Increase in DD again

Scot_39

@Ildhund

I am not an OVO customer - but thought the Ovo Mar 2026 positive balance - but possibly not the explicit one months balance part of it was much older.

Like this user reported the use of Mar 26 - but not the 1 month bit - Dec last year - so effectively gave them not 9 months - but 15 months 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6572952/ovo-hiked-direct-debit-15-within-first-60-days-what-can-i-do

And in your response in that thread - you mention in Dec 24 - the Mar 26 date being involved from previous Nov 1st. (did that mean Nov 23) - but just for positive balance - not a full month - so was it just the 1 month credit that changed recently.

I'll edit my last post from few days ago - to say now 1 month. I was also quoting Octopus - that was 5 weeks but Apr on their customer blog site iirc in that reply.

Thanks in advance for clarification I need to correct it

Ildhund

Scot_39 said:

... thought the Ovo Mar 2026 positive balance - but possibly not the explicit one months balance part of it was much older.
... you mention in Dec 24 - the Mar 26 date being involved from previous Nov 1st. (did that mean Nov 23) - 

The change to bring all DD accounts to zero by 31 March 2026 was introduced on 1 November 2024. I think it was in fact supposed to be in place ready for introduction on 1 October - the start of the winter semester - but they were a bit slow off the mark. This latest bombshell dropped on 1 June 2025, adding another 10% or so to the monthly DD. I'd put money on the end-date for calculations changing on 1 October to 31 March 2027 as the carousel starts a new turn.

born_again

So had reply from Octopus.

Thank you for getting in touch regarding your direct debit payments and I appreciate your points here.

The e-mail received relating to your direct debit payments and the increase is referred to as a 'payment adequacy review' e-mail and is an Ofgem requirement, this is sent to all customers once or twice a year and makes recommendations based on the factors that you noted in your e-mail.

I would note that with you being on a time of use tariff, i.e Intelligent Octopus Go then any future usage etc is difficult to predict and as a result, the recommendations may not necessarily be in line with what you would expect or potentially agree with.

As a result, I can see that your payments are now back to £155 and if you do receive another of these e-mails at a later point in the year then please do feel free to get back in touch and we can also amend, but I can see now that your monthly payments are set at the £155 level moving forward.

Kind regards,
Andy

Not sure on the hard to predict, given I have been on the tariff for over 18 months & electric usage is pretty consistent each month. Within £20 a month.

Only gas changes due to winter & summer usage varying.

Scot_39

Wholesale rates have rebounded significantly since last sumner- over 50%: from sub £25 lows to £42+ recently.

And dynamic TOU tariffs arguably more subject to swings in renewables balance over time just as agile and tracker are the day to day.

Agile benefits from the "you may as well use it rather than us pay curtailment" savings, longer term TOU I suspect cannot safely price on that basis.

In the sane way the cap or fixes are often higher than  the trackers.