Energy company increasing direct debit

Another vote here for Octopus
I persuaded my son to change to them too and he is more than happy after being with SSE who were always trying to get him to increase his DD
Octopus asked him what he could afford and accepted it.he is still in credit
Also because I recommended them we both got a credit of £50 each

I am with London Power ( Octopus ) and was told by them that they are reducing my monthly payment .I am more than pleased that I moved to them.

Decreasing your dd is the opposite of increasing it ….

Octopus have just advised me to decrease mine by £15 a month, I'm only in credit by £120.00.
Seems odd if your in credit.
I didn't think they request you pay extra unless you were in debt.

You can contact them and get your overpayment refunded. Also negotiate your payments.

Quite often you can actually go on your online account and lower it back down to what you have fit of your on credit. They do it to me every year and I just put it back to what it was and refused to increase it. Their DD amount is made up of what they expect you to use, plus a little bigger just in case and does t include any warm home discount a of pension payments. So often it is far from right. If you can t do it on the online account ring them and advise you want the direct debit returned to what it was as your on credit and there Sno reaosn to increase it at all.

Have paid by DD for years. Had built up credit asked to be reimbursed, no problem. Earlier this month supplier messaged to let me know tgey will be reducing DD by 50% as they have calculated with reduced price and warmer weather I won't need so much. To read my gas meter I have to lie flat on the front garden to see the dials. No way doing that every month.

I had this from Octopus energy! They wanted my £51 per month to go up to £89! I’ve always been in credit. It is summer - there is no heating on - we are in the summer, so my credit will increase.
I replied to them, telling them no way and that I couldn’t afford the increase.
They just accepted it!
If you haven’t got the money then you can’t pay!
Write and tell them - don’t pay the increase

I don’t have a smart meter and refuse to have one. The meter here is only about ten years old and functions perfectly well. I diarise meter readings. Ovo seem to be happy to have a reading every two months but we do it every month without fail. I refuse to have a DD for energy. I pay for what I have used as soon as I receive and have checked the bill. Until then the money is in our account, not theirs.

Dickens

Germanshepherdsmum
I simply refuse to pay by direct debit. I want the money in my account, not theirs. Control is everything.
Control is everything

Yesss!

- I think we are in a minority though. And we are penalised for it.

However, I recently forgot to read my meter so E-ON estimated my usage...

... and over-estimated by nearly £900 - I'm still in credit!

If that is how they operate their DDs, they can go hang and take their smart meters (my neighbour has had nothing but trouble with her malfunctioning one) with them.

How they arrived at that figure I've no idea - it's supposed to be based on previous usage. It wasn't!

I rather like the old-fashioned way of getting a bill for what I've used and paying it.

Just to say that you can pay for what you have used each month by DD. It works well for me. I do have a smart meter though and find it helpful. No trouble with it at all.

This happened to me and I was informed by email. I went to my online account and reduced the amount back to what it had been but was too late and they took the extra £40. I complained by replying to the email and was immediately offered the money back and an apology. Since then the amount has actually been reduced. (This was Eon Next )

my advice would be to change to octopus.
why waste time and mental energy wrestling with poor customer service.
if you can find an octopus customer and they recommend you, you will both get £50 off your next bill.

Labadi0747 my advice would be to email the CEO's office. I've found it the only way to get things sorted. They're about to give me a third amount of compensation because of the aggro I've been put through!

I have a DD which is for the actual usage. The disadvantage is that I pay more in the winter but the advantge is that they never owe me money and nor do I owe them. I don't know if all companies offer this. I used to have to read my meter every month but then had to have a smart meter to get the best rate so now it does it all automatically. As far as I know my smart meter works fine. I'm with British Gas but I expect other providers can do this. Certainly worth it if your DD is too high.

It is Octopus!

My energy company is excellent and allows me to change my DD S and when necessary. Their Communication is spot on and I am in control of all my bills / accounts. Happy to name them if I am allowed !!

I can’t fault Octopus they are an excellent company
I have just sent my meter readings in today for Gas and Electric and yes, I do pay by direct debit and I do like to have credit on my account…

Astitchintime

I was furious last night to receive an email from our energy provider stating they were increasing our DD from June by a massive £40 despite the fact that we are in credit and always have been.

Has anyone else been informed about this? Also, my OH who is also named on the account did not receive the information so if your circumstances are similar it might be worth checking this out.

I would contact them to ask if this is really necessary, as today's newspapers are quoting a drop of £100 for the average bill due to the price cap changes and the cost of energy having reduced. This looks like a quick grab at extra money - if they are doing this to all customers they will create a tidy sum in their coffers for no reason.

I am with Octopus Energy and they have been brilliant with my Direct Debit. They have offered refunds if I am more than 1 month in credit and have just reduced my direct debit because they said I am paying too much. There is an option online that allows you to alter your direct debit to a level that want too. However I have read online, on the BBC news I think, that when the new cap comes in in July that the cheapest option for making payments will be by prepayment meter, slightly higher will be direct debit and highest of all will be paying bills.

Send them an email telling them they do not have your permission to alter your DD from £***. They will then return it to that amount

This happens to me once a year, despite being in a small credit! I simply go into the DD and amend it back to what it was and it stays at that figure until the next year comes around 😐 We have refused all “offers” of a smart meter and I take readings on the 29th of each month and send them to respective gas and electric companies so I know we are paying for what we use. You just have to be on top of these companies all the time these days.

When we were with OVO, they kept hundreds of pounds on account. There was a hiccough with the gas meter so they weren't charging usage even though I was sending in readings. It took 2 years to sort out and I had to go to the Ombudsman. After leaving them over 6 months ago, I have just had the final account and the princely sum of £8 refunded...well it will be refunded eventually but takes 3 weeks! I would never go back to them again.
Meanwhile, Outfoxthemarket wrote to say they wanted to put up the DD because we were had a negative balance by £40 at the end of the winter but had been in credit all the year round. My husband refused. He sent them a payment of £40 and they kept the DD the same.

Octopus did want to lower my DD to a very low amount, but I’ve chosen a reduced figure for the summer months - both happy with that. Meanwhile, a credit balance is being returned.

I’ve had issues with Octopus, going back to September. Both times they have admitted full responsibility and added compensation to my account. It’s been easy to contact them and get things back on track - free electricity for a while!!
I can’t fault them otherwise and intend to stay with them.

I pay by variable direct debit (with BG). This means I only pay for what I use each month - no ‘excess’ money sitting in their account. They send me a statement online at the end of the month and they take the amount out of my bank via DD two weeks later. I know what the amount is going to be anyway because I’ve got a smart meter. I started this variable system when, like you, I was informed my fixed DD was going to increase despite being hundreds of £s in credit. When I phoned them to say ‘you’re taking the P … you can stuff it’ I was informed about the variable DD. Prior to that I didn’t even know it existed. Anyway, it works well for me. As others have said, we are the client here and, as such, we’re in control - not them.