Direct Debit on fuel
 

At what point in the year do you go back into credit, I would say for us it is normally April/May, we are never in credit in March, I ask because our energy company Octopus put up our DD by about 90% ...went from 147 to 290, their explanation is that we should have had a weeks credit in March and we were 132.00 in debit.... so on top of the price rise they were adding 16.00 a month to pay back the debt.... none of that made any sense as I wouldnt expect to be in credit coming out of the winter period, so I paid off the 132.00 and adjusted down our DD so it reflects a 54% increase rather than the madness above

so when does your DD go into credit :shrug:

as soon as winter is over, usually april, im back in positive territory. I have smart meters and you can see the usage rise and fall day by day

Usually around June, but we're actually currently in credit because (in fear that they were massively underestimating our bills) I didn't submit a meter reading between about October and February... ... then when I actually checked, they had only very slightly underestimated on gas, and they had MASSIVELY over-estimated on electricity (their estimated reading was 21500, meter was actually at 18700). Should just have let them continue to overestimate then put in a reading next December, would have got most of next year's leccy at 2021 rates :umm2:. Though that may be considered some sort of fraud idk.

As for the above though, remember when they're adjusting your DD they're factoring in the whole of the next 12 months. There's going to be another increase in October. The overall is something like a 90% rise, not 54%.

I can't actually see what the sitch is with my account as the site has gone down thanks to everyone scrabbling to put in readings :facepalm:

They said this rise was as prices are now, and that it would rise again in Oct!

Mine's fixed until Oct so I get the fun of the full increase all at once. :umm2:.

I did manage to get into my account though - currently sitting £170 in credit after being adjusted for correct readings, it was previously at -£250 or thereabouts. They had overestimated my usage by over £400! :joker: so my increases might not actually be too bad, I'm pretty sure I've been paying about 30% more than I should have been since last summer. It went up by about £40 a month at that point, I suspected something was wrong :shrug:.

Something is fuquey with my bills here in general. One time when I switched supplier the old one sent a letter saying I owed them nearly £700, based on an estimated reading that was wildly inaccurate. Another time at "renewal time" I got a quote that was showing estimated usage more than double that of the previous year.

Like it literally said something like "This year you used 3100 units. We think over the next year you will use 6250 units so your new direct debit will be..."

Err... why? Why did they think I would suddenly use double? It wasn't in £, it was in units... so actual usage. Why would they not assume I was going to use... the exact same? :think: nothing had changed... in fact we're quite a bit more sensible with usage if anything.

either way it will sort itself out. If you end up massively in credit, they will reduce it

Octopus allow you to set your own DD so I have reduced it..I don’t want to overpay them..:fist:

Indeed - probably better to build up an excess and get it back, then fall into credit and be asked to make a big additional payment.

Which is why (after the drama above) I haven't actually changed my direct debit, still paying the amount that lead to the overpayment. As I expect it to still increase more in Oct, just hopefully not by the huge predicted margin, as I'll A) already be paying over the odds and B) probably be at least £500 in credit by then.

I think everyone has suddenly got more careful....the worlds gong to end...nah not changing my ways...you are going to pay more...turn that light off :laugh:

even reducing the central heating temp by 0.5c makes a difference, far more than you would expect

I'm not sure I buy this or else I have some sort of secret golden boiler ... ... it's properly ANCIENT (I think maybe 1970's??) and it has an official efficiency rating of something like ... H. But our whole house heats fast (sometimes gets too hot) with half the radiators permanently OFF, during the coldest parts of winter, and our gas bill is miniscule. Like... £35 a month. And we have a gas cooker! The thing basically uses very little gas at all even over winter ... so turning it down could at most save a couple of pounds?

Electricity on the other hand, is another matter, and rather dire, with youngest taking sometimes 1hr+ showers (electric shower), two desktop PC's on around 14 hours a day, and :worry: ... ... the dreaded heated airer :worry:. Electricity bill is currently around 4x the gas bill.

tbf I'm not even actually joking when I say I could probably entirely mitigate a 50% electricity price rise by throwing away that god damned airer. But how would anything ever dry??? I live in Scotland goddamn it...

In somewhat exciting news, I just looked at what they were estimating I use in electricity... which was 1200kwh/month

In the 40 days since my last reading, I have in fact used ... 600kwh. So roughly 450kwh/month. They were estimating nearly 3x that! wtf.

i'm on smart meters, so i don't get that inaccuracy any more

I don't trust them Alf said they have listening devices :suspect:

tbf it would take me like 30 seconds per month to submit readings, I'm just lazy.

Thats how they take your money...think of all the cash they are sitting on earning even 0.5% ....:fist:

i only allow them to to take a daily reading, they encourage you to make it hourly or even every 30 mins, and I do think that is invasive. Data can be collected in all sorts of different ways, they don't have to "listen" in the traditional sense of the word

Its like website cookies, they are highly regulated now, but the simple fact is that companies now use browser fingerprinting which allows them to monitor your activity much more invasively than a cookie ever did :laugh: