Price hike?

brilec

I'm with Octopus, I was on a fixed tariff which ended 16/10/25. Changed to a new 12M fixed tariff with suggested monthly payment of £136, previous one was £128. I am currently £600 in credit.
So yesterday I get an email from Octopus saying they are putting up my monthly payment to £163 because they don't think the amount I am now paying is enough. I don't see why I should give them an interest free loan of that amount.

powerful_Rogue

brilec said:

I'm with Octopus, I was on a fixed tariff which ended 16/10/25. Changed to a new 12M fixed tariff with suggested monthly payment of £136, previous one was £128. I am currently £600 in credit.
So yesterday I get an email from Octopus saying they are putting up my monthly payment to £163 because they don't think the amount I am now paying is enough. I don't see why I should give them an interest free loan of that amount.

Likewise, why should Octopus give you an interest free loan if your current DD is not not going to cover your usage?

££ mean nothing. What is your actual KwH use?

Keep_pedalling

Octopus allow you to switch to variable direct debit so you can pay for the exact amount you use each month. 

Are the bills you are getting based on actual or estimated meter readings?

Ms_Chocaholic

You should be able to adjust the DD back down to the original amount on the app.

singhini

It sounds like Octopus are adjusting the DD because your usage on the new tariff is forecast to be higher than the £136 you set, even though you’re £600 in credit right now. They normally base the DD on predicted annual usage rather than current balance, so the credit doesn’t stop them from raising the monthly payment (the credit is easy for you to withdraw if you want it, so they might not treat it as a long-term buffer). Why you have allowed it to build up so much is your doing not theirs). 

Perhaps being £600 in credit is what’s giving them the room to increase it — you’ve effectively let the balance build up, so their system might think you can absorb a higher DD. If you don’t want that, you could ask them to refund some of the credit and manually set the DD back to the amount you prefer. Octopus are usually flexible if you tell them you’re happy to monitor the account and adjust if needed.

The easiest fix is just to get some of that credit back and put the DD where you want it.

BTW, not all customers are in credit like you — some are actually in debt, so in those cases Octopus are effectively giving them an interest-free loan. It works both ways.

HampshireH

The email I got from them was really clear to get in touch if I didn't want to increase it.

It was a quick email and they responded the next day saying no problem DD will stay the same.

Very easy. No fuss and excellent service 

What if I don’t want my payments to increase?

Please get in touch and let us know. If you’re struggling to make payments there are ways we can help, please get in touch by replying to this email, or have a look at this blog post which outlines all the help available from the Government, Octopus, and others (and details on how to access it).

If you’re struggling to pay your bills, please reply and let us know. We’ve also put together this blog post which outlines all the help available and how to get it.

Just reply to this email if you think we've got something wrong, or if you'll have difficulties making the new payments, and we'll get back to you promptly.

born_again

No need to contact them.
Just set DD amount to the amount you want to pay. Thats all I have done.

dunstonh

brilec said:

I'm with Octopus, I was on a fixed tariff which ended 16/10/25. Changed to a new 12M fixed tariff with suggested monthly payment of £136, previous one was £128. I am currently £600 in credit.
So yesterday I get an email from Octopus saying they are putting up my monthly payment to £163 because they don't think the amount I am now paying is enough. I don't see why I should give them an interest free loan of that amount.

It sounds like you are not suited to the budget method and should switch to full bill payments instead.  

We cannot really comment beyond that as you have not given us your workings on why you think you are right and they are not.

EssexHebridean

I take it that either your smart meter is sending readings (and you have checked that they are correct against what you are being billed) or you give readings monthly, so your billing is accurate? 

BooJewels

I think Octopus might have changed something in their policies or algorithms recently to maybe address the debit balances held by people.

I've been with them since 2018 when they took over GB energy via CoOp Energy.  My account has been in credit that entire time, I've never once had a debit balance - granted, it got down to only £3.58 once.   I've always been on top of my usage and periodically (6 monthly or so) project my anticipated usage/cost (kWh x tariff) for the following year, add a 10% contingency and round everything up, knock off some of my credit and work out what I should be paying per month to keep in credit and set my DD accordingly - my number has always been generous.  That worked just fine until about a year ago.  My summer and winter numbers aren't that different as I live in an old cottage with floor level windows and have lights on all year etc.

I now regularly get emails saying that they've increased my payments to cover a projected shortfall by a particular future date and it's usually enough to put me in significant credit by said date, if usage continued to a similar pattern.  I check my numbers, then go and reduce my DD to a figure that will more than cover my expected use and sure enough, a few weeks later they'll increase it again. So I definitely think they've changed something in their methods.

Scot_39

Octopus have a policy of keeping annualised DD accounts in permanent credit now - like certain other suppliers.

They are also one of 2 of 3 iirc outed for not having met the financial resilience standards under New Ofgem rules, to reduce risk of another 30 collapses.

And have a target iirc of 5 weeks balance - so another c£136 (assuming that hasn't already been reduced to reflect the £600 credit - in past at my supplier that would have been offset over 12m - so a £600 credit would have seen them reduce DD by £50pm to run it down - or you could manually request and have DD returned to true level - certainly in spring time when last did so).

Forget annual average DD - as they are likely Basing new DD on cost for use for next 4 / 5 months Dec/Nov to end Mar).  

Edit - but actually according to the blog giving 12 months - not 5 months to achieve it - see my post below for link / text.

So get your likely unbilled use between now and Apr from last year, but at new rares and work out the cost.

Subtract tge £600 and 3/4 months of the £136 - and see if that leaves you in sufficient credit.

If you can afford to pay the higher winter bills levels- prepay (smart) is now often cheaper than DD,but may not be an option with your new fix.

And currently despite failing to meet Ofgem financial standards Octopus are still one of the suppliers allowing monthly variable DD - maybe available on your fix ?

One of the others in trouble - Ovo with 4m customers - scrapped mvdd c2 years ago iirc.  And are now reportedly looking to make 100s of redundancies.

The advantage of DD is that it's over £10pm cheaper at cap tdcv.  And even lending them as you call it £600 - means your missing c£24 before tax in interest - or around 2 months of that discount after tax.

Doesn't seem such a bad deal.