise a complaint on the basis that Santander still list Octopus as an eligible company, and to me as a customer it matters not what mechanism Octopus choose to use. Will see what happens, but I think it will need the efforts of many of us before Santander take any action. 

The Statement about using a 3rd party no longer qualifies is clearly Bobbins as my broadband provider (BRSK) use Stripe to collect their DDs, and I'm getting Santander cashback on those. 

Sea_Shell

@MSE_James

Might this be something that needs more media pressure applying, IF Santander don't resolve the issue promptly?

MSE_James

Hi @Sea_Shell - I had already spotted the thread and made colleagues here aware of the issue - it's very much on our radar  

Can't promise what will come of it, but the relevant people have been taking a look. 

SiliconChip

flaneurs_lobster said:

SiliconChip said:

I've just checked the cashback on my Edge account and can confirm that the 1% was not paid for Octopus Energy this month. I'm just about in profit with other DD and debit card cashback and I'll probably keep the account going for the Edge Saver while it's still at 6%, but there may be a future reappraisal if the Octopus issue isn't resolved.

Consider adding your voice to the complaints to Santander - good to up the pressure for them to resolve.

I have done that now, their response was this:

I believe this issue has since been resolved and should be in affect for your next cashback payment. If the cashback isn't more than this month's amount, next month - please contact us and we can have this checked.

I then asked if the missing cashback would be included in next month's payment but they've said it won't, which is disappointing but for £1.05 not worth taking any further.

I should also note that my DD simply says DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENT TO OCTOPUS ENERGY, with no mention of third party involvement, but it still wasn't included in this month's cashback.

Edit: Ignore the previous sentence, I wasn't looking in the correct place.

born_again

SiliconChip said:

I should also note that my DD simply says DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENT TO OCTOPUS ENERGY, with no mention of third party involvement, but it still wasn't included in this month's cashback.

Is that looking on the APP & the payment taken?

As I think you need to check the actual DD in the DD list to see what it shows as the description.